Professionalism

In all our concern to get things "right," there is the hidden danger of professionalism. Not for a moment am I suggesting that Christian leaders should be unprofessional. I detest for example, the kind of public services where ministers prattle on with shallow patter and self-conscious asides, where little is planned and clichés are the highest form of verbal reverence. But mere professionalism projects an image a long way from the cross. It sacrifices something of the passion of, say, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 or 2 Corinthians 5. It draws plaudits from admiring hearers, but humbles no one, least of all the minister. In our desires to maintain or attain a certain professional status at a time when ministerial credibility is in decline, we have lost something even more important: passionate God-centeredness, passionate gospel-centeredness.

- D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God, (Zondervan, 1996) pp. 478-9.