Just because you struggle with bad motives doesn’t mean you’ll succumb to them. But if you recognize them for what they are, you can identify them, confess them and kill them before they ruin a good thing.
First let’s tackle those of us who talk about church growth (a lot), like me and those of us who are part of growing churches.
Here are some wrong motives for church growth we have to continually check ourselves against.
Check on Church Growth For People Who Love Growing Churches
So what do people who lead growing churches need to check? Let’s start with pride.
1. Pride
So…is pride driving your desire to see your church grow? That can be tough to answer accurately.
Pride is like greed; it rarely shows itself in the mirror.
How would you know if pride is driving your desire to grow? Just watch what happens when you grow or don’t grow. As Tim Keller says, if growth has become an idol to you, success will go to your head and failure will go to your heart.
Proud leaders do great as long as everything is moving up and to the right, but if things turn, they almost can’t stand the outcome because it crushes them.
A humble leader can lead in time of failure, stagnation and success.
Humility separates what you do from who you are. Pride never does.
2. Competition
Some leaders want their church to grow because they need to be the best—to be the brightest, fastest or on top.
There’s a world of difference between wanting to do your best and wanting to be the best.
Competition is an inferior motive for growth not just because it’s linked to pride, but because it diminishes the contribution of all others as ‘inferior.’ Leaders who always want to be first usually take delight in the fact that others are second.
And that stinks. Especially for a Christian.
