“Slay the Beast of Ambition before It Slays You”
J. R. Briggs
As a type-A oldest child and driven leader, I find that my RPMs are in the red zone much of the time. Sometimes this can be beneficial, but when left unchecked it can be incredibly detrimental to my soul—and also the souls of those I am called to lead.
I’ve had to repeat this phrase to myself and many other ministry leaders I’ve connected with. Ambition isn’t inherently a bad thing. Drive and motivation can be helpful. Paul was quite an ambitious leader. Paul was careful to qualify his instruction to the Philippian church by telling them to do nothing out of selfish ambition (see Philippians 2:3).
Ambitious leaders attract other ambitious leaders. Sadly, my identity as a male in a North American context is determined way too easily by what I do and how well I do it. This runs counter to my gospel identity that tells me that, because of God’s immense grace, I am not defined by what I do or how well I do it; I am defined by who I am and, most importantly, to whom I belong. Dallas Willard once said, “It turns out that what you really think about Jesus is revealed by what you do after you find out that you don’t have to do anything.” Read that last sentence again slowly. It gets to the heart of motivation and ambition.
So, how do we slay the beast? It starts in the form of a question: “What’s my motive?” Without proactive, careful, direct, and frequent attention, ambition can add fuel to a dangerous fire. “What’s driving me? Why? What’s behind all of this ambition?” If I can get to the root of my motivations, I can, by God’s grace, eliminate the detrimental effects of cancerous selfish ambition. This oftentimes-painful process leads to a much-needed realignment.
In my own life, the most ridiculously practical discipline that helps slay the beast is to practice Sabbath religiously. Many pastors tell me they just can’t bring themselves to do it. I’m too busy. I have too much going on. People will think I am lazy. I wouldn’t be able to think straight if I were just sitting around doing nothing for an entire day. I fear that the lack of progress and attention to my church will lead to its demise.
All of these answers reveal to me even more how much they need to practice Sabbath. I’ve practiced Sabbath since the beginning of my pastoral calling, and admittedly, it hasn’t been easy. Embarrassingly, it’s oftentimes the most difficult day of my week to trust God. Deep down, some weeks I actually believe that our church will fall apart or that people truly need me today—or worse, that God needs me to keep the church together.
We often forget that Sabbath participation is one of the Ten Commandments. At times when I’m asked to speak on the topic, I title my talk “Nice Commandments and One Suggestion.” Speaking of the “ten big ones,” our friend A. J. Swoboda said, “If I have an affair, as a pastor I lose my job. But when I don’t Sabbath, I get a raise.” Our values are screwed up, and our theology is revealed in our schedules.
It requires a lot of work to rest. There was a distinct moment on a restless Sabbath Monday that revealed my deep-seated self-reliance. I had justified to myself that I needed to check my voicemail messages and respond to emails. The Spirit whispered to me, “You think the church will fall apart? I made the entire universe and called you to this church. You may be the pastor of the church, but I am the head of the church. Trust me by resting.” We much embed shalom into our schedules. Rest. Sleep. Trust.
Ruthlessly eliminating comparison from my life helps slay the beast, too. Not only does comparison rob me of joy, drain me of gratitude, and fuel my insecurities, it tells me to push the gas pedal to do more, lead more, serve more, and accomplish more.
Asking regularly what my motivation is, religiously practicing Sabbath, and ruthlessly eliminating comparison out of my life help to address my racehorse tendencies and slay the ambition beast.
God longs to put to death our ministry ambitions in order to resurrect intimacy with him.
Slay the beast before it slays you.
“It’s Kingdom, Not Competition”
Bob Hyatt
When we first decided to plant a church in 2003, I did what many aspiring church planters do: I called and emailed as many other pastors and church planters as I could in an effort to sit down with them, introduce myself, and learn from them. I expected a warm welcome to the club, words of encouragement, prayers, and heartfelt offers of help. I received some encouragement, but the majority of what I got was suspicion and discouragement. I was shocked. It was disheartening to be seen as a competitor when my desire was to link arms in partnership. I learned that not everyone sees a new church as a sign that God is at work.
A few years after we planted, I began to receive those same calls and emails from other church planters. I then understood what those pastors I had contacted felt. I knew I needed to begin guarding my heart. I knew what it was like to be seen as the competition. Now on the other side, I never wanted to feel that way toward other pastors, even though that was the inclination of my own heart.
I began to repeat to myself, “It’s kingdom, not competition.” When I heard of a new church, I said it to myself and prayed for them. When I read an article about an innovative ministry initiative that was met with great results, I repeated the mantra to myself; I would pause and thank God for what he was doing in that local church. I repeated it to our church on those occasions when we prayed for other communities together. And hardest of all, I continue to say it to myself when people leave our church to attend another one.
Praying for other church communities, celebrating their successes, and doing everything we can to partner with, support, and cheer on what they are doing in our city has formed in our leadership and in our community a beautiful, unifying kingdom spirit.
Sadly, I know of one church that kept a list of “competitors.” All the churches in the surrounding area and what they were doing were on the list, regularly updated so the leadership would know what the “competition” was up to. I can honestly say I have yet to come across a more dysfunctional church, and I believe their “competitors list” and the heart behind it were a big part of what was behind the dysfunction.
Tell your church often about what God is doing elsewhere. Help them to cheer on what is happening in and being done by other communities. Pray for other communities, and welcome them into your neighborhood or city with open arms and hearts. Continually tell yourself and everyone in your church, “It’s kingdom, not competition.”
“Whatever Is Happening Now Will Not Keep Happening Forever”
Bob Hyatt
One of the main tricks in life, I believe, is not to extrapolate current conditions and circumstances off into the future. However, that’s exactly the tendency we have as humans, and especially, I’ve discovered, as ministry leaders. We look at things now and think they will always be that way.
We long to see landmarks in the road, mileposts that tell us either we have now reached the pinnacle, the place we always dreamed of being (even if that place is only “stability”), or conversely, that the bottom has fallen out and now is the time to bail. But the mileposts are merely markers on the journey, telling us where we are now, promising nothing of the journey ahead.
And so, when things are good, we see nothing but success and good times stretching out in front of us. In the depths of despair, during the most challenging times of life and ministry, we feel as though the darkness has become the new normal. The reality is much more complex: there are always better times ahead, and worse ones as well.
During those dark times, when ministry becomes more of a weight than a joy, I tell myself, “Whatever is happening now will not keep happening forever.” Those words have kept me through relational breaks in our staff that seemed unfixable, through budget woes when we didn’t think we were going to meet payroll, through even a time when our community lost a third of its members because we had let a beloved pastor go. In this way I have found hope.
In the same way, during the successful times when we were growing, budget was bigger than ever and new people were engaging with the church seemingly every week, I continued to tell myself, “What is happening now will not keep happening forever.” In this way I have found a measure of humility.
There’s another way to read this mantra as well, one that encourages us not to miss what is happening right now as we overly focus on where we’d like to be or what we’d like to see happen.
The challenge of ministry, like the challenge of life in general, is to be present to what’s happening now. Too many single people miss the joys of singleness by longing to be married. Too many young married couples miss the joys of the early years without children because they long to be parents. Too many parents of young children miss the joys of the infant years, longing for the days when their children are more independent, less dependent on them for everything. And on it goes.
In the same way we in ministry can miss the joys of a small, close community by looking at larger communities and wishing we had their resources and influence. We can miss the inherent learning and even joy of being shoulder to shoulder in community with others through challenging times because the difficulties and pain we are experiencing mask the ways in which we are being brought together, the ways in which we are being formed, and the invaluable things we are learning.
In life, and in ministry, remember: how it is now is not how it will always be. Learn to appreciate how things are now, but also take comfort in the fact that if things are difficult, there are better days ahead. Stay humble because no success is forever. Stay hopeful because, in Christ, no failure is permanent.
Taken from Ministry Mantras by J.R. Briggs and Bob Hyatt. Copyright (c) 2016 by James R. Briggs and Robert W. Hyatt. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com
J. R. Briggs is the founder of Kairos Partnerships and pastor of The Renew Community, in the greater Philadelphia area. Find him on Twitter at @jr_briggs.
Bob Hyatt is pastor of The Evergreen Community in Portland, Oregon.
