Brothers, We Are Not Professionals - In this updated and expanded edition of Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, John Piper pleads with fellow pastors to abandon professionalization of the pastorate and pursue the prophetic call of the Bible for radical ministry. “We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional 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. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in or wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Ps. 42:11).”
“Brothers, we are not professionals. We are outcasts. We are aliens and exiles in the world (1 Peter 2:11). Our citizenship is in heaven, and we wait with eager expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed.”
“The World sets the agenda of the professional man; God sets the agenda of the spiritual man. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the wineskins of professionalism.”
Unchained - Ron and his wife, Jean were watching the news showing the emaciated body of a dead teenage girl carried from a field in Thailand. Horrified by the devastation ensnaring a mass populace of Cambodian refugees, during the “Killing Fields” of 1979. Ron and Jean were heart-stricken. At that moment, God spoke in Ron a clear directive that began his harrowing forty-year mission to serve the needy in forsaken regions worldwide. Unchained is Ron’s real and raw experiences in the center of massive human displacement, starvation, illness, injury, death, and grief—the atrocities of wars, natural disasters, disease, congenital malformation, and the work of those who gave selflessly to save and assist millions of lives. Unchained also carries readers through Ron’s journey of overcoming childhood abuse and hopelessness. Releasing the past by forgiving and learning to love those who hurt him freed Ron to find true meaning and purpose in life—helping and serving others. The healing of Ron’s heart ultimately readied him for God’s extraordinary and unexpected call: to found and lead Medical Teams International, which continues to serve the needs of those who otherwise lack medical care, food, clean water, a voice, and love. Ron has witnessed God’s miraculous work among the worst human conditions and discovered the source of utmost fulfillment and joy. All resulted from one word of response to God, “Yes,” that moved him out of his comfortable chair with one resolve: to give his all to those most in need.