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- John Piper on New Word Alive<\/a>\n<\/li>
- John Piper on Passionate Preaching<\/a>\n<\/li>
- John Piper on Prayer and Bible Study<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2008\/07\/piper-778226.jpg\")
<\/a>Adrian
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>We have just been talking about studying the Word, and obviously books, but I guess for most preachers, they like to listen to other preachers as well. I guess you\u2019re probably no exception to that. So who have you got on your iPOD that you\u2019re actually listening to?<\/p>\nJohn
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>I do have an iPOD. It happens to sit in my speaker base in my bedroom as kind of an alarm clock. But my computer is in my study, and my treadmill is in my study. That\u2019s the only time I ever listen to preaching\u2014when I\u2019m running. So three times a week, for thirty minutes or so, I\u2019m listening to other people speak. So I download them from the Web, usually. Who are the last ones I listened to? I listened to [Don] Carson. I listened to R. C. Sproul. I listened to Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Somebody gave me the whole series of MLJ on Romans. I listen to C. J. Mahaney. I listen to John Sailhammer on the Old Testament. I listen to Carl Trueman on, what\u2019s the topic? I can\u2019t remember. A little while back. Basically, I\u2019m looking for two things\u2014one, contemporary relevant issues that I might want to dig into, or model preaching. So, whoever at that point, and they\u2019re not always the same people, the model preachers and the ones who are talking about the things I feel like I need to get to know about.<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Okay. You\u2019re obviously deeply committed to preaching and to pastoring, and you\u2019ve been at Bethlehem an awful long time. I wonder, first of all, how did you make that decision to join Bethlehem, and was it a lifetime commitment at that moment, or was that something that evolved? How did it then develop into a long-term thing?<\/p>\nJohn
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>![\"Sanctuary](\"https:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/uploaded_images\/Downtown+Minneapolis+6-6-07+021-763528.jpg\")
<\/a>I was teaching Bible and Greek for six years at Bethel College from 1974 to 1980. I had a sabbatical and I was working on Romans 9\u2014the book on justification of God\u2014the odyssey basically, Romans 9. And while I was doing that, the Lord, I believe, just kept saying through the words of that chapter, \u201cI will be proclaimed and not just analyzed.\u201d And I couldn\u2019t resist it after awhile. Finally, I began to ask those who knew me best, \u201cWhat would you think if I left academia and took the pastorate as a preaching pastor?\u201d And they all said, \u201cDo it.\u201d So, in December of 1979, I gave my resignation and started looking for a church. I said, \u201cI\u2019d like to spend ten years here.\u201d Well, they said, \u201cTen years would be good.\u201d And ten years went by like that. And now it\u2019s twenty-eight. And I have no intention of going anywhere else until I\u2019m done.<\/p>\nAdrian
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>Do you think that kind of longevity is important for a pastor?<\/p>\nJohn
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>It\u2019s important, at least in volatile urban settings. In other words, where there\u2019s a lot of change in the people, there needs to be less change in the pastoral ministry. Where the people are stable, say in a small town that has very little coming and going, the stability lies very much in the people. In an urban setting of growth, with a lot of people in and a lot of people out, there\u2019s no stability in the people. And if it isn\u2019t in the staff and elders, then it\u2019s not going to be anywhere. So the degree to which there is movement among the people, it seems to me to be good. And I think it\u2019s healthy for the pastor himself to press on in preaching in a way that doesn\u2019t redo the same stuff over and over again. I mean, after the first five years I thought to myself, \u201cI would not want to do this anywhere again.\u201d I mean, those first five years are hard. You\u2019re figuring out everything; you\u2019re rebuilding everything. You\u2019re trying to make some changes. And to start all that over again instead of building on it would have felt very discouraging to me.<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
So for you the pull of the church was a stronger pull than the pull of Bible college or seminary?<\/p>\nJohn<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Yes, oh yes. And the reason in that day was because, in the college, I felt like, year in and year out, I had the same age group (18-22). They were culturally basically the same. Their questions were, every year, the same. They always revolved around Calvinism and free will and sovereignty, and whatever. And in the church you\u2019ve got cradle to the grave. You\u2019ve got ethnic and cultural differences. You\u2019ve got people all over the spiritual map on their questions. You\u2019ve got dying and birth. You\u2019ve got weddings and funerals. The reality of the totality of life\u2014what that said to me was \u2014 \u201cIf this is real, if this Book is real, it will relate to all of that instead of this little slice of humanity that comes to college.\u201d And I just wanted to see the Word of God take root in a people.<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
That\u2019s really interesting. Would you say, then, that part of your development as a pastor and as preacher is just being there in the long-term and seeing that kind of development?<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2008\/07\/monday022-702774.jpg\")
<\/a>John<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Absolutely. I had probably preached fifteen times in my life when I came to this church. I was 34 years old and I was a teacher. I taught Sunday School. I didn\u2019t preach around. Most of my colleagues preached on the weekend in addition to teaching. I said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to do that. I\u2019m going to be with my family in church, sitting with my children at my side and my wife, listening to the Word of God every weekend, and I\u2019ll teach a Sunday School class.\u201d So I had done a few weddings, and I had done a few little sermons here and there. But I was an absolute green preacher when I came to Bethlehem. So all of my development as a preacher has been through these 28 years in the same pulpit.<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Okay. So, you\u2019re a busy guy because you\u2019re a preacher there, you preach regularly. You go to all these conferences. And I\u2019ve noticed you almost always bring, if not a completely brand new message, at least a newly reworked versi
\non of it, perhaps slightly different . . . How do you manage to find all that time? Or is it just that you prioritize that and don\u2019t watch too much TV?<\/p>\nJohn<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
I don\u2019t watch any television. I don\u2019t have a television.<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
That\u2019s what it is probably.<\/p>\nJohn<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
That certainly helps. And I have a wonderful wife who tolerates a very absent husband, even when I\u2019m home. I ask her\u2014I\u2019m always taking her temperature as we do our dates on Mondays and go out. \u201cHow we doing, Noel? Do you want to make any changes?\u201d She\u2019s just so incredibly flexible that I married the right woman. And ever since we\u2019ve been married, I\u2019ve always worked, both in the day and in the evening. I\u2019ve raised four sons, and now I\u2019m working on one daughter. And they\u2019re all married, and they have sons, and they\u2019re following the Lord. So I feel some deep, deep gratification about that. But I always took from 5:30 to 7:00, and that was their time. I ate with them and then we had play time. We were kicking the ball around in the backyard or we were building towers and knocking \u2018em down \u2014 this is your time. And I went to all their ballgames. A pastor has his own time. He can do whatever he wants. So 3:30 in the afternoon, while other guys are working, I\u2019m banging my fists at the soccer match, or you\u2019d call it football, to make my son, Benjamin, run faster . . .<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
You played soccer?<\/p>\nJohn<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
I didn\u2019t \u2014 I watched it.<\/p>\nAdrian<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
But, no, still, I mean . . .<\/p>\nJohn<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
Oh, I love it. We try, we try! (Laughing.)<\/p>\nAdrian<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>
You have David Beckham<\/a> now, of course.<\/p>\n - John Piper on Passionate Preaching<\/a>\n<\/li>
![\"John](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2008\/07\/piper-XX-704897.jpg\")
<\/a>Oh, the time to do things, yeah. The point was that even though I work in the evenings (at 7:00 I\u2019m back in my study or with a book in my hand or at some meeting) and Noel is doing her handwork, or working on her projects, and I\u2019m working away. But, really, the key is \u2014 I\u2019ve been in the church long enough that they let me do what I want to do. And we\u2019ve got such diversification staffing, that I\u2019m the preacher guy. They want me to feed this flock on the weekend, and they want me to provide vision for the staff. That\u2019s my title \u2014 Pastor of Preaching and Vision. I\u2019m here in Wales, and I\u2019ll be back to preach next Sunday, and most of them won\u2019t even know I was gone.<\/p>\n