Ministry Idols
March 6, 2010 | 9:34 pm
You are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol… (Deuteronomy 4:22-23)
In much of Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the Israelites about their impending journey into the Promised Land. He’s reminding them of their deliverance from bondage, of God’s Covenant with them, and of the civil laws they must agree to live by. He won’t go with them, but he wants to set them up for success.
And in the middle of it all, Moses warns them about idols. These people who have seen the undeniable supernatural hand of God would be tempted to make and worship idols. This seems strange to us, but we quickly rationalize that it was a different culture, a long time ago, in a land far, far away.
But let’s not be quick to limit idolatry to little faux-avatars made of gold, wood or clay. We have idols, too; and not just cover girls, leading men, and fast cars. In ministry, our idols are much more subtle than those easily recognizable things.
I think we idolize methods of church growth. I’ve seen other churches and pastors made into idols. We idolize buildings, books, and broadcasts. Programs become idols, too.
It generally isn’t the fault of these things that they get made into idols. A few verses earlier, Moses was warning Israel not to make bird idols, sun and moon idols, men and women idols, even fish idols! Verse 19 says the Lord provided these things.
Big churches and impacting programs aren’t inherently bad, but when I secretly worship them I’ve allowed something else to take God’s place, and that isn’t good.
How do we worship those things? We put our hope of future effective ministry in them. We also give those tools the credit when ministry growth or fruit happens.
When God brings me into a place of promise and fruit, I am to give nobody else the credit. When you read Genesis through Joshua that is one of the great subtexts: These Hebrew people had nothing to do with God choosing them or God delivering them or God giving them the Promised Land. Every time they tried to take things into their own hands, they failed miserably. Their success wasn’t because they were good warriors or because they had the right strategy or because the Sun was on their side. They were wholly dependant on Yahweh for any success, and their part was always and only total obedience.
That’s our part, too. God speaks; we respond. Period. In ministry and in life there are many methods, tools, and strategies that can be good and God-given. I think we’re free to appreciate and use these gifts. But the minute we start giving them credit for what God is doing, we have crossed into idolatry—and God won’t share His glory with anyone, or anything, else!



“…And so Moses finished the Work. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:33-35)
As a pastor I’ve always loved Exodus 18 and Acts 6 because of the wise and practical action that the leaders took to distribute the work of the ministry. I just think it makes good organizational and strategic sense to do this, and I’ve regularly revisited these passages to rethink how I could put those principles into practice.
A couple of weeks ago my wife and kids and I took a vacation to visit family in Oregon. Our California kids kept asking if it would snow for Christmas; we told them the forecast didn’t look good, but they could pray. December 25th
When I was in 4th grade a group of friends and I were talking about our vision; we had just gotten our eyes tested. One member of the group had thick glasses and shared that he had 20/100 vision. That meant what he could see clearly at not more than 20 feet away, the rest of us could see well from 100 feet. Thus the coke-bottle spectacles!
I recently ran across a powerful quote about friendship: “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words” (Donna Roberts). I have friends that fill that role in my life. These are people who know me so well that they keep me accountable to being who I am supposed to be. There is no way to pull off a lack of authenticity or function in any kind of pride or false humility when you are around friends like these because you realize they will call you out…and you know you are better for that. Furthermore they can encourage you when you feel you have lost your way, because they remember where you were heading in the first place.
Groups of people (companies, organizations, churches, etc,) develop traditions that are based on strong values, but the tradition may continue long after the underlying value is forgotten. This can become a problem; when traditions start to conflict with values, then we have trouble my friend (





