In our previous blog, we began looking at some of Satan’s favorite lies to young ministers – favorite because they’re effective.

Again with the input of Millennial ministers we coach, we offer seven more lies.

 

1. If people knew me, they wouldn’t accept me.

 

“I’m irreparably damaged and the call of God isn’t on my life. Along with that come thoughts that I need to be someone I’m not, to cover up who I am; letting anyone know any of this would mean the end of life.”

Pastor Jimmy Dodd calls it the “front stage” and “back stage”: the public life and ministry persona we put on and the person we really are; the play we present to the public and the “make-up free” reality we hide behind the velvety stage curtains of ministry.

At some point somewhere, someone is going walk behind the curtain and know me for who I am. This knowledge grips us with fear. But, rather than let God clean up the back stage production of our lives, we polish the front stage presentation. Problem solved, we think.

Still the fear of exposure lingers: Who, when, and where someone will walk behind the curtain and sees the real us, we don’t know.

But we can know these two life-giving truths:

First, those who love us accept us, and they will always accept us as long as we are up front about our back stage. It’s not the flaws that bother other loving, but equally flawed people; it’s the fakery. The wise thing to do then is to pursue disclosure rather than let exposure pursue you: find and walk with wise mentors who will love and accept you as you are so that you can love and accept yourself. Open your back stage to them and let them help you transform into a place of which you are no longer ashamed, a place evidencing the grace of God.

Second, God knows you as you are. And knowing you as you are, He loves you, and yes, He accepts you. Period. I can hear you, and yes, there are parts of your life and mine that He does not accept, but we need to understand that even in these places we can know God’s acceptance: as we willingly yield them to Him, He works to transform them, His acceptance of us neither rising nor falling, but always the same because His love for us is always the same.

And if we are the loved and accepted of God, can we not then accept ourselves?

 

2. I can do life in ministry alone.

 

“I’m the exception to the rule: I don’t need mentors, peers, coaches, pastors in my life.”

Timothy may have needed Paul who needed Barnabas who needed Peter who needed John Mark who needed Barnabas who needed Paul who needed Timothy, but I am the exception to the rule – I can do life and ministry alone.

Jesus may have done life and ministry with twelve men who continued to do life and ministry with each other after Jesus ascended, but I am the exception to the rule – I can do life and ministry alone.

The history of the church may be littered with the carnage and massacre of who knows how many “great pastors” who died on the altar of self-sufficiency and idolatrous isolation, but I am the exception to the rule – I can do life and ministry alone.

I know what the stats say . . .

45.5% of pastors had to take a break from ministry due to depression;

33% felt totally burned out within the first five years of ministry;

after 3 years in ministry, only 50% of ministers still feel called: only 5 in 10 will last 5 years.

But I am the exception: I don’t need to walk with another minister.

I don’t need anyone to encourage or exhort me, challenge or comfort me, call me on my sin or hear my confession of sin, confront my anger or my apathy, point out the idols in my life, help me see things in new ways, ask me the tough questions, give me the hard answers, focus me on Jesus and help me grow in Christ, love on me, counsel me, weep with me, care for me or pray for me.

I can do life in ministry alone.

 

3. A successful ministry means a successful minister.

 

“The goal is success. If I can build a successful ministry that makes me a successful minister.”      

“If I pastor a big church, bring a people group to Jesus, have my worship songs sung by thousands, publish my book or ministry program, grow a large youth ministry, establish a multi-campus church, direct a well-known ministry, then I will be a successful minister.”

Successful from whose point of view? Yours? The church? Society? Or God?

Authentically Christian ministry is the flow of the Gospel from God through you to others. It takes place in the power of the Spirit through a disciple of Christ who has been created and called by God to do that ministry by growing in the character of Christ, operating in the gifting of God, and growing in the fruit of the Spirit.

Notice how much the focus of ministry is on God. Notice how little it focuses on the minister.

The object of ministry is not the minister’s “success.” The object is God’s glory, the growth of disciples, and the salvation of those separated from God.

History, and yes, even history since the beginning of the “Millennials Age,” is littered with “successful ministers” who have walked away from or been thrown out of “successful ministries.”

One ministry “running” over 20,000 every weekend virtually disappeared only months after its “highly successful” pastor was removed for character issues. Other ministers and ministries may not be as large or as well-known, but the story is the same: man attracts numbers of followers, church world acclaims man a superstar to be emulated, man’s character revealed, followers disillusioned, church world shocked, minister wipes out, ministry struggles to survive, next new star revealed, church world acclaims him the next savior, etc, etc.

No a successful ministry does not mean a successful minister. Not as God counts success.

“If we define all that we are before our great Caller and live our lives before one audience – the Audience of One – then we cannot define or decide our own achievements and our own success. It is not for us to spell out what we have accomplished. It is not for us to pronounce ourselves successful. It is not for us to spell out what our legacy has been. Indeed it is not even for us to know. Only the Caller can say. Only the Last Day will tell. Only the final ‘Well Done’ will show us what we    have really done.” Os Guinness

 

4. There are ministry and causes greater than the Gospel.

 

One minister is determined to plant churches. A second is passionate about serving the poor. A second wants to fill the earth with songs of worship. Others are committed to fighting human trafficking, mentoring single-parent children, holding summer camps for youth, directing marriage seminars. Or, like me, they are on fire about pastoring young ministers.

Each of these causes is important and needs to be carried out with urgency and excellence.

But, even so, each and every one of these causes is not an end in itself. Each one of these only has real and lasting value as it serves the cause of Christ: delivering and growing the Gospel of Jesus to the people who attend the churches we plant, the poor we serve, those we lead in worship, those we liberate from human trafficking, the children we mentor, the youth we walk with, and the couples whose marriages we seek help. And yes, the pastors we pastor.

Each of these need the Gospel of Jesus Christ. More than the immediate cause that burns in our hearts is the eternal cause that burns in the heart of God: their souls and where they will live forever: separated from God or with God. Forever.

If we are 100% “successes” in everything from planting churches to pastoring pastors, but neglect growing the Gospel in people’s souls, and neglect where people will spend eternity, we are failures: we fail them and we fail God.

The Gospel of Jesus. It is our highest calling. It is why Jesus came to earth the first time. It is why Jesus has not yet come the second time. It is what causes heaven to rejoice. It is why God called you and me into the ministry in the first place. And in the last place.

Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile said it this way in the book, “The Unadjusted Gospel”:

“We are proclaimers of this gospel. We are appliers of this gospel. We are representatives of this gospel. We are stewards of this gospel. And the one thing we must do – and never depart from – is this gospel, its proclamation and preaching. . . .We must be ruthless about our pastoral purpose and the mission of the church in the Word of God itself, in the Gospel itself.”

 

5. My ministry gifts can more than make up for my character deficiencies or immaturity.

 

After moving to a foreign country as a missionary, I remember a more experienced colleague telling me, “New missionaries often come through like flaming rockets: they make a big explosion of sight and sound as they hit the scene. People run to see the excitement, but most of these missionaries don’t last. Eventually, they crash and burn because they were only sight and sound – no substance. After the initial lift off and “rockets bursting in air,” they couldn’t handle the re-entry, the coming back down to earth where we have to walk ministry every day. Either sin or simple immaturity eventually overcomes their gifts and they drown.”

Minister down, ministry drowned.

Engrave it in stone (because God already has): as a young minister, your ministry gifts exceed your maturity. Nothing new or unusual there, it’s a universal. But as you submit yourself to the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and a healthy inner circle of mentors, eventually, your maturity catches up with and even overtake your gifts.

When it does, that is when other ministers will to come to you, asking you to walk with them. They may or may not see your ministry gifts, but they definitely see the richness of your life in Christ, and they want it for themselves.

Yes, young minister, you are gifted. So what? God gifts each of us as He will – your gifts aren’t even to your credit, but to God’s credit. But what can be to your credit, and God’s glory, is your growing Godly character as people see Christ formed in you so richly that they come to draw wisdom, strength, and life from you. They come to be enriched by Jesus through you.

 

6. I have to be an expert in ministry.  

 

“Because I’m the leader, I have to be the best in this group at everything related to ministry, I have to be the expert.”

We graduate Bible College and Seminary with our degrees written in worthwhile courses like Homiletics, Philosophy, Biblical Languages, Systematic Theology, Biblical Theology, Pastoral Theology, etc. We accept our first position in ministry as a 20-something year old minister, imagining we are supposed to know everything about ministry: we have to be the best missionary, pastor, teacher, counselor, leader, administrator, etc in the world. Or at least in our church.

But then minister meets the world and finds out it isn’t so. At first, we find fault with our diploma, but then we come to realize the problem is not with our diploma. If we are wise, we come to realize there is no problem at all: we recognize that not being the best is a good, and even liberating thing.

I remember the day a man in a church I pastored, delivered the Sunday sermon as I sat in the pew. It was a tremendous message preached by an exemplary follower of Jesus. As I listened, the thought occurred to me, “He’s a better preacher than I am!” I threw my head back and laughed, rejoicing at the thought: he’s a better preacher than I am and I have the privilege of pastoring him!”

What a joy to be set free from the thought that I have to be better than someone else in ministry. What a joy to realize that as a pastor called and gifted by God, God is pastoring His people through me, caring for them and building them in Christ’s image (Ephesians 4.11-16). It’s a ministry no one else in the church can do – only a God-called and equipped pastor. And when I am faithfully fulfilling that call, God uses me to give His people something they find nowhere else, something deep, rich, and so powerful it strengthens and equips them in Christ (Matthew 9.35-38).

In other words, wherever I measure up on the pastor / missionary / minister “skills set” or “gifts grade,” God has entrusted His ministry to me and He has equipped me to fulfill that ministry.

And this is enough. I don’t have to be “the best.”

 

7.  What’s the point? The work I’m doing isn’t making a difference.

 

“What’s the point? I could have a bigger impact on the world as a politician or a business owner—that’s where the action is. I could give up on ministry and nothing would change.”

We leave Bible College and seminary ready to turn worlds upside down. And then the world doesn’t even notice our ministry. Even worse, the church yawns at our ministry (Someone has rightly said, “a yawn is nothing but a silent shout).

We know Jeremiah 1.5: we are individually created and called by God, designed, formed, set apart and appointed by God to preach the Gospel of Jesus; go make disciples of all nations; and grow the Gospel in everyone we meet. The Bible echoes this truth again and again.

But note that “making a difference” is not in our creation or calling. Our creation is by God and to God. Our call is not so much to make a difference in the world as to please the God of Heaven and Earth.

The Westminster Catechism puts it this way: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Pastor John Piper has beautifully “tweaked” it to make it even more surgical in its most holy soul satisfaction: man’s chief end is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

It is in fulfilling man’s chief end or purpose that I fulfill my chief end and purpose: I please God, and so, fulfill my creation and call.

Whatever apparent difference I make in this world.

From a quantitative point of view, it appeared that Jesus made little difference in the world during His time on earth. But my, how the world has since been shaken off its axis because of His presence.

No, Jesus did not amass large numbers of followers, win a people group, build shiny buildings, forge multi-campus church organizations, become a best-selling author, have His blogs read by thousands, hear His songs sung around the world, bring revival to His own city or nation.

In fact: most of His followers abandoned Him (John 6.66); His own family thought He was crazy (Mark 3.21); eleven of His twelve disciples fled at the moment of truth; one of His twelve disciples denied Him three times in public (Mark 14.71-72); one of His twelve disciples betrayed Him (Matthew 26.56); And when He died, there was no hero’s memorial: He was buried in a borrowed tomb.

But in all things, He pleased His Father. In doing this, what a different He made in Heaven: heavenly is eternally different because Jesus pleased the Father in all things. Game, set, and match.

As to the disciples who had fled, when the dust had settled, a handful of men and women were transformed. And they knew it. They knew who Jesus is and they knew why He had come from heaven to earth. And they knew they had to spread the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth: they gave their lives to turn the world upside down one life at a time. And that they did.

In all things, they pleased the Father. And doing this, what a difference – an eternal difference – they made in Heaven.

 

WHAT TO DO

Yes, Satan is the father of lies and he works overtime to speak lies into the lives ministers, those who carry the Gospel of Jesus to others.  And as we saw in Part I of this piece on Satan’s Most Effective Lies, this is especially true of young ministers.

So what to do?

 

1. Know your Heavenly Father.

 

When you know the Father, you know the truth – the truth about who He is and what He does, the truth about who you are and the purpose of your life.

If 1000 people told me my earthly father doesn’t love me, I wouldn’t believe even one of them. Why not? I know my father. I know his love for me. Case closed.

 

2. Know the Word of your Heavenly Father.

 

In coaching, many of the issues we process are issues because someone is believing a lie of the devil. And we believe that lie because we are not in the Word where the Father is revealed to us.

We only know the Father as we know His Word. Any day you live without opening the Word of God is a day you have lived without looking into the revelation of God. That’s a day without the light of the truth.

Know the Word so that you are ready to speak the light of truth into every dark moment and place where Satan speaks lies to you. There’s no time to search for ammunition when the enemy is firing. Lock and load NOW. Keep locking and loading, “because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I Peter 5.8

 

3. Know the Dwelling Place of Your Heavenly Father

 

Again, in coaching, many of the issues we process are issues because someone is believing a lie of the devil. And we believe that lie because we are not in the Word where the Father is revealed to us, and we are not in prayer where the Father is made real to us.

Look in the book: time and time again, Jesus spent hours in the night praying, rose early to pray, separated Himself from people to spend time with His Heavenly Father.

Knowing the Cross was ahead, He knew He had to live in that place where the Father is, that place where the Father is made real to us: the place of prayer. There, the power of Satan’s lies was crushed under Jesus’ feet and the power of God’s truth was cultivated in Jesus’ soul.

More can be said of this, to be sure, but to overcome the lies, the lying, and the father of lies, begin here: know your Heavenly Father, know the Word of Your Heavenly Father, know the Place where your Heavenly Father dwells.

And here endeth this blogpost.

 

ADDENDUM

But, if you will, an addendum . . .

So why don’t we do it? Why don’t we make the time to know the Word of the Father and the Place where the Father dwells?

It’s a copout, but we say we’re too busy. No time for prayer, but plenty of time for looking at and listening to the very lies that war against our souls.

Lies found in social media. Have you seen the recent studies linking heavy social media use and depression?

 

Lies found in TV and movies. When was the last time you saw a TV program or movie extolling the virtues of living a Christlike life? When was the last time you saw a TV program or movie attacking them? Recently, I noted that a certain TV series seemed popular with a number of my former ministry students. Not knowing the program, I researched it on a popular media app.  Shock is far too mild a word to describe my reaction to what I discovered: blasphemy, profanity and perversion beyond any description – lies about God, men, women, marriage, sexuality, character, etc – lies wrapped up in the ribbons of entertainment that we just can’t wait to open week after week.

 

Lies found in music.  Re-read the above paragraph on TV and movies. . .

 

Evidently, we’re not even trying to fight off the lies: we’re warming our souls around their fires.

And then we wonder why we wrestle with Satan’s lies about

God’s grace, faithfulness and love;

Our husband or wife, our parents, our friends;

The Gospel, the church, true justice, mercy, and forgiveness.

Have you honestly analyzed what you’re stuffing into your soul in the name of entertainment? If you haven’t, maybe it’s time to do so. Is it light or darkness, heaven or hell? Is it truth or lies?

Have you honestly analyzed how much of you, you invest in The Word and in prayer compared to how much of you, you invest in other things, like media? If you haven’t, maybe it’s time to do so.

Let’s be brutally honest, when we have time for all of these other things and little time for Word and prayer, what we’re really saying is, we’d rather know these other things than our Heavenly Father.

And as long as we do, Satan’s lies will continue to be effective in our lives.

It’s time to break the lies. Once and for all.