Tim Keller argues in this article that ministry, especially effective ministry, can be detrimental to one's spiritual health. While ministry can incredibly fulfilling and rewarding, it is very easy to allow success and spiritual giftedness to equate to intimacy with God. There will be times when we must continue to speak the truth of God when we struggle to believe, pray for others when we haven’t prayed on our own, and encourage when we are discouraged. But we must remain diligent to not allow our effectiveness in ministry to convince us that we do not need to pursue consistency and depth in our relationship with God.
There will be times of dryness but this is when we must press in even more diligently and consistently to spend time God daily. This can warm our hearts to God says Keller, but even if it does not, we are positioning ourself to encounter God. If we do not do this, we will easily rely on spiritual gifts rather than spiritual graces. We will believe that our gifts are evidence that God is with us or use them as a way to earn God’s favor rather than simply accepting our justification and adoption by faith.
The danger is that our prayer lives struggle, and we begin to struggle with secret sin, people pleasing, or a performance mentality. We are involved in these actions but we are being used by God mightily so we look past these issues.
dibs!
ReplyDeleteWhat is the relationship between the leader’s spiritual vitality and the ministry’s success rate? I’ve often wondered this, particularly after a youth group meeting with markedly less teens than ever before. I see ministry colleagues and peers profess a deep faith and just seem to have that “I’ve got it all together, I spend x amount of time praying and reading Scriptures” vibe about them. Then my perfectionist mentality kicks in and I have convinced myself I’m unfit for ministry altogether.
ReplyDeleteGranted, that is clearly an overstatement. Yet I believe that we walk on a slippery slope when we relate the two. Yes—a leader cannot become so focused on ministry that he or she neglects their relationship with the Lord. One can hardly escape a ministry seminar, let alone a seminary class, without hearing that. You mentioned a struggling prayer life can lead to more difficult struggles with sin. But let’s go deeper. I wonder though, how many of us will put in the time reading or praying, with the unsaid hope/expectation that it will revive or grow our ministry? It’s not enough just to spend time with God—we need to check our motives, too.