The Man Redefining Humility
Many in Nick Thompson’s congregation think he’s crazy. What pastor in modern America chooses to remain off social media entirely, modifies his iPhone to remove all colors and every app but maps, and doesn’t even have Wi-Fi installed in his home? Nick believes that his ability to prepare two sermons a week, to write prolifically, and to serve his family (beyond mere lip service) is due to a disciplined approach to ministry, writing, and life informed by both the secular concept of Deep Work and Scripture’s teachings on vocation. He spends most mornings, from 7:30am to 1:30pm working on sermons and writing, while his wife, Tessa, also an author, manages homeschooling for their children. The phones stays in another room; Nick mentions casually, “we may get a landline.”
Photo: Meishach Moore
Nick credits his minimalistic lifestyle (he assures me he’s not a Luddite) with giving him the time and focus necessary to co-author numerous books with Dr. Joel Beeke and now his first solo work, Growing Downward: The Path of Christ-Exalting Humility. While writing books isn’t part of most pastor’s job descriptions, Nick views the act of writing as a significant part of his vocation. He explains why he writes in terms that make sense for a pastor tasked with administering Scripture to others:
"God is a speaking God who has chosen to cause his speech to be put onto paper and, ultimately, published in the form of a book. That is the primary means by which he saves and sanctifies his people and advances his purposes. Although the canon is closed, writing helps people grasp and apply the truths in his inspired Word.”
Although Nick’s congregation is small (he is no mega-church pastor), he views his writing ministry as a lever to achieve greater impact on a much larger scale. As Nick articulated to me, he could spend 5 hours talking with one person over coffee or spend the equivalent amount of time writing for an audience of thousands.
Still, Nick warns that there is a tension the writing pastor faces: every minute spent composing a book is time not spent pastoring his church, at least not directly. The role of a pastor involves more than just preparing and delivering sermons, but visiting congregants, leading evangelistic outreach, facilitating weddings and funerals, counseling, meetings, and more. Despite that tension, Nick continues to pursue new writing projects. His justification? “God wills for his word to be expounded by men who are particularly called and gifted in preaching and writing.”
Nick’s high regard for Scripture is pervasive in his writing, his sermons, and even casual conversation. While nothing less is expected from the pastor of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church (Cornerstone in Chattanooga, TN), his early university days nearly took him a much different direction. Nick dropped out of college after two years due to the theological liberalism rampant in his Bible and Missions major; Donald Miller and Brian McClaren were regular speakers. During that time, however, Nick was exposed to expository preaching at a local Wesleyan Holiness Church. This had a large influence on his view of Scripture, although it did leave him, in his words, “a raving Arminian, a fighter and debater.”
After a move to Colorado to study at a small missionary college, where Nick met his wife, Tessa, he began attending a Reformed OPC church led by Pastor Archie Allison. Nick had been preparing a class on the attributes of God and came across the works of A.W. Pink and R.C. Sproul. He recalls reading Sproul’s Chosen by God as the tipping point in his journey toward Reformed convictions. However, Nick credits Pastor Archie with helping to expand his perspective of reformed theology beyond just the Five Points of Calvinism to a holistic worldview. His previously held theological convictions began to waver, as he and Archie met regularly at Panera Bread and discussed the covenants, infant baptism, the fourth commandment, and pillars of Reformed doctrine.
Nick and Tessa moved to Ohio after the birth of their first son, where Nick eventually met Mike Waters, who Nick considers a “father in the faith.” Mike was the first Baptist student at PRTS, when Joel Beeke held classes in the shed in front of his house. Through Mike’s godly and steady influence, Nick ended up getting a full-ride scholarship to PRTS. There he served as Joel Beeke’s teaching assistant, which would prove instrumental in launching Nick’s writing career in just a short time after his graduation from seminary in 2020. Nick has collaborated with Dr. Beeke on three books now, including Pastors and their Critics and the first two volumes of a family worship series for young children, Beginning: Family Worship in Genesis and Wilderness: Family Worship in Exodus-Deuteronomy (currently being edited for publication).
I asked Nick why he decided to write about humility for his first book. His response was telling: “I desperately needed it. Every person in my church needed it too.” He had been preaching a morning series on humility (available as a podcast) and struggled to find a clear definition of biblical humility in the current literature on the topic. Writers differed on the meaning of humility, on how to interpret Christ’s humbling of himself, and what humility looked like in practice. Ultimately, Nick wants to propose a vision of humility that emphasizes a “clear and experiential sense of identity in God and Christ.”
Whether he’s accomplished that or not is up to the readers of Growing Downward. But at least one person think Nick has something fresh, and important, to say about humility. Joel Beeke recently endorsed the book to his thousands of social media followers, saying, “this is one of the top ten ‘best books’ of the some 1000 titles we have published [at RHB] over the last 28 years—and I don’t say this lightly. This very well-written and thoughtful book is a ‘must read’ due to its gripping teaching that the path of humility, though difficult, is the way to true meaning and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.”
Discover the humility that exalts Christ.
Nick Thompson’s book is available from Reformation Heritage Books.
