In 2002, John Piper published Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, a call to pastors to reject the creeping influence of careerism in ministry.
Piper’s message was a clarion call to view the pastorate as a sacred duty rather than a means for platform building. Yet today, we find ourselves in need of an even more basic reminder, whether we serve as pastors, missionaries, or Christian leaders, professional or not.
Brothers, we cannot be for sale.
Megan Basham, a well-known evangelical reporter, recently made headlines and landed on the New York Times bestsellers list with her new book, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda. The book has sparked significant discussion. Implicating leftist front groups like the Evangelical Immigration Table, the Evangelical Environmental Network, and the openly LGBTQ-affirming Reformation Project, Basham’s work raises important questions about financial integrity and the theological and cultural shifts in evangelicalism in recent years.
Though questions have been raised as to the manner in which Basham editorializes the viewpoints of her opponents, the broader lesson of her book holds import for every believer engaged in ministry at any level. Faithfulness to the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3) is never more than a generation away from extinction. The threat of downgrade—the gradual decline of doctrinal and moral standards, typically in the name of relevance or expediency—is always present like gravity, always pulling on us, and usually visible to our peers before we ourselves notice its deleterious effects.
Charles Spurgeon, characteristically incisive, diagnosed the problem during the downgrade controversy of his own day:
No lover of the gospel can conceal from himself the fact that the days are evil . . . yet our solemn conviction is that things are much worse in many churches than they seem to be, and are rapidly tending downward. . . . A new religion has been originated which is no more Christianity than chalk is cheese; and this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms itself off as the old faith with slight improvements, and on this plea usurps pulpits which were erected for gospel preaching.
The question is not whether such downgrade happens within the church, but why—and how it can be overcome.
Understanding Conquest’s Laws
Historian Robert Conquest is credited with outlining three laws that can be applied to any organization, including ministries. His first law states that everyone is conservative about what he knows best. In the church and the broader ministry world, this maxim confronts us with the sobering reality that we, conservative Bible believers, are not the only parties seeking to conserve our values. Those infiltrating evangelical ranks, acting in the interests of the sexual revolution or of the secular zeitgeist in general, are also interested in preserving their progress. By not vigorously contending for the truth, we are, in effect, conceding to those who, unrelenting in their own cause, aim to wield the power of Christian ministries and institutions in service of a more nefarious agenda.
Conquest’s second law states that any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing. Albert Mohler’s experience at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is a relevant case study. When Mohler took over the seminary in 1993, it had drifted so far from its doctrinally conservative roots that drastic measures were needed to bring it back on course. He remarked, “Institutions drift left. That is the Genesis 3 reality. If truth is the principle, then you can’t accept 45 percent heresy as a way to get to 35 percent heresy.” Faithfulness requires intentionality. Ministries of any size will naturally veer towards compromise; only with our hands firmly grasping the wheel can we actively steer toward biblical fidelity.
The third of Conquest’s laws, though its authenticity is debated, states that the behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies. While this may sound extreme, it underscores the importance of transparency and accountability within any organization. Understanding this natural institutional inertia should compel parachurch ministries to remain rooted in and accountable to local churches—the only earthly institution to which the Lord has pledged his personal, preserving presence.
The only alternative to this model of faithfulness is to adopt the irresponsible mindset of a hireling, and we know our Lord’s sober warning concerning such hired hands: “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12-13). Whether we are local pastors, missionaries, Sunday school teachers, or serving in any other capacity, we are to embrace the burden of responsibility for the souls with which God has entrusted to us and be willing to lay down our lives for the sheep, as our Good Shepherd did.
When controversies arise in the public eye as faith-based organizations compromise, let us always take stock of our own hearts and motivations before the Lord. May we be marked as faithful stewards—not as men for sale.
