Every pastor has regrets. David Platt now realizes that, earlier in his pastoral ministry, he unintentionally implied that all serious Christians go into full-time ministry. “In zeal to raise up pastors within the church, in zeal to call out missionaries from the church,” he recalls, “I was implicitly setting up this tier that, ‘If you’re really passionate about Christ and the spread of the gospel, then [go into full-time ministry].’ I would never have put it that way, but I think that’s the way it often came across.”

In this discussion, Carl Ellis (provost’s professor of theology and culture at Reformed Theological Seminary and associate pastor for apologetics at New City Fellowship), Phillip Holmes (director of communications at Reformed Theological Seminary), and Platt (teaching pastor at McLean Bible Church) talk about why we need Christians in a wide variety of vocational spheres—and the effect their work can have for the kingdom.

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Related:

How a Mortgage Company Is Loving Its Neighbors (Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra)
The Sacred-Secular Divide Is Pure Fiction (Bethany Jenkins)
Not All Vocational Pursuits Are Equal (Amy Sherman)

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.

But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.

To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

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David Platt (PhD, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical, a ministry that exists to equip Christians to be on mission, and a Council member of The Gospel Coalition. David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, and Don’t Hold Back. He is also the author of several volumes in the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series. Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Resources from David Platt and Radical can be found at radical.net.

Carl Ellis serves as provost’s professor of theology and culture at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), and associate pastor for cultural apologetics at New City Fellowship. He has authored several books, including Free at Last? and Saving Our Sons.

Phillip Holmes is the vice president for institutional communications at Reformed Theological Seminary and owner of Highest Good, a digital marketing and strategy agency. He and his wife, Jasmine, have two sons, Walter Wynn and Ezra Langston. They are members of Redeemer Church in Jackson, Mississippi. You can follow him on Twitter.