Tripp recounts in the prologue of Dangerous calling, that his book was born out of a deep conviction: “The greatest danger in ministry is not failure, but unsupervised success”.
Photo: [link]Luis Morera[/link], Unsplash CC0.
In 2012, Crossway Publishing released a book that had a profound impact on the evangelical world: Dangerous Calling by counsellor and theologian Paul David Tripp.
It is a relentless diagnosis of the evils that plague contemporary pastors, such as isolation, ministerial pride, a loss of wonder at grace and a dangerous confusion between spiritual identity and professional performance.
The book quickly became required reading in seminaries and conferences. The back cover featured seven influential Christian leaders in the English-speaking world, pastors, authors and speakers who recommended it enthusiastically.
At the time, they were the faces of success: models of leadership and representatives of a generation that promised to renew pastoral ministry with passion and authenticity.
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However, time revealed a tragic detail: three of those seven pastors, the very ones who endorsed a book that warned of the dangers of ministry, ended up falling into the very dangers that Tripp denounced: Infidelities, abuses of power, spiritual manipulation, and even explicit renunciation of the Christian faith.
The title of the book, Dangerous Calling, became a self-fulfilling prophecy for them.
Most of the endorsers were leading figures. James MacDonald (Harvest Bible Chapel), Joshua Harris (Covenant Life Church), Tullian Tchividjian (Coral Ridge Presbyterian), Daniel L. Akin (SEBTS), Burk Parsons (Saint Andrew’s Chapel), Eric C. Redmond (Moody Bible Institute) and Terry Virgo (Newfrontiers).
Three of them would play a leading role in some of the most famous crises in the American evangelical world in the following years:
James MacDonald was dismissed from the church he founded in 2019, accused of abusive behaviour, misuse of funds, and leadership that was described as 'contrary and harmful to the interests of the church'.
Joshua Harris, author of the famous book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, divorced in 2019 and, a few days later, publicly declared, “I no longer consider myself a Christian”.
Tullian Tchividjian, the grandson of Billy Graham, resigned in 2015 after admitting an adulterous relationship. A year later, he confessed a second undisclosed relationship.
The other four — Akin, Parsons, Redmond and Virgo — remain active in ministry, representing the other side of this story: the possibility of remaining faithful in the midst of a church culture that often rewards charisma over character.
Although the most high-profile falls occurred in the Anglo-Saxon world, this issue is not foreign to Latin America.
The rise of 'rapid growth churches', popular 'apostles' and 'branded ministries' has resulted in many of the mistakes denounced by Tripp.
Argentinian theologian Esteban Voth points out: “The pastorate has become an aspirational and competitive role. The spirituality of service has been replaced by that of success. We need to return to an ecclesiology of vulnerability, where weakness is not shameful but part of the testimony”.
In 2019, several evangelical networks in Chile, Mexico and Colombia launched pilot projects for peer-to-peer pastoral accompaniment, based on transparency and mutual emotional support.
Their motto sums up the antidote to Tripp's thesis: “If your calling is dangerous, don't walk alone”.
Dangerous Calling is not an academic treatise, but rather a pastoral exhortation written with the harshness of someone who knows the mechanisms of spiritual self-destruction first-hand.
Tripp, who was a counsellor to pastors and a leader in the CCEF organisation for years, says in the prologue that his book was born out of a deep conviction: “The greatest danger in ministry is not failure, but unsupervised success”.
He describes how many pastors end up living a double life: on the one hand, the self-assured preacher admired by the congregation; on the other, a man who has lost communion with God, his family or his own heart. “Familiarity with the holy can become spiritual anaesthesia”, Tripp writes.
Paradoxically, the scandals involving some of his endorsers years later became a practical — and painful — confirmation of his thesis.
[photo_footer] The cover of the book. [/photo_footer]
When reviewing the cases of MacDonald, Harris, and Tchividjian, there are common elements that coincide with Tripp's diagnoses:
Harris's case is paradigmatic. His book I Kissed Dating Goodbye catapulted him to fame at the age of 21. Twenty years later, during his deconstruction process, he confessed: “My book made me a symbol of purity that I myself could not embody”. Success, rather than doubt, was his main temptation.
Paul Tripp never celebrated or publicly commented on the downfalls of his colleagues. At later conferences, he simply stressed the importance of pastors “living first as believers, not as professionals of the sacred·.
In a 2020 interview, he said: “I didn't write Dangerous Calling to point fingers, but to hold up a mirror. We are all vulnerable. Grace does not eliminate danger; it exposes and redeems it”.
Tripp continues to write and teach about grace, community, and character formation. He often repeats that “life in ministry will test not your ability to preach, but your willingness to be pastored”.
In recent years, multiple networks of churches and theological organisations have started to reconsider their pastoral supervision mechanisms.
Rather than adopting punitive, hierarchical models, they seek to foster a “culture of mutual accountability”.
Pastor and counsellor Scotty Smith (Tripp's mentor at CCEF) defines this change as follows: “Accountability is not persecution. It is an act of love. Leaders do not need more fame or solitude, but friends who know them completely and love them equally”.
Several seminaries, including Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is led by Daniel Akin — one of the endorsers who remains steadfast — have introduced 'pastoral character formation' modules and preventive emotional care programmes.
In a recent interview, Akin stated: “True ministerial success is finishing well. Our goal is not to produce talented pastors, but holy servants”.
Stories of a fall from grace do not always end tragically. Some of those involved have undergone processes of restoration or public reflection.
Tchividjian, for instance, founded a ministry dedicated to speaking about grace from his own fragility years later, although he has not yet been formally reinstated as a pastor.
Christian sociologist Michael Emerson sums it up as follows: “The public downfalls of leaders do not invalidate the gospel; they confirm its necessity. The question is not whether pastors will fail, but whether the church will have structures that allow for their confession before their collapse”.
The fact that three of the names printed on the back cover of Dangerous Calling ended up embodying its warning is more than just a curious fact.
It is providential: the very issue the book denounces — the lack of spiritual self-awareness among leaders — manifested itself in its most visible sponsors.
Over time, the 2012 back cover has become a kind of visual parable. Each name printed there is a reminder that the danger lies within: in the heart that can forget its dependence on grace.
Thirteen years after its publication, Dangerous Calling remains one of the most widely read books among pastors.
Its warning has survived the test of time precisely because it is not based on perfection, but on the constant need for redemption.
Perhaps the most profound legacy of this story is the rediscovery of an ancient truth: ministry is not about maintaining a reputation, but about living in constant reconciliation with God and with oneself.
In the age of platforms and microphones, silent confession may be the most revolutionary act.
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