No minister wants to be perceived as self-centeredly ambitious. Yet what church would want a complacent pastor with no discernible ambition? We wrestle with ambition: How much is necessary? Will we ever quit worrying about having as many in worship as the church across the street?
Good, holy ambition drives the mills of excellent ministry, helps us accomplish tasks the un-ambitious might deem impossible, transforms churches, and maximizes gifts. Raw ambition, on the other hand—the desire to claw our way to the top—pours sand in the ministry gears and forces the machinery to produce an unholy product: human pride.
Problem Circumstances
Predictable occasions awaken questions of ambition and force the issue:
- Decisions. Should our gifts be used in as large an arena as possible? Or is that just raw ambition wanting to make a bigger splash? Any decision to launch something significant in ministry carries with it questions of personal ambition.
- Comparisons. The call of a seminary CLASSmate to a prestigious ministry triggers self-questioning for many of us: Why him and not me? Have I done as well? Or we may compare our status and salary with other professionals, such as physicians.
- Expectations. We struggle with expectations placed on us by ourselves, our parents, our parishioners. Has ministry become a frightening sprint toward acceptability through accomplishment?
An Ambition Check
Our ambition may surprise us. Uninhibited, naked ambition seems ready at any moment to bare itself to our shame. It does so in a number of ways:
- Jealousy and competition. If “burying the competition” (the other churches in town) becomes our quest, ambition has streaked our souls.
- Discontent and fruitlessness. Satisfaction cannot be found in direct pursuit; ambitious striving often produces the opposite effect from the one desired.
- Self-promotion and divine displacement. Ambition is out of bounds when we become brighter lights than God.
Holy ambition, on the other hand, is Joshua conquering the land, Nehemiah restoring his people, Paul going on to Derbe after being stoned in Lystra. It appears as a desire to do all for Christ, to elevate him, to deny self and enjoy the freedom and fulfillment of doing God’s will. Holy ambition is willing even to fail if it will further God’s purposes.
Taming Our Ambition
So how do we tame the ravenous beast of selfish ambition and yet feed the workhorse of holy ambition?
- Reflectively. We must allow ourselves time to think in God’s presence about how we are investing our life. Stepping back often gives us a fuller picture.
- Devotionally. Prayer and Scripture reading remain powerful correctives for vaulting ambition. Stepping into the pulpit, the Welsh evangelist Peter Joshua would pray, “Lord, I want them to think well of me, but more than that, I want them to think well of you.”
- Strategically. Our strategies are discipline and accountability. The disciplines of taking a Sabbath for rest helps us keep from feeling too important to take time off, and practicing servanthood can keep us humble. But probably the best strategy is to become openly accountable to friends willing to help us deal with hard issues.
- Gracefully. All this soul searching can get heavy, so we need to be as merciful with ourselves as we would be with another. Being tempted and even struggling with ambition are givens; what we do in that battle of mixed motives is up to us and God.
James D. Berkley; Leadership Handbooks of Practical Theology, Volume 3, Leadership and Administration; Ambition and Contentment; pp 23-24.
