Dangerous Calling

WARNING! DANGER! This book is not about helping pastors confront unique challenges as the author claims, but an excuse to ignore the scriptural qualifications for leadership. A pastor who is a weekend crossdresser, stalking strange women, drinking too much, watching porn, and so on is not in sin according to Dr. Paul Tripp! The author calls it, “being beaten-down,” having“a huge disconnect between my private persona and my public ministry life,” and “Spiritual Schizophrenia.” The cause for the above extracurricular activities? According to Dr. Paul Tripp, it is, “the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy“ and the “environment that actively undermines their well-being and efficacy.”

The author wants to encourage unbiblically qualified men to stay in the ministry despite their gross sins (which are not their fault)! If he can convince laypeople that God has personally “called” these leaders to ministry, what layperson has the right to question them as pastors? If he can keep the Christian community ignorant of the Bible’s mandates for leadership, the author can maintain his own authority status, leadership perks, and a paycheck. If he can get congregations to accept the mediocre character as the norm for church leadership, many professional pastors in today’s churches can keep their jobs. “Dangerous Calling” is a dangerous book written by a popular leading authority in modern Christendom!

Before starting my book review, I confess that I don’t care much for Paul Tripp’s books. His books are usually redundant, and as a nouthetic counselor, Tripp psychologizes problems and solutions. Tripp uses human reasoning with a Christianized spin rather than looking to the Bible to find the cause of spiritual issues in today’s church and leadership. Then, he invents a psychological biblical solution that only propagates more problems.

So, if I do not care for Tripp’s books, why did I read this one? As I was doing research for my blog post, “The Mysterious Call of God,” I came across a few quotes from his book that I liked.  I also found the book title interesting, so I decided to read it. But, somewhere around page 70, it became a commitment to finish. I had high hopes for this book, but it threw me for a loop as I began reading, because the content had nothing to do with the title.

Due to Tripp’s popularity and status, he can say whatever he wants, and it will automatically be accepted as gospel. Once a pastor becomes a well-known established writer and speaker, their book contents are not questioned and are guaranteed to sell. However, that doesn’t mean that they are accurately biblical! This book has several endorsements from prominent Christian leaders, some of whom I respect very much. It seems, however, that these endorsers did not read this book with much biblical discernment. You can also read the glowing Amazon reviews from pastors who love the book!

5+5=0

I give this book a five out of five as it proves the main point as to why I started my blog churchfm316.com in the first place. Hundreds, if not thousands, of today’s churches, are being led by unsaved or unbiblically qualified seminary graduates who claim that God has personally “called” them to be pastors.

On the other hand, Dangerous Calling receives an absolute zero from a scriptural standpoint for its made-up diagnosis and concocted biblical solutions regarding “the serious problem within pastoral culture.” Why not give it a two-and-a-half? That would be giving it too much credit. All this book does is perpetuate and exasperate the growing problem of church leadership.

Dr. Paul Tripp’s main mantra in the book is “grace,” grace without consequences: “Do you see yourself as a minister of grace in need of the same grace?” (pg. 28).

“Pastor, you don’t have to be afraid of what is in your heart, and you don’t have to fear being known, because there is nothing in you that could ever be exposed that hasn’t already been covered by the precious blood of your Savior king, Jesus” (p. 28).

“When my conscience is activated and bothered, I am faced with making one of two choices. The first and best choice is to admit that what I have done is wrong and place myself once again under the justifying mercies of Christ, receiving his forgiveness” (p. 70-71).

MY RESPONSE:  This is cheap grace, a self-imparted grace, a pseudo-grace, a grace that allows pastors to stay in ministry without consequences for their sin.

Spiritual Schizophrenia

Tripp starts his book by saying, “I was a very angry man.” He says, “When Luella (his wife) would approach me with yet another instance of this anger, I would always do the same thing. I would wrap my robes of righteousness around me, activate my inner lawyer, and remind her once again of what a great husband she had. I would go through my well-rehearsed and rather long list of all the things I did for her, all the ways I made her life easier” (pg. 17).

“When being confronted, I told Luella numerous times that I thought she was just a garden-variety, discontented wife.” “… another instance of my anger, I got on a roll and actually said these deeply humble words: ‘Ninety-five percent of the women in our church would love to be married to a man like me!'” (p. 18).

Tripp says that he “was a man headed for disaster.” “…was in the middle of destroying my marriage and my ministry, and I didn’t have a clue. There was a huge disconnect between his private persona and my public ministry life” (p. 18).

Dr. Tripp says that his personal ministry life had become “spiritual schizophrenia.” Then, everything changed and was fixed while driving home from a ministry training weekend with his brother Tedd. On the way home, Tedd suggested that they try to take what they had learned over the training weekend and put it into practice.

Tedd proceeded to ask Paul questions. Paul Tripp doesn’t say what the questions were nor what kind of ministry training they had. He just says, “There is no way that I can overstate the significance of the work that the Holy Spirit was doing at that moment in the car through Tedd’s questions” (p. 19).

When he gets home, he tells his wife Luella, “‘ You know, I’m not angry at you anymore.’ Together we laughed and cried at the same time at the beauty of what God had done.” (p. 20).

MY RESPONSE:  What exactly are they laughing and crying about? He said that his marriage and ministry were struggling. That is no laughing matter! Tripp could have ended his book there because he never explains what changed him. Nor does he talk about the epiphany he had while on his way home with his brother. God just miraculously turned his anger, self-righteousness, and accusatory behavior around in a matter of hours, and his marriage and ministry became right.

He writes, “I wish I could say that my pastoral experience is unique, but I have come to learn in my ministry travels to hundreds of churches around the world that, sadly, it is not. Sure, the details are unique, but the same disconnect between the public pastoral persona and the private man is there in many, many pastors’ lives. I have heard so many stories containing so many confessions that I have carried with me grief and concern about the state of pastoral culture in our generation” (p. 21).

Father Tripp

Dr. Tripp has made himself into an evangelical confessionary. Pastors come and confess to him. And instead of telling pastors, “For your penance, say three ‘Our Fathers’ and five ‘Hail Mary’s,’ your sins are absolved,” Tripp tells them to “…as you confess, rest in the surety of his acceptance, forgiveness, empowerment, and deliverance” (p. 135).  These men just need to accept Tripp’s interpretation of grace for their penance.

He also says, “Almost every weekend I am somewhere teaching on some kind of Christian life topic …Again and again on these weekends one of the pastors will pull me into a room and begin to confess to me that he is the ‘jerk.’ He will confess to the sorry state of his marriage, that he is an angry parent (p. 30). These men admitted to Tripp that they numb themselves by watching too much TV and drinking more than they should.

MY RESPONSE:  Tripp does not only have the professional titles of “Pastor,” “Doctor,” and “Professor,”  he can now add the catholic title “Father.” His name on the book could have read, “Father” Paul David Tripp.

A senior pastor tells Tripp, “If I am honest, I would have to say that all I want to do is leave. I want to leave the ministry, I want to leave this area, and I want to leave my wife. I’m just tired of pretending that I’m someone that I’m not. I’m tired of acting like I’m okay when I’m not. I’m tired of playing as if my marriage is good when it is the polar opposite of good.” (p. 31).  What counsel does “Father” Tripp give? Admit daily “to yourself that you are a mess and in desperate need of forgiveness and transforming grace” (pg. 33).

Frank had been married for fifteen years and had four children. He was almost ready to graduate from seminary and wanted to confide in “Father” Tripp. The good padre reassured Frank of their relationship’s commitment and “confidentiality” (p. 45). This future pastor confessed, “I have a closet of women’s clothes in my basement that I put on at night; it’s the one time in my day when I feel comfortable” (p. 45).

Another married seminary student of “Father” Tripp confessed that he was following (in other words, stalking) a strange woman around at night! Other students told him stories of their nearly broken marriages, of domestic violence, women who were ready to walk out, angry men, broken relationships with children and extended families, private sexual sin, conflict with neighbors and the church, deep dept, battles with depression and anxiety, obsessive and compulsive thoughts, and internet pornography (pg.46). Tripp recounts many more sad stories of seminary men and pastors being caught up in their sin.

MY RESPONSE:  Some of these men haven’t even started their professional ministries yet! They’re still in seminary and have severe sin problems. Thankfully for them, sin is not an issue to Tripp and those who promote the “call of God” doctrine. God needs these men, and their calling is “more important” than their biblical character, broken marriages, domestic violence, anger, sexual sins, playing dress-up, etc!

According to Dr. Paul Tripp’s nouthetic diagnosis, “sin” is not their problem. Rather, these men are living two separate lives. That’s what’s tearing them, their ministries, and their families apart. He calls it “spiritual schizophrenia” (pp.18, 212).  His antidote is to “daily meditate on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and daily feed on the restorative wisdom of his Word” (p 35).

MY RESPONSE:  Tripp uses several nouthetic philosophical Christianized antidotes for sin.

In Chapter 6, “This Missing Community”:  Tripp says that these pastors may not have the correct view or understanding of the Bible and that we are to live in an “intentionally intrusive, Christ-centered, grace-driven, redemptive community” (p. 84) (Whatever that means?).

MY RESPONSE:  What? Since pastors went to seminary, they most likely do have a correct view and understanding of the Bible. However, could the real problem be that these “called by God” men are not biblically fit for leadership? Could it be that some of them are not saved?

Chapter 8, “Familiarity”:  Tripp says that these leaders and future pastors are having issues because they have lost their “awe for God” (pp. 121, 141 & 146).  He thinks that these men somehow need to restore their awe. How does Tripp say to do that? He doesn’t say.

Being true to his contrived esoteric Christianized antidotes, he writes, “I don’t have a set of strategies for you here (Getting Your Awe Back p. 124). My counsel is to run now, run quickly, to your Father of awesome glory. Confess the offense of your boredom” (p. 124) It would be a whole lot easier if Tripp would just tell us what his epiphany was while riding home with his brother. And explain how he got his “awe” back!

The “good doctor’s” main prescription is, “The first and best choice is to admit that what I have done is wrong and place myself once again under the justifying mercies of Christ, receiving His forgiveness” (p. 71).

MY RESPONSE:  That may be, but what about the consequences? What about admitting, according to Scripture, that you should not be in ministry? Dangerous Calling claims it will reveal “the truth as to why the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy” (inner flap of book jacket). In other words, a pastor sins because he is surrounded by a spiritually unhealthy culture! As for the Christian layperson, we sin because of the wickedness which is in our hearts, I guess? I didn’t know it was different from the “Called Ones.”

This book actively undermines the well-being and health of the entire church body. Nor does it diagnose or offer cures for issues that impact church leaders as the book claims.

The “Called Ones”

A major problem of today’s church is the false teaching of the “Call of God” doctrine and the men who propagate it. Throughout the book, Paul Tripp is narcissistic about God’s call, the call to ministry, and the like. He scarcely hints at the biblical qualifications for a pastor or seminary student who must already possess and be practicing, according to Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 and 1Pet. 5:1-4. Dr. Tripp alludes to one of the mandates without giving the Scripture reference on page 188. He writes, “So when Paul lays the qualifications of eldership, one of the places he tells you to go and look is the pastor’s home. If an elder cannot manage his home well, how can he lead the local body of believers that is under his care?”

From the very beginning of this book, he is self-absorbed about being called by God: “God has called me,” “those of us who have been called to ministry in the local church” (p. 12), “called to pastoral ministry” (p. 21), “My faith had become a professional calling” and “My calling had become my identity” (p. 22).  Tripp continues to remind the reader throughout the book that “God called him.”

Regarding his seminary students, Tripp also continually tells them that God called them: “I wanted my students to understand that they are called” (p. 43), “I wanted them to know that they are called” (p. 43), and so forth.

About the troubled pastors who confide in him, Tripp reminds the reader that God has called these men to full-time ministry. Tripp writes: “They could not believe that they were called to the privilege of doing ministry for a living” (pp. 74-75), “He was a God-gifted, divinely appointed pastor” (p. 90), and more such comments.

Three “God-Gifted, Divinely Appointed Called” Pastors

Three of the “God-gifted, divinely appointed called” ( p. 90) pastors that gave their endorsement of this book are:

Tullian Tchividjian had to resign as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church after being caught in an extramarital affair.

And James MacDonald, whose employment was terminated by his elder board as Senior Pastor for not being ‘above reproach’ and having a sinful pattern of inappropriate language, anger, domineering behavior, and extravagant spending patterns. MacDonald’s “behavior and language indicated that he thought of himself more highly than he should as evidenced by his pattern of insulting, belittling, and verbally bullying others.”

It is too bad that the above pastors didn’t first confide in “Father” Paul David Tripp for absolution. He would have told them to admit daily to themselves that they “are a mess and in desperate need of forgiveness and transforming grace! All would have been well.

It’s Not Their Fault!

Tripp calls these men “beaten-down ones” (p. 140). My question to Paul Tripp is, who or what is beating these men down? What is causing them to be angry men and hypocrites? Who is causing them to be bad husbands and fathers? Who’s causing them to drink, follow strange women, and wear women’s clothing?

The whole idea that God personally called these men and Dr. Paul Tripp, is absurd and distinctly unbiblical. If God were genuinely calling these men with such low Christian character, it violates everything the Lord Himself has commanded church leaders to be (Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7, 1Pet. 5:1-4). Unless these scriptures are only for the unschooled church leaders? 

In Titus, if a man is prone to anger, he is not biblically qualified to be a pastor/elder. The same is true if they are arrogant, lack self-control, and are not acting upright and holy. 1Timothy says that a pastor/elder must be above reproach, husband of one wife, sober-minded, not violent, quarrelsome, and a man who manages his household well. By scriptural standards, admittedly Professor Paul Tripp himself, and the hundreds of men that he has counseled, are NOT biblically eligible to be pastors, elders, or even deacons! In fact, these men have gotten away with years of sin that would put them on the cusp of church discipline in a biblical church!

“God Chose Me, and that Makes Me Exempt!”

Today’s professional church leaders have convinced themselves, each other, and the church, that God personally “called” them to be pastors, even though they are not scripturally qualified. Their “special calling” has become more authoritative than Scripture! That being the case, this “specialty call” makes these problematic men exempt from having to follow God’s commands for church leadership in Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 and 1Pet. 5:1-4. God Must Really Need Them! In this book, “Dangerous Calling,” nouthetic counselor, Dr. Paul Tripp is intrinsically teaching, that for the professional pastor, biblical requirements are optional.

From a Spiritual standpoint, Tripp should tell these men and himself, that they are not biblically qualified according to Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 and 1Pet. 5:1-4!  He should be authoritatively encouraging them to leave the ministry ASAP before they bring more condemnation upon themselves. If a man is always angry, involved in porn, wears women’s clothing, etc., these men should question their own salvation. That is what the Apostle Paul would have told them. “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Now that Tripp knows about these men’s sinful lifestyles, he is biblically obligated to tell them to confess their sins to their churches and begin finding a new line of work. They are no longer qualified to be church leaders. If they do not listen, he is then, commanded by Scripture to let their churches know of their sin for discipline! (Matt. 18:17-18; Titus 3:10; 2 Thess. 3:6-15; 1 Tim. 5:20).

1Peter 3:7 reads, “husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” According to Scripture, God is not even hearing these men’s prayers. If that is so, how do they even know that they are doing God’s will? It’s all hypocrisy.

Tripp says that all these men are “beaten-down ones” (p. 140). More Christian nouthetic verbiage. Sexual immorality, marital strife, fits of anger, family dissensions, divisions, clothing choices, etc., are not the “called one’s” fault, because they are beaten-down by the “environment that actively undermines their well-being and efficacy.” The Bible gives a warning to these men. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).

Dangerous Calling

This book is hazardous to the Christian church at large, it gives biblically unqualified seminarians and pastors a free ride of grace. It keeps these spiritually dangerous men in the pulpits and excuses their sins. It also encourages unqualified leadership to stay in the ministry because God supposedly spoke (or called) to them.

The content of this book leaves many questions unanswered. It also ignores God’s commands to correct grave sin biblically in the lives of church leaders. The Apostle Paul does not excuse sin away by calling it a “private persona” as Tripp does some eighteen times in this book. Once again, for the professional pastor, sin is not the problem, it is their disconnection between their private and professional lives! Paul Tripp writes, “There was a huge disconnect between my private persona and my public ministry life” (p. 135). Pastors and elders are to be men like the Apostle Paul, who said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Church leaders are to be able to tell their congregations, “Follow my directions, and imitate my example!”

No person is exempt from the consequences of sin. Whether they are church leaders, all Christians are commanded to live biblically good and holy lives. Anything less is sin. What a blessing this book could have been had Tripp used Scripture to correct the problems in the lives of the men who confessed their sins to him.

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Dr. Paul David Tripp is a pastor, event speaker, and best-selling and award-winning author. With more than 30 books and video series on Christian living, Paul’s driving passion is to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

Paul attended Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) and majored in Bible and Christian Education. He went on to receive his M.Div from the Reformed Episcopal Seminary and his D.Min in Biblical Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Throughout his life, Paul has planted a church, founded a Christian school, wrote worship songs, and toured with a Christian band. He was a faculty member at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) for many years, a lecturer in Biblical Counseling at Westminster Theological Seminary, a Visiting Professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church.

Paul launched his own ministry in 2006. He lives in Philadelphia and is hopelessly in love with his wife, Luella. They have four grown children.

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By Rob Robbins, December 2020, churchfm316.com

Editing and Proofreading by Laura Robbins