Tim Keller was recently interviewed by Towers Online, the news service for Southern Seminary. I really appreciated his warning about the idolatry of success in ministry.
Question: What safeguards should 20-something pastors have in place to avoid the idolatry of ministry fame and the attitude of big numbers equals success?
Tim Keller: If you know it is a danger, that is a very important start. Additionally, when you find yourself unusually discouraged because things aren't growing or people aren't listening to you -- you have to catch yourself. You have to realize "This is an inordinate amount of discouragement, which reveals the idolatry of justification by ministry." Meaning, you say you believe in justification by grace, but you feel like and are acting like you believe in justification by ministry. You have to recognize you are making something of an idol out of ministry. When you do experience inordinate discouragement because things aren't going well, you need to say, "It's okay to be discouraged but not to be this discouraged. This is discouragement that leads to idolatry," and you repent.
Additionally, idols create a fantasy world. You may think that you are just thinking about ministry strategy, but it could be you're fantasizing about success. So be careful about doing too much daydreaming about success, what you would like to see happen. Because it's really a kind of pornography. You're actually thinking about a beautiful church and people acclaiming you: be careful about fantasizing too much about ministry success and dreaming about it and thinking about what it's going to look like.
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