ENVY OF MEGA-MINISTRY

 

As I read a devotional from Stephen Olford, these thoughts came to mind. 

Who among us has not listened to a preacher on a podcast or listened to one in a pastors’ conference who leads a megachurch and not wondered, “Why not me?”  There may be several responses to that—none of them good. 

The first is to belittle ourselves. “Well, I just don’t have such gifts.  I wouldn’t be capable of leading a church like that.”  Yet none of us know what will unfold in the providence of God—if we will be faithful in that little place. But, if we become discouraged, it can hinder our growth. We should have a passion to be all we can be for God, but leave the results to Him. 

The second is to belittle others. “I am sure he compromises doctrine and that is why people flock to hear him. I will not do that!”  Or we may accuse him of rustling sheep from smaller flocks.  “They offer all this stuff to entertain the people and we are not going to do that!”  The reality is that sometimes that is true. But, not always. Some megachurches are solid as a rock doctrinally and grow evangelistically. They want to help smaller churches be healthy. Some have a kingdom mindset—and it is about God’s kingdom and not their own. Charles Spurgeon pastored a megachurch and who can question his fidelity to Scripture and faithfulness in soul-winning?

The third is to boost ourselves. We seek status. We become a ladder climber and a name-dropper. Then, we pad our resume’ and that never ends well. We plagiarize the sermons of prominent preachers to impress others. Eventually, we will be exposed. Just be who God made you to be and serve where His providence has placed you.

Be faithful and let God sort all that out. I have wrestled with these same temptations. I would like to say that I have never succumbed to envy of mega-ministries, but that would be another sin—lying!  So, when that temptation arises, let us resist and if we give in, immediately repent!

COMPARISON, COMPETITION, AND COVETOUSNESS

 

The quotation here from the Olfords is a reminder of a cancer of the spirit that can consume a preacher with malignant thoughts. It is a viral disease of the soul, ever seeking an opening in our spiritual immune system whereby it can penetrate and destroy a man’s ministry.  I battle it.  Sadly, there are times I succumb to it. We must ever pray for God to deliver us from comparison, competition, and covetousness.

There is the cancer of COMPARISON. One of the first questions you will hear at a Monday ministers’ conference is, “How many did you have in attendance yesterday?”  The temptation then is to pout that we did not have more or to pride that we did. We may brand ourselves a failure and want to quit because others seem to be advancing while we are declining. Then, if we have the higher statistics in how many bottoms we put in a pew and how many bucks are placed in the plate, we may be headed for a fall that pride produces.  Let us just be who God made us to be—the best we can be—where He has called us.

Further we face the cancer of COMPETITION. This is where comparison becomes a passion to see others fail and a desire to see ourselves succeed. In competition, there are winners and losers. The winners are adding to their attendance and the losers are seeing subtraction from their flock. While it is important to be used to grow the church, it is God who gives the increase. Truly, He uses us, but only the Spirit of God can birth new believers. But, it may not be that we are seeking the lost sheep but stealing the sheep from others!  In a competitive spirit, we may profit by transfer growth while others are made poor from it. A test for us is, “How do you react when another church is reaching lost souls?”  Can you rejoice with them? So long as the Kingdom progresses, we should be glad for we are on the same team!

Comparison and competition are really the cancer of COVETOUSNESS. In the Mosaic code, expressing God’s fundamental laws, the sum of obedience to the other nine is in that of the spirit of tenth. Covetousness causes us to seek to supplant God with our own authority. We may covet our own ideas of worship that become idolatry. We want to promote our own name at the expense of bringing glory to His name. We covet the time for our own pleasure that should be devoted to the refreshment of worshipping God. You get the point. Preacher, do you speak against covetousness from the pulpit while harboring it in your heart?  It is such a subtle thing, and therefore all the more deadly.  It can lead a man to assassinate the character of another pastor, to open himself to immorality because of his egotism, to become a rustler of someone else’s sheep, to engage in slander of another brother.  Let us repent of covetousness!

May the Great Physician heal us from this cancer if it has invaded and strengthen our spiritual immune system with grace to prevent its incursion!  I pray that the scalpel of Scripture will cut out this malignancy from me and all God’s servants!

STUFF I’VE LEARNED THAT SEMINARY DIDN’T TEACH ME #28

Years ago I heard this—and I do not recall the source—don’t seek to live above your congregation or beneath your members, but live among them. Money is always a temptation for the pastor—to be covetous to have more of it.  We can be covetous and seek to have a standard of living that exceeds that of the common people who give sacrificially so we can be on mission for God.  You don’t have to have a big house and fine car and live in luxury. That is damaging to your witness. But you can also be covetous when you have a meager amount of money for it is more about what is in your heart than your bank account. But, we do need enough, for God says that if we do not provide for our household then we are worse than an infidel!  That can harm the testimony of the church, as well.  Someone may look at the smoking rust bucket we drive down the road and conclude that God’s people are not putting their money where their mouth is!   I can truthfully say that God has always allowed us to live modestly as we raised five children. No one would look at the houses we lived in or the cars we rode in or the clothes we dressed in and say, “Those folks make too much money” or “those folks are poor.”  They wouldn’t think much about it either way—and we have tried to view finances that way.

LADDER CLIMBING

 

So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.”  (Genesis 32:27)

When God asked Jacob his name, the omniscient Lord was not seeking information, but confession.  They were wrestling in the dark, but God was not in the dark as to his combatant.  He just wanted Jacob to own up to his name—and thus, his nature.  The name meant “supplanter, heel-grabber” and so he was.  From conception, he struggled in the womb with his twin, Esau.  At their birth, Jacob clutches his brother’s heel as though to resist him being the first-born.  Throughout his days, Jacob sought the birthright and blessing of the firstborn—taking advantage of his brother’s hunger and his father’s blindness.  Jacob would have to leave home for fear that Esau was fed up with it and was going to kill him.  That first night away from home, Jacob had a dream—he saw a ladder stretched from heaven to earth—the throne of God above and angels ascending and descending on that heavenly ladder.  How fitting—for Jacob was a ladder climber, if ever there was one!  No matter whom he had to step on or what he had to do as he got to the top—it was only reaching the pinnacle that mattered.  To Jacob, the end justified the means.  Now, in the ultimate turning point, the God who had been disciplining him will break him—and that humiliation will pave the way for real exaltation.

What is the lesson for the man of God?  It is easy to look at celebrity pastors and dream of leading a mega-church.  Perhaps a subtle seed of temptation is planted in our heart—covetousness that leads to compromise—all in the name of God—when it is really about our name.  We say we want to reach more people—and how noble is that!  I do not judge, but the Serpent has a way of twisting the good we are doing into a motive that is carnal, worldly, sensual, and devilish.  In the evangelical world today, size does matter—and sometimes that is all that does.

Please, no one read this as a judgment on mega-ministries and well-known pastors.  Doubtless, that could spring from envy on my part.  God sometimes promotes men to such effectiveness and they remain the same humble servants as ever.  There is no particular sign of God’s favor because our name is obscure or our congregation small.  We may merely be incompetent or indolent!

My simple plea is this for all of us—do not be a ladder climber!  Don’t seek the big position.  Seek a great God!  Desire His will above all.  Submit to the place He has for you—and that is mega-ministry whether you are ever asked to speak on the denominational stage or quoted on the national news.  Jacob finally found the favor he longed for—not by his self-effort and self-promotion, but in brokenness and pain.  He limped from the scars of that struggle with God for the rest of his life.  That was a needful reminder of his need to humbly walk with God rather than seek to climb the ladder.  God knows where you are and is quite capable of getting you where He wants you to be—without your help!