Pastors must lead their people to live on mission, focused on God, not themselves.
Mission is the opposite of self. That sounds simple and obvious, yet the sad truth is that we revert to non-mission—or self-centered mission—very simply and very obviously.
The ease with which we slide into self-centered mission means requires us to pay constant attention to be sure our ministries are focused on God’s glory and mission. We must be diligent about centering mission around God—and ruthless about pushing ourselves out of the center and into orbit around him.
Ascribing our self-centered mission to God is deceptively easy because we are never not worshiping. Idolatry comes very easy to us. Exodus 32 records how quickly the Israelites asked for an idol after Moses’ departure. John Calvin cautioned: “The human heart is a factory of idols. … Every one of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” We are constantly creating things to worship instead of God.
Idolatry emerges at the intersection of sinful hearts and non-stop worship, Even we pastors struggle with it. The Exodus 32 passage pointedly reveals how quickly Aaron attached the worship of the golden calf to a festival for the Lord. We also are good at idolatry that looks like mission.
This devastating truth means idols can be anything. They aren’t just connected to immorality or addictions or other “obvious” infidelities, but can be anything pastors may hold dear. Prestige, professionalism, the desire to be treated specially or separately—all these things can be idols.
One way Satan devastates the missional effectiveness of pastors and leaders is luring them into idolatry that looks like mission. That means we must identify the idols that tempt us, resist their pull on …
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