"Pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. Brothers, we are not professionals! We are outcast. We are aliens and exiles in the world (1 Pet. 2:11)...You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed."
- John Piper, as quoted in "The Passionate Church"
1 comment:
I find a serious contradiction between ministry and the corporate world. Our corporate, capitalist culture measures "success" in terms of bigger, faster, slicker, and bottom line numbers. The fact is that many churches whose attendance exceeds 1000 people often have a per capita offering less than churches of 250 or less. This directly points to ineffective teaching and discipleship; which points to being "unsuccessful." I am not opposed to large churches, but we have to be cautious not to buy into the idea that bigger equals more successful. Most of the time, bigger just means bigger, period.
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