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What Do I Do With John Piper? by Pastor Kevin Feder

By Anonymous

Many Christians are dismissing John Piper and cutting ties with him over his recent article on the 2020 elections. I think this is a mistake. 

For the record, I also think his article was problematic for a number of reasons. As much as I found myself disagreeing with his counsel it has left me wrestling with a much bigger question: what do I do with John Piper? Should I, like many other Christians, tune him out in protest to his political views? 

My answer is no, I shouldn’t. And I don’t think you should either. John Piper started teaching at Bethel Seminary in the mid 1970’s. At minimum he has 45 years of ministry under his belt. Let’s not forget, this is faithful, fruitful ministry. The average stay of a pastor in a church is around 3 years. John Piper served Bethlehem Baptist church for 33 years, that’s 30 years longer than the average stay. Piper has always remained humble, he has battled sin and the temptation to self-glorification. I was at Bethlehem to see the inner workings of the church and I know for a fact that John wanted Bethlehem not to become a mega-church. Piper gave away almost all of his book royalties, meaning he had the chance to become a millionaire off of his writings and he didn’t take it. How many of you would pass up a legitimate way to make a lot of money that you could bless your kids with and use for ministry purposes? 

This doesn’t even mention the way John Piper’s love for Scripture has been so efficacious to so many. Piper literally awakened more than a generation of Christians to a much more serious joy found in reading and studying the Scriptures. I still remember where I was sitting in 2003 when I read his vision on education for exultation, namely, that worship of God is deepened and broadened when his works and his words are studied seriously. As much as I wonder where I would be without Piper I wonder even more where the church in America would be without him. 

Piper may have been mistaken about the way he used his platform to promote a view that he might also have been mistaken on. He is not mistaken about the glories of Christ and the sound exposition that he has staked 5 decades of ministry upon. Just like the rest of us, he is flawed and he doesn’t deserve to be held to a standard of perfection. You might not listen to everything he says about every topic but we would make the bigger mistake to let one article nullify half a century of faithful ministry.

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