as most of you probably know, John Piper is taking a sabbatical from virtually all of his ministry obligations between now and the end of the year.
This is the part of his letter that caught my eye.
But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I’ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins.
It reminded me of something that happened at the Job conference at Hill Country Bible Church that we attended in October 2008. A questioner at the end of one of the sessions was waxing eloquent about the positive impact that John Piper and his ministry had had on his life when Pastor John cut him off and said somewhat brusquely that “I don’t need very much of that.”
Today Mark Lamprecht pointed back to an old post of his that pointed back to two posts by Kevin DeYoung and John Piper about “celebrity” pastors.
All of which raises some questions.
In this age of mp3’s and mp4’s how do we avoid relying on “celebrity pastors” for spiritual guidance instead of our own pastor who will give an account for us?
How does any mere human being avoid being puffed up with pride when he receives the feedback and adulation that come from the exercise of his gifts in a public platform?
what is the proper balance between self feeding, interacting with other believers at the small group level, submitting to the authority of the local church elders, and taking advantage of the massive amount of very high quality ‘extra church’ material available for edification at the cost of a few clicks and maybe a few dollars?