The Unique Danger of Ministry Success
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” — Proverbs 16:18
Few environments are as spiritually rewarding and spiritually dangerous as ministry leadership.
When God works through your efforts, people are helped, lives are changed, and ministries grow. You preach a sermon, and someone is encouraged. You lead a ministry, and people respond. You cast a vision, and others follow. These are wonderful gifts from God, but they also create a unique temptation. The people around us can begin giving us credit for what God is doing.
If we are not careful, their praise can slowly become our identity.
Pride rarely begins with arrogance. More often, it begins with forgetting. We forget that any ability we possess came from God. We forget that every opportunity we have is a gift. We forget that spiritual fruit is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, not the product of our talent, intelligence, or effort.
Ministry leaders are especially vulnerable because much of our work happens in public.
People thank us after sermons, compliment our leadership, and express appreciation for our ministries. While encouragement is a blessing, it can become dangerous when we begin believing that the results belong to us.
The most effective leaders I have known were not those who thought the most of themselves. They were those who never got over the fact that God would use them at all.
- They remained teachable.
- They welcomed correction.
- They shared credit generously.
- They understood that if anything of eternal significance was happening, God deserved the glory.
Humility does not mean thinking less of your gifts. It means remembering where those gifts came from. It means recognizing that God can accomplish His purposes with or without us and being grateful that He chooses to use us anyway.
The moment ministry becomes about our reputation rather than God’s glory, we are heading in a dangerous direction. Proverbs warns that pride goes before destruction because pride eventually places confidence in oneself instead of dependence upon God.
Healthy ministries are not built by leaders who need to be noticed. They are built by leaders who are content to let God receive the credit.
Pride weakens ministries, but humility strengthens teams.
