A few years ago I saw a video of a famous Christian writer who has morphed his verbal skills into marketing savvy. He teaches both the secular and spiritual world how to sell themselves.
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In the video, this famous Christian author shared how he had helped a pastor increase the weekly attendance of his church. This was the marketing savvy he gave the pastor:
I realized that too many churches make the pastor the hero. I decided to make the congregation the hero, and the church’s attendance exploded.”(Name withheld)
It reminded me of a conversation early in The Lost World movie. Repentant Jurassic Park creator John Hammond cries:
Don’t worry. I’m not making those old mistakes again.
To which Ian Malcom retorts:
No, you’re making all new ones.
It’s All About the Hero
The essential distinction between Christianity and every other religion in the world—including secularism—can be boiled down to one question: Who is the hero of your story?
The human race was cursed when Adam and Eve decided to be their own heroes in their story: They grabbed God’s place in the Garden and seized it for themselves. All subsequent human sins are variations on that single theme: We are usurping God’s place.
I agree that our primary heroes ought not be the pastor, priest, or even other famous Christian heroes. They are not celebrated because of their greatness; they are celebrated because God’s greatness worked in them. When Jesus returns, we will find that the greatest Christian heroes—of all time—will turn out to be thousands of men and women we have never heard of.
I applaud moving the hero-spotlight from ordained leadership (or political leadership), but I deplore moving it to the congregation. It’s just a more insidious form of idolatry: Clergy-worship is sick, but self-worship is suicide.
True Fruit, The True Hero, and God’s Plan
This morning I read, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8). In my subconscious mind, I paraphrased the verse to mean this, “If I’m successful and bear fruit, it proves my ideas and plans were right. Possibly brilliant.”
In other words, I am the hero of my own story and God is affirming it.
But Scripture says there is a real fruit, a fruit that endures: it is solely and uniquely a fruit that brings glory to the Father, that makes him the hero. God’s power shown through our weakness. And it’s always been that way:
- God didn’t give Isaac to Abraham and Sarah until it was impossible for them;
- God didn’t make Moses a leader until he was too old to lead;
- God picked cowardly Gideon and then reduced his army from 32,000 to 300.
And the reason God cut Gideon’s army down so dramatically was because he knows the human heart, that Israel “would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me’” (Judg. 7:2). The human heart always wants to be the famous hero. We never want to bow to another.
Which is just another way of saying, “I’m the hero in my own story. Worship me.”
It takes a great human heart to be a hero. It takes a greater human heart (tempered with spiritually humble honesty) to admit, “I need Somebody far greater than me.”
Sam
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The world needs morality–oppression thrives when consciences are abandoned–but we need more than morality alone. We need the gospel of grace. A gospel that has been lost amidst the self-worship of our modern culture.
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Bullied By A Boss
I applaud you, Sam, for identifying this misdirection so clearly. The gospel and Christianity aren’t The Story of Us. It is ALL about Christ Jesus.
Hi Stephen,
Yeah, why do we always want to make it about us? Alas, we are hopeless creatures.
Sam
It’s reassuring to remember that God often waits until things look impossible before he acts powerfully . . . because a good outcome seems impossible so much of the time.
When things do look impossible, I tend to trust in myself instead of the Lord.
Even though the psalmist says, “Unless the Lord builds the house.” The builder is perfectly comfortable doing it alone, but God says even there we should lean onto Him.
But we don’t … so God arranges impossible situations to bring his impossible help.
THANKS!
Excellent! Our culture teaches and celebrates self-heroism. It doesn’t do people any favors. The strong become arrogant; the weak disillusioned.
Thanks Sam!
YES! I love your line:
The world loves to give answers that appear good but really are bad. The answers of the world are like the idols the psalmist describes in Ps. 115 (and 135): they have eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.
Sam
Thank-you for summing this up so succinctly and beautifully.
This is a trap for all of us, isn’t it? Liberal churches flat-out flaunt it (“You are your own little god!”) While conservative churches hide it behind more subtle messages, like this writer did.
But it comes back to the question, “Who gets the glory?” doesn’t it?
The sad thing is when we see pastors and Christian leaders trying to steal the glory. We suffered at the hands of a church leader who pushed down every gifted or talented person in the congregation, squashed them psychologically, in order to elevate himself. It was truly a cautionary tale for us.
When we recognize that it is the Fruit of the Spirit that we are bearing, and not the Fruit of Me, then we can really start pursuing God’s glory, and we will bear fruit that might not end up in the spotlight, but that will really produce something lasting for the Kingdom, and THAT’S glorious!
Hello Havs,
I think YOU summed up my summary best with your question: Who gets the glory?
We are all glory-hungry, grasping for it, seizing it, and sometimes trampling people for it. But each of us wants glory our own way. Some get it from approval (so we never correct anyone, and others suffer), some get it in fame (and steal credit from others or trample on others), some get it from being good parents (and instead of serving our kids we use them to point out what good parents we are).
Paul said, “Do nothing … from empty glory.” God’s answer is to give us a glory that comes from Him: His love, care, affection, paying our penalty, etc. It’s only our pride that says that isn’t enough.
I am sorry for your suffering under a self-centered pastor. But I’m glad you could recognize it and escape.
Sam
Hi Sam –
Great article! Your illustrations by the testimonies of those who have “missed the boat” and gotten caught “dog paddling” in self aggrandizement make a good point.
We, as humans, constantly seek affirmation. In my book, “Like Eating Jelly with Chopsticks” I tell the story of folks seeking affirmation of their own self image, by dining at a restaurant where they know the “Famous Waiter”, Edsel Ford Fong, will not hesitate to insult them. Fong would, thus confirm their own “apparently worthless self-image”.
We often miss that the other side of the “self-aggrandizement coin” is self-condemnation. They are both deadly to our souls and keep us from finding our true freedom in allowing our lives to magnify and glorify Christ.
As you know, Sam, the enemy will try to distract us from the truth of God’s love, and the sharing of God’s love, directing us to focus on ourselves. Jesus tells us, not to “Love others, as we love ourselves”, because so many do not “love themselves”. Rather in John 15:12 Jesus says,”This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.” That command takes my ego and pride completely out of the picture.
We cannot afford to be distracted by the enemy any longer. Our time is short….Amen?
Maybe our self-aggrandizement is simply our slick solutions that just don’t need God.
We become our own gods.