Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson
Overview
D.A. Carson’s father was a pioneering church-planter and pastor in Quebec. But still, an ordinary pastor-except that he ministered during the decades that brought French Canada from the brutal challenges of persecution and imprisonment for Baptist ministers to spectacular growth and revival in the 1970s.
It is a story, and an era, that few in the English-speaking world know anything about. But through Tom Carson’s journals and written prayers, and the narrative and historical background supplied by his son, readers will be given a first-hand account of not only this trying time in North American church history, but of one pastor’s life and times, dreams and disappointments. With words that will ring true for every person who has devoted themselves to the Lord’s work, this unique book serves to remind readers that though the sacrifices of serving God are great, the sweetness of living a faithful, obedient life is greater still.
Top Highlights
“They cannot possibly discern whether the constraints of their own sphere of service owe more to the specific challenges of the local situation or to their own shortcomings. Once in a while they will cast a wistful eye on ‘successful’ ministries. Many of them will attend the conferences sponsored by the revered masters and come away with a slightly discordant combination of, on the one hand, gratitude and encouragement and, on the other, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and guilt.” (Page 9)
“So many aspects of ministry demand excellence, and there are not enough hours in the day to be excellent in all of them” (Page 92)
“Compared with some of the more dramatic turns around him, his ministry was ordinary” (Page 68)
“Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches.” (Page 9)
This account gives us valuable insight into the life of a man who accepted the challenges of ministry with both integrity and grace, and into the life of a Protestant pastor in French Quebec. A powerful reminder that there are no little places if we are faithful to the God who called us.
—Erwin W. Lutzer, senior pastor, The Moody Church, Chicago, Illinois
How can the application of a Bible-saturated mind (Don’s) to a Bible-saturated life (Tom’s) produce an even more helpful story to encourage pastors? Let the ’mind’ be carried on a river of love because the ’life’ is his father’s. Then add a kind of narrative creativity. That’s how
—John Piper, chancellor, Bethlehem College and Seminary
A rare and precious gift from one of evangelicalism’s greatest scholars. How generous of Dr. Carson to bequeath his father’s quiet legacy to us all.
—C.J. Mahaney, senior pastor, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
- Title: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson
- Author: D. A. Carson
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2008
- Logos Release Date: 2011
- Pages: 160
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Baptists › Canada--Clergy--Biography
- Resource ID: LLS:4B9E450A908BC1224375CB750A69C865
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-03-23T21:29:10Z
D.A. Carson (b. 1946) is one of the most respected New Testament scholars in the world. A respected teacher, author, and speaker, he is currently research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the president of The Gospel Coalition. He has served as pastor of Richmond Baptist Church and as the first dean of the seminary of Northwest Baptist Theological College, now known as Northwest Baptist Seminary. Logos has collected his sermons—including audio—in the D.A. Carson Sermon Archive.
Carson lectures in academic and church settings around the world, and is the author of more than 50 books, including Exegetical Fallacies, Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to John, The Gagging of God, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14 and the Intolerance of Tolerance. He is the editor of the Pillar New Testament Commentary series, and coedited of the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament with G.K. Beale, and the Studies in New Testament Greek series with Stanley Porter. You can find more of Carson’s work in the Baker D.A. Carson Collection (15 vols.).