Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 49

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PUBLISHED

The Power of Grace
Barnabas Piper ’05 and his father, Dr. John Piper ’68, have several important messages
for the church—for the welfare of every congregation, pastor, and pastor’s kid.

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Interview by Joshua Little ’12

arnabas Piper ’05 is not just any pastor’s
kid. He’s the son of one of the most
well-known pastors in evangelicalism:
Dr. John Piper ’68, who served as pastor
for preaching and vision at Bethlehem
Baptist Church in Minneapolis for
33 years, and has written more than
50 books. Yet the challenges Barnabas
faced as a “PK” were remarkably similar
to those faced by many other PKs. In
our interview, Barnabas and his father
share a few of the lessons learned from
this high-profile crucible.

Q: Barnabas, what was the hardest part
of growing up as a PK?
Barnabas: The overarching theme is the
pressure of higher expectations, mostly
from the church. In a ministry home, the
faith of the parents paints everything, so
it’s hard to know what you really believe
versus what you know you’re supposed to
believe.
Q: Pastor John, there is a pressure
from the church on PKs, but there is
also great pressure on the pastor to
have “good kids.” How do you manage
that pressure on your family?
John: I was conscious that our kids would
be in a fishbowl. I didn’t ever want to
say, “If you mess up, my job is on the
line.” So I resolved to never use that as
an argument. I didn’t want my kids ever
to do right because they were PKs, but
because they wanted to honor Christ and
obey Scripture and bring blessings to
people.
W H EA T O N . ED U / M A G A Z I N E

Q: How would you counsel the church
to be supportive of a pastor’s family,
and PKs specifically?
Barnabas: Church members must learn to
recognize that pastors are called to lead,
but they are also sinners. Pastors need grace
when they make mistakes, and they need
space in their personal lives. And PKs need
real, genuine friends.
John: What we want to do, inasmuch
as we have influence, is create an
atmosphere with a full, robust doctrine of
grace: everybody leveled before the cross.
Every ethnicity, every socioeconomic
category: no one shown favoritism,
[everyone] desperately in need of grace.
Q: When we live in broken churches
and broken families, it’s tempting to
become cynical. How do you fight
cynicism when you’re both so close to
the church?
John: You fight it by listening to Jesus
when he says, “How can you see the
speck in your brother’s eye, and not

see the log in your own eye?” My first
prescription for my own cynicism is to
look inside and find my log.
Barnabas: The church is God’s idea.
He built it. He said this is his beloved, to
represent Jesus on the earth until he comes
back. You cannot reconcile a cynicism
toward the church with a great love for the
church. It has to be one or the other.
For me, I find myself tilting toward
the need to love the church. You love
and care for your family even when there
are differences, even if you’re fed up.
Whether or not it’s pleasant, you’re there
for them, and you care for them and look
out for them.
That’s a sermon for myself as much
as anyone else. I’m thankful that I am
leaning toward loving the church rather
than being cynical because I have found a
lot more joy there.

Barnabas Piper ’05 is author of The
Pastor’s Kid: Finding Your Own Faith
and Identity (David C. Cook, 2014).
  W H E A T O N   

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