Another quote from Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp. This one on pastors and our identity, where it might be and should be...
Blind to what was going on in my heart, I was proud, unapproachable, defensive, and all too comfortable. I was a pastor; I didn’t need what other people need. Now, I want to say again that at the conceptual, theological level, I would have argued that all of this was bunk. Being a pastor was my calling, not my identity. Child of the Most High God was my cross-purchased identity. Member of the body of Christ was my identity. Man in the middle of his own sanctification was my identity. Sinner and still in need of rescuing, transforming, empowering, and delivering grace was my identity. I didn’t realize that I looked horizontally for what I had already been given in Christ and that it was producing a harvest of bad fruit in my heart, in my ministry, and in my relationships. I had let my ministry become something that it should never be (my identity); I looked to it to give me what it never could (my inner sense of well-being).
Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling (p. 25)
Steve, thanks for introducing this book. I received the book and DVD's yesterday using that awesome promo offer. I began reading the book yesterday and had to stop and reflect many times already. The section on pastoral identity has brought me to tears a few times and I was especially moved by the various "anti-gospels" we preach to ourselves.
I can tell that for me this is going to be an emotionally intense, but helpful and necessary read.
Thanks again for bringing it to our attention.
Posted by: Scott Eaton | 11/07/2012 at 08:14 AM
Your welcome, Scott. Good to hear from you.
Posted by: Steve McCoy | 11/07/2012 at 01:03 PM