Leadership Pride
1 Timothy 3:6 ‘Not a novice,
lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.’
The biggest hindrance to building up ministries in the church is leadership pride. Paul told Timothy not to appoint a new Christian to leadership because of the danger of pride.
It is not only the young and immature who need to be kept from the deadly venom of pride. When anyone in church leadership allows pride to enter into the heart then he or she can become a stumbling block by standing in the way of others, and quenching the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the same people who have been used of the Lord to build up a particular ministry become the ones who destroy it because pride will not allow them to let go.
A domineering person should never be allowed to hold a leadership position, neither in the church nor in a missions organisation. This kind of person will take control of the church or mission by forming a leadership team of three or four people who will back everything he or she does. It is not difficult to find this style of leadership in the church; self appointed leaders backed by hand picked members of the leadership team. Pride will make a leader suspicious that someone else is a threat to his or her leadership position. In contrast to this good leadership will open the way for others to develop and use their ministries and will never stand in the way of what the Holy Spirit is doing.
Pride must be avoided at all times by everyone who holds a position of leadership in the church. Many leaders who have become proud were led into this error through the excessive and unscriptural recognition given to them by ordinary Christians. It is not scriptural to call leaders by titles. When we call leaders by titles such as Apostles or Prophets we are opening the door for pride, and closing the door to those who are not given such important titles. We are to recognize ministry gifts but we are to be careful not to destroy leaders through unscriptural elevation of the ministry gift. It is also obvious that some leaders only have a title and do not have a ministry gift at all. These leaders should never have been given a leadership position and while they remain in leadership those with ministry gifts will be controlled by them. It is of course obvious to any student of the New Testament that calling leaders priests is unscriptural. The New Testament teaches 'the priesthood of all believers' and the misuse of this word by church leaders is a false representation of the gospel.
Steve Dulwich