Cap-Review: The Pastor As Scholar/Scholar As Pastor

by | Apr 30, 2012 | Bookreviews, Pastoral Ministry, Video

The blend of a pastor and a scholar is a helpful one for the church. Though the average churchgoer may not immediately sense it, a Scripturally deeper pastor makes for a more Scripturally robust people. The blend of a scholar and a pastor is equally helpful. Those of us who have been to seminary know the personal value of having shepherd-hearted scholars who sharpened us while grilling us in the details of grammar and plunging us into reams of reading. While many church-goers may not know it, such scholars have blessed their congregations as well as their pastors. John Piper and D. A. Carson may be two of the best modern examples of pastor-scholars and scholar-pastors. The book they have produced, The Pastor as Scholar and The Scholar as Pastor is an encouraging biographical exhortation from these two men as to how ministry and scholarship have been blended in their respective ministries. Pastors and church members would do well to read this short volume. The contents of the book were first produced as lectures at an event sponsored by The Gospel Coalition. Owen Strachan and David Mathis contribute an introduction and conclusion respectively, and were instrumental in the event that was the genesis for the book. The book contains primarily biographical descriptions from Piper and Carson on the providential work of God to challenge them in terms of academic excellence and pastoral practicalities. Piper’s chapter on “The Pastor as Scholar,” biographically chronicles his own pilgrimage from childhood to doctoral studies in Germany, to pastoral ministry in Minneapolis. The chapter demonstrates the potential pitfalls of what some pursue as academic...