Lies Pastors Believe

Seven Ways to Elevate Yourself, Subvert the Gospel, and Undermine the Church

Dayton Hartman

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781683590392
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Everyone is tempted to believe lies about themselves.

For many pastors, the lies they're tempted to believe have to do with their identity: that God has called them to lead a movement, that they must sacrifice their home life for their ministry life, or that their image as holy is more important than their actual pursuit of holiness.

In Lies Pastors Believe, pastor and professor Dayton Hartman takes aim at these and other lies he has faced in his own ministry and seen other pastors struggle with. With a winsome and engaging style, Hartman shows current and future pastors why these lies are so tempting, the damage they can do, and how they can be resisted by believing and applying the truth of the gospel.

1

THE VISIONARY

“Jesus has called me to lead a movement”

In seminary, I had a major ego problem (admittedly, I still do from time to time). I wasn’t exactly the Kanye West or Justin Bieber of the Baptist classroom, but I really thought I was being prepared to do something big for the name of Jesus. I envisioned myself teaching large crowds, seeing hundreds—no, wait—thousands come to Christ every time I preached. It was lunacy! Not because Jesus cannot do big things, but because I can’t. What I was imagining as my future was really more about me than the kingdom of Christ.

It never struck me how strange and self-aggrandizing this whole mindset was until I was sitting in class one day. Our professor asked us to apply a theological concept to local church ministry, and his question presupposed a church of about 100–300 people. A student raised his hand and gave an outlandish answer. When the professor asked him to clarify what he was saying, he said something like this: “Oh, I’m sorry. The Lord has called me to lead and pastor a megachurch, so I was applying it to my calling.” The professor just stared, chuckled a little, and moved on.

In that moment, the Spirit began to cause me to see that I and many of my fellow seminarians were viewing the local church as a means to an end. In an age of celebrity pastors, the conference circuit, and personality-driven ministry, many of us were ready and willing to jump into the machine and become another “product” to be sold, marketed, and embraced by the Christian masses. (For the record, that student hasn’t led a megachurch.)

As I emerged from the heady atmosphere of seminary, I just assumed that the longer I was in ministry the more I would see the antithesis of this attitude among the pastors I would serve alongside. While I believe most pastors are driven by a desire to humbly serve their congregations, I am still shocked by how many think they are destined to have the influence of men like John Piper, Tim Keller, and R. C. Sproul.

All of us are excited by the prospect of leaving a great legacy, of being used by God in ways that will echo long beyond our lifetime. That’s not a bad thing. The problem is we misunderstand what it means to leave a legacy and be used by God.

The Mighty Have Fallen

Every time a well-known or celebrity pastor1 has to leave the ministry, people want to know why. How could men of God, who seemingly have all the answers, fail? On the most obvious level, they fail because they are sinners, and sinners will sin. Nevertheless, the downfall of celebrity pastors is usually a direct result of their pursuit of a platform, their desire to begin or lead a movement, their drive to achieve big things for themselves. While all pastors are still sinners, the particular danger of this lie is that if you make your ministry about you, the fallout of your sin will be even worse than it would have been otherwise.

At the heart of this lie is the desire for significance, relevance, recognition, and influence based on our own gifts. It is, in short, pride. It is the desire for power over others to bend them to our will. We see our congregations as a means to our own end rather than as people who are highly valued by God, and for whom Christ died.

Sometimes believing this lie leads to an explicit moral failure. The evangelical church in the United States has seen too many well-known pastors leave their ministries in disgrace. Constant attempts to increase numbers (of both people and dollars), to write books, to speak at conferences, and to cast one’s own vision are exhausting. Even when things are going well, there is pressure to keep expanding your platform. This pressure can drive some pastors to try to cope in unhealthy ways. One pastor may engage in adultery or inappropriate relationships. Another may not commit adultery, but his marriage still collapses under the pressure he puts on himself. Still other pastors may become addicted to alcohol or drugs. All this may come from a struggle to cope with the extraordinary pressure of casting our own vision and leading a movement.

At other times, however, there may be no hint of what we would usually call a moral failure. Instead, there is simply the quiet swelling of the ego, the shifting to a more autocratic style of leadership, the manipulation of other people to build our own significance. While this is less shocking and less likely to make the news, it is no less serious.

Once a pastor has left the ministry as a result of believing the lie of the achiever, there is still hope. Some pastors accept responsibility for their sin. They accept the charges that their ego was out of control and that they had relentlessly pursued the building of their platform. They acknowledge that their identity was wrapped up in their own name recognition, rather than in the name above all names. While the falls of these pastors send shockwaves, their repentance can go on to provide comfort. When pastors own their sin and express their need for prayer and forgiveness, sometimes they may be restored to a humbler and more faithful form of ministry.

Shepherds Anonymous

While there is the possibility of repentance and restoration after believing this lie, it would be better to not believe the lie in the first place. We can avoid it by paying closer attention to a biblical metaphor about pastors. The Bible talks about pastoring in terms of shepherding (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 5:1–3), and shepherding isn’t meant to be glamorous. The reason shepherding is such a perfect analogy for pastoral ministry is that it is often hard, unrecognized work for the good of those who may never thank you. The Bible mentions many shepherds, but it names only a few.

On the fateful day Joseph becomes a slave, he is walking around the fields of Shechem, looking for his brothers, when he encounters a man—presumably a shepherd. This shepherd tells Joseph, “I heard your brothers saying they were going to Dothan” (see Gen 37). If this busybody shepherd doesn’t run into Joseph wandering in a pasture, Joseph is never betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. He never goes to Egypt and never saves the nations. Instead, everyone dies of famine and the bloodline of the Messiah is eradicated. So this shepherd is pretty important to the history of salvation, yet he is nameless! It is the same with the shepherds at the birth of Christ.

Even the few shepherds whose names we know are most important for their role in the narrative of redemption. Moses, the deliverer, was once a shepherd. Then Jesus came along—the true and better deliverer! David went from being a shepherd to being a king, and his bloodline carried the lineage of the Messiah. Then Jesus came along as the Son of David who is the King of kings. The fame of these shepherds points to Jesus, the only Shepherd who saves.

Who Is Pastor Steve?

Not enough pastors desire to be Steve Lewis.

The city where I pastor is full of people whose faith was shaped by “Pastor Steve.” He was a man who truly believed the gospel, faithfully served his church, and then died. To my knowledge, Steve never wrote a book or spoke at a major conference. He didn’t have a blog or his own personal logo. He was simply a faithful pastor whose gospel legacy has lived on well beyond his earthly life. He never became famous, but he did make Jesus famous.

With so many guys aiming to be the next great conference speaker, I fear few will ever become Steve Lewis. Not enough young pastors recognize that pastoral ministry isn’t flashy; it is faithful service. It isn’t about building a brand; it is about pointing people to Jesus. It isn’t about growing a platform; it is about advancing the kingdom. In my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, there are roughly 46,000 active senior pastors. The work of those shepherds whose name is never known by anyone outside their congregation is just as central to Christ’s plan to build his church and save sinners as the work of pastors with major name recognition.

Now, it is not a sin to have a large influence. The sin is when a pastor allows himself to take a place that only Jesus can take. This is a real temptation, since it is not uncommon for congregations to subconsciously place sinners in a position that only the Savior can occupy. This happens in churches small and large. People associate a congregation with its pastor to such an extent that they call it “Pastor so-and-so’s” church.

Faced with this reality, pastors willingly allow themselves to take the seat that belongs only to Jesus. But when we begin to believe that a church is our church, we’ve taken the place of Christ. When we allow the congregation to believe it’s because of our clever and engaging sermons that sinners are being redeemed, rather than through Christ’s work in the hearts of men and women, we are taking people’s hopes and placing them on our shoulders. We cannot be the hope for our congregations; only Jesus can be their hope. Our job is not to cast our vision; our job is to announce Jesus’s promise to save sinners and change nations. The hope we give people is not that we will lead them into an exciting future of gospel transformation, but that Jesus has already purchased the guarantee of a world transformed by the gospel.

Pastors (and future pastors) who presume that God is going to give them a large platform are seeing the church, the bride of Christ, as something to use for selfish gain rather than a people to love and serve. If you use the church for your own advantage, you’ve begun abusing someone else’s bride. The church’s Bridegroom spoke the universe into existence, died, and came back from the dead, and is returning with a mysterious name tattooed on his thigh and the power to strike down the nations with his words (Rev 19:11–16). As a general rule, don’t mess with guys who have thigh tattoos. They are tougher than you.

When we willingly claim the role of hero, we will always become the villain. We can avoid the lie of a super-sized ministry by reminding ourselves that Jesus is the hero, not us. One of the ways I try to protect my heart from this lie is to constantly remind myself that God has called pastors to a ministry of death to self: Death in me, life in the church family (2 Cor 4:12). The truth is, pastors don’t have all the answers; we just know the One who does. And he has two nail-pierced feet.

So do not shirk your duties or despise your office because Christ has not given you a large platform. Your calling isn’t to fame; it’s to the difficult task of loving and caring for the sheep Jesus has sought and purchased. Augustine of Hippo once summarized the responsibilities of a pastor this way (a quote I come back to often):

The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weary supported; the gospel’s opponents need to be refuted, its insidious enemies guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be given your backing, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved. (Sermon 340.1)

That’s not glamorous, but it is our job.

Conclusion

I’m aware of the apparent irony in writing this chapter. A guy who has written books telling guys not to write books or speak at conferences? Well, not exactly. What I am saying is that if you serve Christ as a faithful pastor and, in the midst of this service, God gives you a larger platform, then use it well. But don’t aim for fame. Instead, work hard and pray that God will keep you faithful. C. S. Lewis wrote, “You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.”2 If you aim for fame over faithfulness, you will end up frustrated and unfulfilled, always striving to make a name for yourself. If you aim for faithfulness, it’s possible that you may get fame thrown in—but it won’t control you. You’ll be able to hold it lightly and recognize that it’s fleeting.

If you think Jesus has called you to create a brand and market yourself as a celebrity pastor, here is what I can tell you for sure: No, he hasn’t! Jesus has called you to serve as an under-shepherd for him as he shepherds his church. It’s not that he needs you; it’s just that, in his grace, he has given you a seat on the bench so you can be part of the team. Do not seek great things for yourself (Jer 45:5).

If you believe the lie that Jesus has called you to lead a movement, then the only movement you’ve been called to is ushering yourself out of the pulpit and into the pew. Stay humble, stay faithful, serve well—and be forgotten.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1.How often do I envision fame for my name rather than the increased fame of Jesus’ name?

2.Do I shirk the difficult tasks of pastoral ministry because I feel they are beneath me?

3.How drawn am I to a ministry that will bring me notoriety versus a ministry that no one will ever know about?

4.How often do I feel like the church owes me something?

5.Am I content to love the people Christ has entrusted t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Liar, Liar
• Chapter 1: The Visionary
• Chapter 2: The Iron Chef
• Chapter 3: The Achiever
• Chapter 4: The Called
• Chapter 5: The Holy Man
• Chapter 6: The Anti-family Man
• Chapter 7: The Castaway
• Chapter 8: Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Elder Qualifications
• Appendix 2: Recommended Reading