One of the great struggles for great leaders, pastors, and communicators is the inner desire for credit, glory, even a bit of celebrity. We know that’s not the right attitude, but unfortunately it gnaws at all of us, sometimes more than others for sure, but if we’re honest it never really goes away. For most of us, probably all of us, it didn’t start out this way. We started doing what we do because we loved doing it, because we wanted to make a difference, because no one else was doing it and that just wasn’t ok. Whether you planted a church, took a job as a teacher in an urban school, got asked to speak at a small women’s retreat, you said “yes!” for the right reason. Before long, though, we started getting pats on the back, people wanted to buy us coffee to more spend time with us, they even tell us they brought someone to church just because they knew we were speaking or singing that week. (By the way, I don’t think any of these things are bad in and of themselves) I’m not going to lie; all of those things usually feel pretty awesome. And so the struggle begins.
This week we’re going to dig into this a little deeper with the help of guys like Barnabas and Paul, and talk about how we can work through this. I’m hoping we’ll get some good discussion going together because we’ve all faced it and have experience to draw from. While no one has mastered it, perhaps you have some insight into what to watch out for and how to guard against the trap. I’ll post on Thursday and Friday this week and I hope between now and then that we can continue the discussion.
Let’s get it started:
In your context at work, in the church, in your class, at home, etc, in what ways does this struggle come at you? Ex: I really love it when you
lead _____. They should let you do it more often.
I agree with you. We do all struggle with it. My personal struggle was so tough, I felt that God was telling me to step down. You see, I was a performer as a child, and when I grew up I often sang at church.
ReplyDeleteI got so "hooked" on the compliments that I stopped praising. I stopped worshiping. I stopped serving. I was performing. It wasn't personal anymore, it was a performance. Once I realized those things, I tried to change my attitude, but honestly, I couldn't do it. So I stopped.
Now I praise and I worship from the "pew". I prayed for years asking God to change that, but I have realized that it was God's plan all along.
There are still times when I catch myself thinking, "I could do this better... This singer is flat... A better song choice would be..."