Flattery Can Kill – The Gospel Coalition Blog

The Gospel Coalition website posted my article entitled, “Flattery Can Kill”. In this piece I share the story of my being wooed by the flattery of a church member and how it ultimately hurt the ministry:

Flattery is a hidden trap for pastors, especially young men new to leadership. Pressured to grow and besieged by our own insecurities, we allow flattery to shape the way we do ministry.For one thing, flattery can feed a natural, human desire to compete with the other ministries in town. We do this in subtle ways. A few folks throwing around some hyperbolic words and suddenly we begin to think that perhaps we are preaching more biblically or with more relevance than the other evangelical congregations in town. We forget that our body of believers is but one expression of Christs body in our community.For a while we can build a loyal following based on our style and seemingly unique approach to the Scriptures. But soon the same flattery that drives people to us begins to push them away.

You can read the whole thing here: Flattery Can Kill – The Gospel Coalition Blog.