{"id":23401,"date":"2022-03-17T11:24:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T16:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=23401"},"modified":"2022-03-17T11:25:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T16:25:00","slug":"the-poor-me-pastor-with-the-inferiority-complex-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/the-poor-me-pastor-with-the-inferiority-complex-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The “poor me” pastor with the inferiority complex"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy is everybody always picking on me?\u201d\u00a0 \u20131950s song by The Coasters<\/strong><\/p>\n

The biggest egotist in the room may be the wallflower who sits alone, absorbed in killer thoughts about his isolation.\u00a0 \u201cWhy does no one talk to me?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re all snobs.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhy did I bother coming to this thing anyway?\u201d I, I, I, me, me, my, my.<\/p>\n

Over the years I\u2019ve met quite a few pastors who were being victimized and brutalized by their own low self-esteem and their inferiority complex.\u00a0 It\u2019s tempting to say here that \u201cit\u2019s not a complex if you\u2019re really inferior,\u201d but that would be cruel.\u00a0 This person afflicts enough mental cruelty upon himself\/herself without outside aid.<\/p>\n

The poor-me pastor is usually in one of three situations\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2013In a dead-end assignment, pastoring a church with no prospects for a future in this world, at least.\u00a0 He feels abandoned by the Lord and neglected by friends of influence who could give his name to other churches.<\/p>\n

\u2013Without a church.\u00a0 He has been ousted by several churches in a row and now is considered radioactive.\u00a0 No search committee wants to touch him.\u00a0 As a result, he feels angry at God, bears a grudge toward his so-called friends, and is jealous of pastors who are succeeding and being acclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u2013Serving a church where the leaders and congregation refuse to respond to his leadership for one reason or the other.\u00a0 I suspect that he is too negative and takes out his negativity on those around him.<\/p>\n

This servant of the Lord is wrapped up in himself.\u00a0 \u201cI deserve better,\u201d is a constant refrain.\u00a0 \u201cThe other preachers have turned against me.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe denomination is not doing right by me.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cFor this I got a seminary education?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhy did I go to all the trouble and expense of getting my doctorate?\u201d Why me? Why not me?\u00a0 Pity me.\u00a0 Poor me.<\/p>\n

Pray for his spouse.\u00a0 God bless her.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My counsel to such a poor-me pastor is short and to the point:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You need to be born again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve been saved, I\u2019m not making any judgment about that.\u00a0 You and God alone know.\u00a0 But there needs to be such a radical transformation in you that it may be likened to the initial conversion.<\/p>\n

The Lord saw something similar in Peter.\u00a0 This favored apostle would be coming in for a time of testing from the enemy, said Jesus, and as a result, \u201cI have prayed for you.\u201d\u00a0 Then, He said, \u201cAnd when you are converted, strengthen your brethren\u201d (Luke 22). That word, epistrepho<\/em>\u00a0in the Greek, means \u201cto turn back.\u201d\u00a0 Literally, Jesus was saying to Peter than \u201cwhen this is all over and you have come full circle, help your colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a few preachers over the years have delivered sermons about the change in the Apostle Peter and titled it something like \u201cFrom chicken-hearted to lion-hearted.\u201d\u00a0 He truly was converted by the death of Jesus, which broke him, and the resurrection of our Lord, which put him back together again.<\/p>\n

The pity-me poor-me servant of the Lord, whether a pastor or worker of any kind, needs a radical transformation by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Such a transformation would achieve several things\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013It would take his eyes off himself and put them on the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

\u2013It would cause him to appreciate the grace and mercy of Christ and never again to think in terms of \u201cwhat I deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013His mantra from then on would be that of John the Baptist who said, \u201cHe must increase; I must decrease.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013It would give him a love for his brothers and sisters, both in the congregations and\u00a0 in the ministry.<\/p>\n

\u2013This pastor would forever be willing\u2013and honored even\u2013to serve Christ at the most remote, out-of-the-way, dead-end situation and feel thankful for the privilege.<\/p>\n

\u2013Finally, he would be able to \u201cstrengthen his brethren\u201d (Luke 22:32).<\/p>\n

\u2013From this point on, he will be able to grow and give and serve and worship.<\/p>\n

One pastor told me of his transformation.\u00a0 His earlier problem had not been poor-me but big-me, which is its twin.\u00a0 Ministry was all about himself, his ego.\u00a0 He had to baptize the most, run the highest attendance, get the greatest acclaim.\u00a0 He used staff and manipulated the congregation.\u00a0 He ran up huge numbers.<\/p>\n

And then something happened to bring him to his knees.<\/p>\n

His wife divorced him.<\/p>\n

And the church cut him loose.\u00a0 Suddenly, the egotist found himself with no platform on which to display his talents, no congregation as his personal canvas on which to paint his image.<\/p>\n

I saw him a few years later.\u00a0 He told me the story.\u00a0 He and a friend had begun a ministry from scratch and he was preaching some.\u00a0 I said to him, \u201cMy guess is you are doing your best work for the Lord you\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cIt\u2019s the only work I\u2019ve ever done for the Lord.\u00a0 All the earlier stuff was about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one would want the egocentric pastor to be humbled in such a way.\u00a0 Scripture has a better way.\u00a0 \u201cHumble yourself,\u201d we are commanded again and again.<\/p>\n

The Lord will exalt the believer who humbles himself\/herself under His mighty hand.\u00a0 That\u2019s the promise of I Peter 5:6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy is everybody always picking on me?\u201d\u00a0 \u20131950s song by The Coasters The biggest egotist in the room may be the wallflower who sits alone, absorbed in killer thoughts about his isolation.\u00a0 \u201cWhy does no one talk to me?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23401"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23404,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23401\/revisions\/23404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}