Piper's Upcoming Leave

John Piper announced toward the end of March that he would be taking a leave of absence from his church and all public communication (with the exception of the Desiring God Conference) from May 1 through the end of the year. This is an excerpt from his open letter to his congregation at Bethlehem Church:

"I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I’ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins."

There is a tremendous amount of humility here, as well as wisdom, in order to tackle these "flaws" head on before they become something that not only takes a toll on his personal relationships but his overall ministry. Granted, I have not closely followed many pastors in my life, but I don't remember ever hearing another who took an intentional leave to war against his sins. Speaking of which, what I like most, is Piper is walking the walk that he preaches. Case in point...



Even within this type of presentation, it is not difficult to see how pride could become an issue. Piper has written dozens of books, he is wanted for numerous speaking engagements here and abroad, the Desiring God website puts forth all of his resources and videos, he is the main sermon-giving pastor at a large church, and the list goes on. If that were me, I know that the battle against pride would be a daily one. When Piper joined Twitter he expressed an initial concern about the temptation of seeing how many followers he would have. I now see more clearly from where his concern came. I heard him introduced at another church recently where he was a guest speaker. The introduction was probably 1 1/2 minutes with all but the last 15 seconds extolling the wonderful Dr. John Piper and how blessed they all were that he was there. The last 15 seconds were about what God would have to say THROUGH John Piper. I can imagine the internal struggle John was feeling as he listened to that. There is a reason why God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh. Pride. My grace is sufficient for you Paul. You are totally reliant on me. Not on yourself. I will make sure you never forget that.

Mark Driscoll and his wife posted a good response to this. It's worth a read:

http://theresurgence.com/8-godly-precedents-piper-sabbatical