Successful Ministry, Sinful Pastor
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, June 07, 2007
- Viewed 43
- (1) comments so far
The reason many of us ignore the formation of our character, says Johnson, is because it will slow us down. Many ministry leaders want success, a big church, or a crowd. But how many of us want a real life? How many of us want a life in God? We can have that, Johnson believes. We can have a character that produces love, peace, patience, kindness…but it will slow us down. It might mean the church won’t grow as big as quickly. It might mean the crowd will get smaller.
But the alternative is both devastating and all too common. The alternative is a ministry of high impact but shallow character. As only Johnson could say it, “In the bible it was a miracle when God spoke through an ass. Now it happens everyday.” Translation: God is speaking powerfully through many pastors, but their characters show nothing of God’s life. These leaders, along with their anger, pride, bitterness, and cynicism, are tolerated by many churches because they are able to “fill the room.” Their powerful spiritual gifts, like Samson’s, deflect the flaws of their characters.
You can read the whole article here.
FOR DISCUSSION: Have you ever had a time in your ministry where you got close to crossing the line; being so driven for a successful ministry that you got dangerously close to major sin?
A very interesting post over at the Out of Ur blog this morning... talking about how sometimes church leaders trade building a successful ministry for building their own character and spiritual maturity. Here is part of the post: "Drawing from the life and downfall of Samson, he went on to tell the stories of men and women who were used powerfully by God to accomplish even miraculous things, but who eventually collapsed because their characters simply could not carry the weight of their anointing. These leaders had not made the transformation of their characters the first priority in their life and ministry..."
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Rob Grayson on Thu, June 07, 2007
Great post, Todd. This is such a current and common phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately it’s fuelled by the fact that the general population of believers isn’t very discerning - they tend to believe that if they see the “trappings” of success in ministry - a big name, books, TV shows, money etc. - then that person is obviously being blessed and used by God and they must therefore have got everything together in their lives, and therefore everything they say must be right.
The converse is that people look at those who don’t have the outward trappings of successful ministry, and somehow disdain them and assume they’re obviously not doing much for God. I’m exaggerating to make the point, of course, but I think you’ll see what I mean.
Jesus didn’t seek success in ministry - in fact, there are many accounts of him retreating from the public eye in order to be alone with his Father or to spend time with those he was in close relationship with - where there was no immediately visible pay-off. What he did seek was to do the Father’s will - everything else was secondary.
Rob
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