{"id":1992,"date":"2010-03-28T15:52:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-28T22:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strivetoenter.com\/wim\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2015-10-19T20:23:38","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T03:23:38","slug":"john-piper-takes-leave-of-ministry-to-work-on-his-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strivetoenter.com\/wim\/2010\/03\/28\/john-piper-takes-leave-of-ministry-to-work-on-his-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"John Piper takes leave of ministry to work on his marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\u00a0\n

\"john-piper<\/p>\n

On March 28, 2010 complementarian John Piper announced that he is leaving ministry for a time because of several issues of pride that were affecting his soul and had taken a toll on his relationship with his wife\u00a0No\u00ebl . \u00a0Below is what Piper has written about his issues and his next steps. \u00a0It would be a good time to pray for John Piper. \u00a0It appears that being a rock solid complementarian is not a guarantee that a happy and fulfilling marriage will ensue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

As you may have already heard in the\u00a0sermon from March 27-28<\/a>, the elders graciously approved on March 22 a leave of absence that will take me away from Bethlehem from May 1 through December 31, 2010. We thought it might be helpful to put an explanation in a letter to go along with the sermon.<\/p>\n

I asked the elders to consider this leave because of a growing sense that my soul, my marriage, my family, and my ministry-pattern need a reality check from the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, I love my Lord, my wife, my five children and their families first and foremost; and I love my work of preaching and writing and leading Bethlehem. I hope the Lord gives me at least five more years as the pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, 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 No\u00ebl 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\u2019ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I\u2019m sorry. Since I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

No\u00ebl and I are rock solid in our commitment to each other, and there is no whiff of unfaithfulness on either side. But, as I told the elders, \u201crock solid\u201d is not always an emotionally satisfying metaphor, especially to a woman. A rock is not the best image of a woman\u2019s tender companion. In other words, the precious garden of my home needs tending. I want to say to No\u00ebl that she is precious to me in a way that, at this point in our 41-year pilgrimage, can be said best by stepping back for a season from virtually all public commitments.<\/p>\n

No marriage is an island. For us this is true in two senses. One is that No\u00ebl and I are known inside-out by a few friends at Bethlehem\u2014most closely by our long-time colleagues and friends David and Karin Livingston, and then by a cluster of trusted women with No\u00ebl and men with me. We are accountable, known, counseled, and prayed for. I am deeply thankful for a gracious culture of transparency and trust among the leadership at Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

The other way that our marriage is not an island is that its strengths and defects have consequences for others. No one in the orbit of our family and friends remains unaffected by our flaws. My prayer is that this leave will prove to be healing from the inside of my soul, through No\u00ebl\u2019s heart, and out to our children and their families, and beyond to anyone who may have been hurt by my failures.<\/p>\n

By John Piper. \u00a9 Desiring God. Website:\u00a0desiringGod.org<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the full statement here<\/a><\/strong> on Piper\u2019s Desiring God web site.<\/p>\n

The one thing that I noticed when I was doing research on the complementarian worldview was that the leaders who were the most transparent admitted that especially in the early years of their marriage, the complementarian lifestyle brought problems into their marriages. \u00a0One popular preacher said that his wife felt like she was not a person. \u00a0I am certain that I heard John Piper talk about problems like this in his marriage at one point and it is not uncommon for a woman to feel like she is so focused on lifting up her husband\u2019s ministry that who she is as a person becomes vague. \u00a0Does God really care about her or is her husband God\u2019s main focus? The loss of personhood can be especially devastating when the children leave home since the complementarian teaching that the woman\u2019s main calling in life is to be a wife and mother can leave her own individual gifts undeveloped or set on the back burner to support her husband.<\/p>\n

While we may not agree with the complementarian view of marriage and ministry, we can be there to help complementarians when there are problems and failures from a male-only focused ministry and marriage. \u00a0When women are held back from passionately pursuing ministry with the gifts that God has given them, the church will be hurt because we are all needed. \u00a0If we give unrestricted authority to use\u2019s gift to one spouse alone, pride is inevitably going to be a by-product. \u00a0I believe that God is working today to bring the church into a more balanced position where all of His gifts are accepted no matter which vessel the Holy Spirit desires to use.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 On March 28, 2010 complementarian John Piper announced that he is leaving ministry for a time because of several issues of pride that were affecting his soul and had taken a toll on his relationship with his wife\u00a0No\u00ebl . \u00a0Below is what Piper has written about his issues and his next steps. \u00a0It would be a good time to pray for John Piper. \u00a0It appears that being a rock solid complementarian is not a guarantee that a happy and…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marriage","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Piper takes leave of ministry to work on his marriage - Women in Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/strivetoenter.com\/wim\/2010\/03\/28\/john-piper-takes-leave-of-ministry-to-work-on-his-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Piper takes leave of ministry to work on his marriage - Women in Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 On March 28, 2010 complementarian John Piper announced that he is leaving ministry for a time because of several issues of pride that were affecting his soul and had taken a toll on his relationship with his wife\u00a0No\u00ebl . \u00a0Below is what Piper has written about his issues and his next steps. \u00a0It would be a good time to pray for John Piper. \u00a0It appears that being a rock solid complementarian is not a guarantee that a happy and... 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