Moving from Good to Great
by E. Glenn Wagner
In his book Good to Great (Harper Business), Jim Collins said, "Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great."
Few pastors attain great lives and ministries. It's just too easy to settle for a good life and a good ministry.
It's tempting to slip into acting like good pastors- running an efficient office here, being ready to offer a solemn prayer there. If you're really good, you'll even visit sick people, send cards to children on their birthdays, and return phone calls as they come. If you play your cards right, you'll often hear those oh-so-addictive words: "You're such a good pastor."
However, God wants us to be more than good pastors. He desires more than the thin veneer of pastoral activities that keep us on the congregation's "good" list. God wants pastors who pursue greatness rather than just goodness.
Now don't misunderstand what it means to be a great pastor. It doesn't always mean you have great numbers, great programs, great books, a great new building, great hair, and great notoriety. What it does mean is that you have great character of heart, great surrender to Jesus, great faith in God, brokenness of pride, and great tenderness toward God's people. Pastoral greatness is an interior greatness that perhaps no one's aware of except for you and God.
A pastor should be like an iceberg: What you see on the surface should be the smallest part of the whole. The largest part of our ministry should be below the surface. Pastoral greatness is defined by how large the soul is beneath the physical factors of ministry. But most churches are only concerned about the little bit of ice that sticks out above the water. I guess they think that what they can't see can't help them - or harm them. What a huge mistake!
A pastor's external goodness (talent, achievement, effectiveness) should be nothing more than the leaking of your internal greatness (surrender, character, humility). If you're leading a new building project, be sure that your heart's "rooted and built up in him" (Colossians 2:7). If you're experiencing numerical growth, be sure you're personall growing "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" letting the "word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). If you're making bold strides in innovative ministry, be sure you're "bold as a lion" in your righteousness (Proverbs 28:1). You get the picture.
The frightening thing about pastoral ministry is that you can be a good pastor and not be a great pastor. You can have the external veneer of a growing and faithful ministry without the internal reality of spiritual surrender and abandonment to God. You can appear to be an iceberg, when in reality you're just a floating ice cube. Murray McCheyne said it best. "It is not great talent that God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an aweful weapon in the hand of God." I hope you'll allow God's Spirit to take you from good to great- great likeness to Jesus.
Glenn Wagner lives in Waxhaw, North Carolina, and is the founder and president of FutureLead (www.futurelead.org), an organization committed to equipping people to live and lead with purpose and passion. He's the author of the recently published, God: An Honest Conversation for the Undecided (Waterbrook Press). (gwagner@onlinerev.com)