5 Subtle Pastoral ‘Treasure Shifts’ to Beware

As I continue to work through Paul Tripp’s highly-diagnostic book, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry, the Spirit sheds light on areas of my heart and life where biblical truth needs to be applied. Chapter Seven is entitled War Zones because it confronts the kingdom battle taking place in the pastor’s heart. In this chapter, Tripp exposes five treasure shifts that commonly take place in the pastor’s heart without him being aware of it. First, Tripp identifies the treasure shift; then he explains what he means and, finally, he applies it to himself. Each of us will profit greatly by following his example.

1. IDENTITY: Moving from identity in Christ to identity in ministry. “In pastoral ministry, it is very tempting to look horizontally for what you already have been given in Christ. It is possible to be a pastor and a functional identity amnesiac….Rather than the hope and courage that come from resting in my identity in Christ, my ministry becomes captured and shaped by the treasure of a series of temporary horizontal affirmations of my value and worth.”
2. MATURITY: Defining spiritual well-being not by the mirror of the Word but by ministry. “It is tempting to allow a shift to take place in the way that I evaluate my maturity as a pastor. Rather than living with a deep neediness for the continued operation of grace in my own heart, I begin, because of experience and success in ministry, to view myself as more mature than I actually am.”
3. REPUTATION: Shifting from a ministry shaped by zeal for the reputation of Christ to a ministry shaped by hunger for the praise of people. “My ministry should be functionally motivated by the glory of Christ, that his fame would be known by more and more people, and that together we would all know practically what it means to submit to his lordship. Instead, my ministry becomes seduced by the treasure of my own reputation.”    Continue at Paul Tautges