THE ALMOST INEVITABLE RUIN OF EVERY MINISTER . . . AND HOW TO AVOID IT

Today's article extract is a bit longer, mainly because I found the whole thing so challenging. It is Pastor's day at Resolve07 and I think we would all do welll to heed this from Don Whitney on 1 Timothy 4: 15-16 entitled 'THE ALMOST INEVITABLE RUIN OF EVERY MINISTER . . . AND HOW TO AVOID IT'

'Despite the fact that no one goes into the ministry to be a casualty, the ruin of almost every minister, it seems, is inevitable. For in addition to the high percentage of those who leave the ministry, sometimes it appears that of those who do stay in the ministry, many of them have been ruined in other ways. They may get ruined by money, either by the desire for it or the lack of it. They make far too many choices based upon getting more money, or else they smolder in their attitude toward the church because they don't get paid enough.

They may get ruined by sex. I have a Southern Baptist publication in my files which says that "25 to 35 percent of ministers [are] involved in inappropriate sexual behavior"1 at some level. Even when it seems to be unknown to others, their preoccupation with sex or pornography so absorbs their attention that the true spiritual impact of their ministries is ruined.

They may get ruined by power. They become authoritarian. They may not have even started out that way; perhaps they got that way because they were so faithful in one place of ministry for so long and the sin came upon them gradually. Or maybe they discovered that they enjoyed denominational work, but after awhile they began serving their own political appetites more than Christ. To pull strings was more satisfying than to preach sermons. To get in the inner circle of the right people, to be able to place others in and keep others out of influential positions, to be among the first to get the inside information, became "the ministry" to them.

They may get ruined by pride. The greater the influence God gives them, the greater they become in their own sight, and the more they believe they deserve the influence. But pride may be the sin that both God and men hate most. Regardless of their knowledge or abilities, they aren't loved or admired. They may get the admiration of the ignorant, or the undiscerning, or those who want to piggy-back on the power of such men, but they will not get it from the Godly.

They may get ruined by cynicism. When they spend a great deal of time around ministers like these—ministers who have been ruined to some degree by money, sex, power, or pride—no wonder many get cynical. In addition, when you deal week in and week out with people who claim to be Christians but often don't act like it, when those who are supposed to be God's people talk about you and treat you worse than those in the world do, when you've ministered for years and you see little apparent fruit in the lives of those you've given your life for, it's easy to become cynical. No one's testimony thrills you anymore. No book motivates you. No sermon moves you.

They may get ruined by success. They become CEOs, not shepherds. They become managers, not ministers. Their model is business, with its emphasis on numbers, units, products, marketing, and customers, rather than a family with its emphasis on love, relationships, new births, and maturity, or a farm with its emphasis on sheep, fruit, and growing things.

And that's just what will happen—the ministry will turn your attention from Jesus—unless you "Pay close attention to yourself."

But that sounds rather self-centered and narcissistic doesn't it? No, for when the Apostle Paul was inspired by God to write to the younger ministry Timothy and say, "Pay close attention to yourself," he was saying "Pay close attention to yourself" as a man of God, pay close attention to your relationship with Christ Jesus. In other words, make sure you stay close to Him, keep your eyes on Him, grow closer to Him, and grow more like Him. Watch to make sure you do not let anything—including the ministry—keep you from Jesus.

You might be thinking, "How could this happen? My whole life is built around Jesus. Not only am I living for Him in general, but I have given myself to study His Word and minister to His people and do the work of building up His kingdom every day. How could the ministry of Jesus keep me from Jesus?" Remember, that this command, "Pay close attention to yourself" was first written to a minister. And we refer to 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus as the Pastoral Epistles because they are God-given instructions to those in the ministry, and then applicable to every other Christian. So the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy, his younger protégé in the ministry to pay close attention to himself precisely because it is so easy for a minister not to pay close attention to himself and to be spiritually ruined by the ministry.'

Read the complete article (and I sincerely urge you to do so) at:
http://www.biblicalspirituality.org/pruin.html