Our egos are hard monsters to kill. And if you’re in a position of authority, especially one that puts you on stage, your work can feed an ego that needs to be starved. Pastor, meet your nemesis.
In this guest article, pastor Kurt Lammi reminds us that egos and boasting are not only a challenge for pastors of big churches on big stages, but small-church pastors have ego issues that might be harder to spot, to address, and to win a victory over.
— Karl Vaters
Sometimes pastors fall into the trap of worshiping the idol of big numbers.
The easiest example of this is the megachurch that boasts about how many people are members of that congregation or how much money they have. Small church pastors often get jealous of those big numbers – because we want to have a big number to make us feel important too.
Sometimes small church pastors can get defensive when we are asked, “How many people are in your congregation?” or “How many people came to worship last Sunday?” or “How much money do you have in your budget?”
We want to somehow convince the person asking the question (and ourselves) that what we’re doing is good ministry even with smaller numbers. We know big numbers get more attention and respect than small ones.
So we end up talking about another big number instead. Instead of boasting about how many people are in the pews on Sunday morning, small church pastors often boast about how many hours we work per week.
Ego Is Our Nemesis
Sometimes we tell people, “I work 60 hours or more every week,” as if working ourselves to the bone is something praiseworthy.
Even if we don’t come out and say it, sometimes we still carry this attitude with us. “Look at how much good work I do around here. This ship would sink if it wasn’t for me. I do so many things that no one ever notices. Because I work so hard, that must mean that I’m important.”
Sometimes it gets taken to the next level if the pastor is bi-vocational. “I work a regular job AND I work at the church. Look at how much more I do than the regular person.”
Boasting about how many hours you work or boasting about how many people are in the pews is still boasting. It’s still worshiping at the idol of big numbers.
Not only is idolatry a serious sin (it’s basically cheating on God), but boasting is not a good idea either.
Boasting Is Foolish
In Luke, we hear about Jesus sending out the twelve apostles with authority to cast out demons and cure diseases (Luke 9:1-6). Shortly after that, we hear about when they returned. “On their return, the apostles told Jesus all they had done.” (9:10)
I can imagine them bragging and boasting about all their accomplishments. In a similar passage one chapter later, Jesus sends out the 72 others. We hear this about their return. “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’” (10:17)
The 12 and the 72 are both joyfully bragging about all they did. “Look at all the things we did, Jesus. Look at how we changed the world. Look at all the hours we worked. Aren’t you proud of us? Aren’t we so important?”
In both cases, the focus of the disciples is on what they did – not what God did through them.
Paul addresses the issue of boasting by pointing out how ridiculous it is. Consider 2 Corinthians 11:16-30 where he talks about all the things in his life that he could boast about. However, he admits that boasting about such things is foolish (11:21).
After admitting to how stupid boasting really is, he says, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” (11:30) In other words, he will take pride in how God has worked through him despite his failings.
Focusing on himself and trying to take the credit for what has happened is simply ridiculous.
Redirecting People To Jesus
As people who live in the public eye, it can be tricky to get people to focus on Jesus while also having them pay attention to you.
Yes, it’s easy to criticize the “celebrity pastor” culture, but let’s be honest. No matter how many people are in the congregation, it’s still an ego trip for the pastor to know that they are listening to you.
Even so, our job is never to boast about what we have done – whether it’s how many people we have brought into the congregation or how many hours we work. Our job is to point people to Jesus.
Perhaps the best example of someone in the public eye who continually redirected others to Jesus was John the Baptist. People noticed what John was doing, but he constantly denied that he was the Messiah (John 1:19-21).
Instead, he confessed that Jesus is more important than him (John 1:26-27). He even famously said “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
John could have bragged about how many people he baptized or how many people heard his message or how many hours he worked, but he didn’t. Instead, he kept redirecting people to Jesus.
Reason To Celebrate
Yes, pastors are called to work hard.
Yes, pastors are called to serve with the people in our care – regardless of how many there are. Yes, pastors are called to proclaim Jesus to others. But we need to watch our egos and our desire to boast.
Instead of focusing on what we do, we need to celebrate what God still manages to do through broken people like us. Even though we are selfish people who often want the credit, God still uses sinful people like us to help others grow in faith.
That is the real reason to joyfully celebrate!
(Photo by Quinn Dombrowski | Flickr)
