Restoring Kingdom Builders

Pride.

It’s the name of a song by U2.

It’s the last name of a country singer.

And it’s one of the seven deadly sins … maybe the deadliest.

And for some reason, it’s a sin that pastors – of all people – are susceptible to.

Pride is something we recognize in others.  Years ago, I remember hearing the pastor of a prestigious church speak during a conference at my seminary.  While he was an excellent speaker, he turned out to be the hero in every story he told.

I could detect the pride in his life … but all too often, miss it in mine.

C. S. Lewis said that the first step to combatting pride is for a person to admit that he or she is proud … but most of us are really good at convincing ourselves that we’re never proud.

Say it with me: “Sometimes I can be a pretty proud person.”

So can pastors.

Last time, I shared three ways that pastors display pride in their ministries.  Let me share two more ways:

Fourth, pastors are conscious that they stand between God and people.

In the Old Testament, a priest represented people before God, while a prophet represented God before people.  But in both cases, these leaders knew they had been called to do something special.

Represent the Almighty.

As a pastor, I sensed that I represented God whenever I preached, or baptized someone, or offered communion, or led in public prayer, or engaged in counseling, or did an infant dedication, or shared my faith.

And it doesn’t take long for a pastor to look around and notice that he’s doing things that nobody else in that spiritual community is doing.  That can make you feel … special.

This doesn’t automatically lead one to pride … but representing God sure can be heady stuff.

In his classic book A Minister’s Obstacles (a book inscribed by my grandfather on May 9, 1949), Ralph Turnbull writes:

“The minister is the prey of pride because he traffics in holy things and is in danger of familiarity with sacred elements of truth and life.  Pride goes with us frequently to our studies and there sits with us and does our work, chooses our subject and words and ornaments, and even accompanies us into the pulpit.”

On rare occasions, while I was preaching, this unwelcome thought would enter my head: “You’re presuming to speak for the God of the universe.  Wow!  You’re really something.”

I’d do my best to bat that thought away before it took root … but the thought would assault me from time-to-time.

Where do thoughts like that come from?  From the Proud One himself.

And they must be resisted as soon as they occur.

Finally, pastors sometimes conduct ministry in their own strength.

Warren Wiersbe, a great pastor to pastors, once wrote that a pastor should be broken before God, but bold before men.

But there is a real temptation in ministry to be bold before men without being broken before God.  Pastors who serve churches in their own strength cause manifold troubles in churches.

Some pastors are naturally charismatic people.  They can get up on a Sunday morning and be interesting without studying or praying or preparing in any way … a few times.  But eventually, it catches up with you.

Someone once told me about a pastor who played tennis on Sunday mornings.  The storyteller used to drive to the tennis courts and pick up the pastor for morning worship.  The pastor would clean up and get dressed just in time to slip through the back door onto the platform and preach his sermon.

Of course, an arrangement like that doesn’t last very long.  Pride, indeed, goes before a fall.

In fact, I believe that many pastors are involuntarily terminated not because they’re inexperienced, or incompetent, or indecisive, but because their pride keeps them from adapting themselves to the leaders and people in their church.

It’s my belief that a pastor needs to constantly remind himself of these truths:

“I am a creature.  God is my Creator.  I am a sinner.  God is my Savior.  I have been called to ministry by God’s grace.  There is nothing in me that made God choose me.  As long as I remember that God is God and I am merely His servant, He may choose to bless my life and ministry.  When I start thinking that I am God and He is my servant, I’m in deep trouble.”

If you’re a pastor, just remember that you are who you are because God graciously called you into ministry.

If you’re a parishoner, pray for your pastor’s walk with God … that he might continually glorify God – not himself – and resist the ever dangerous temptation to be proud.

It’s a battle many of us will fight our entire lives.