A Humble Leader
If you ask anyone in leadership if humility is an important characteristic for leaders, they will probably tell you yes. This is true in secular spaces as well as within the church. In ministry spaces, “servant leader” has become something of a buzz phrase. Yet, even with this voiced understanding that pastors and church leaders should lead from a place of humility, we continue to see reports of pastoral moral failure and clergy misconduct. We also continue to see a rise of clergy burnout and the development of secondary traumatic stress amongst pastors. Why is this?
There is a powerful section of scripture in Peter’s first pastoral epistle that invites us to consider the ways in which we may have misunderstood humility. There, Peter presents a renewed vision of how leaders in the church are to live, a vision that has the potential to bring healing to both the places of clergy misconduct and that of clergy burnout. Today, if you are a pastor or church leader, I want to invite you to engage with Peter’s description of humble leadership. It may look differently than you think.
In 1 Peter 5:1-7, Peter addresses both the elders within the church and the laity saying, “So as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you: Give a shepherd’s care to God’s flock among you, exercising oversight not merely as a duty but willingly under God’s direction, not for shameful profit but eagerly. And do not lord it over those entrusted to you, but be examples to the flock. Then when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that never fades away. In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.”
There is much in this beautiful passage that calls those in pastoral ministry to embrace a servant style of leadership, one marked by deep care for others, and a posture of humility. Again, none of this is probably surprising. There is a reason “servant leadership” is such a buzz phrase. Yet, despite us all knowing that we are called to lead in ways that do not lord over others and that we are to shepherd those entrusted to our care, we can often slip into a hidden pride that either leads to mistreatment of others or to our own burnout. What is this insidious form of pride? Peter draws it out at the end of this passage. Pride creeps into the life of those of us in ministry every time we choose the temptation of self-reliance.
Look closely at verses 6 and 7. Here Peter is addressing not only the leaders within the church but also the laity. He is calling them both to humility towards one another and encouraging them to humble themselves under God. He then tells them exactly how to humble themselves under God’s hand: people can do so by casting their cares upon him. 1 Peter 5:7 is often quoted on its own and out of context. In the NIV it reads as a separate sentence, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Yet, when we remove this verse from its context, we miss the entirety of its meaning. Yes, it is true that casting our anxiety upon God and realizing that he cares for us can help reduce our worries and bring us peace (the typical applied interpretation of this verse) but when we read it in its context, we cannot help but notice the connection between the act of casting our cares upon God and humbling ourselves before him.
If we were to continue reading Peter’s letter, we would notice that his very next sentence is a warning about temptation. He writes in verse 8, “Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour.” The truth of pride is that though we may all be able to identify it as a harmful vice, avoiding it is more difficult than we may think. It does not often overtake our lives all at once. Despite the messaging of the media, very rarely do pastors and church leaders set out to build great platforms and build a name for themselves. The temptation to pride comes slowly and in the form of small decisions. It is the temptation to be self-reliant, to appear as though one has everything all together and figured out, to depend on no one but one’s self.
Pride builds within our character every moment we choose to refrain from casting our cares upon God.
Usually this starts relatively innocently. Perhaps we’re simply too busy. We rush from a hospital visit to a pre-marital counseling appointment and into a board meeting, barely stopping to eat dinner let alone present these cares to God. Pretty soon, we get pretty good at balancing the cares of ministry. People are impressed with our ability to handle so much, they thank us for our listening ear and wise advice. Over time, what began as simply forgetting to make time becomes a conviction that we do not actually need to approach God with our cares. In part because we think we can handle them, and perhaps in part because we don’t want to entertain the thought that perhaps we can’t handle it all. Having cares to cast upon God becomes synonymous with admitting failure, and our bodies fear failure more than most, so we refrain. In all these small decisions, our enemy is prowling, watching pride grow within us, ready to devour us. There is a reason pride leads to our downfall.
Depending on your personality and other life circumstances, there are two ways the insidious pride of self-reliance comes to destroy us: moral failure or burnout. Again, very few pastors pursue ministry because they want to build themselves a large platform or following. Most pastors in America are serving in churches with less than 200 people in them. Yet, moral failure amongst clergy, whether that be sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, emotional abuse and manipulative leadership, or financial impropriety take place in churches of all shapes and sizes. At the root of them all is pride, a sense of infallibility or being above the law and above reproach. For some, stepping away from a humble posture of casting cares upon the Lord, will lead to moral failure, to living in such a way that one is convinced the rules no longer apply. In their deep commitment to self-reliance, they will attack any who question them and they will struggle to see others as bearers of the image of God to be treated with dignity. For others, living out of a place of full self-reliance will lead to burnout. Fear of failure or weakness leads to a need to constantly perform, to continuously appear as though everything is okay. When we stop taking our cares to the Lord, it becomes all the more difficult to take them to others as well.
Here’s the hard truth, American culture is one that helps breed this need for self-reliance. We want strong leaders. We want competent leaders. We want leaders who appear to have it all together. Pastors are given literal platforms, even if only standing before 75 people. The temptation to lead and live in such a way that you refrain from casting your cares upon the Lord is great, and it happens in small everyday decisions. However, when we do not continuously cast not only our cares but our whole lives upon the Lord, we keep ourselves from full humility. Living humble requires complete dependence upon God. It is easy to look at the leaders in headlines who have committed great harm and think we could never end up there. This alone is a temptation from the enemy of our souls, luring us to self-reliance. Remember, oh but for the grace of God go I.
Today, if you are a pastor or church leader seeking greater health for your soul and your church, I encourage you to take a moment and simply begin casting all your cares upon the Lord. Hold nothing back. Be fully honest. Ask yourself, “Where am I living like I am competent enough on my own? How can I return that back to the Lord so pride does not take root?” May you find great rest as you allow your good shepherd to tend to you.
