A leader in a small church looking for a new pastor worked his way through a pile of résumés. Finally, he came to a simple, one-page one. “I think I may have found someone!” he told his wife. “This one doesn’t have an I-problem.”
That résumé was mine. That leader shouldn’t have mistaken a lack of experience with humility. I may not have had much going for me back then, but I — like everyone else — was tempted by pride.
God’s been gracious to me since that day many decades ago, but I’ve grown in my appreciation of an underrated ministerial and ecclesiastical virtue: humility.
One verse continually haunts and encourages me: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). I hate the thought of God opposing either me or my church, which is why I’m sobered when I sense a tendency to pride in myself or in churches.
The funny thing is that I waiver between pride and despair over myself. Both, in some ways, are an expression of the same thing: an over-reliance on self. I need to look away from myself and find my hope not in how well I’m doing or in how weak I am, but in God.
I need humility. A humble pastor is someone who knows that ministry’s not about him, that his gifts are just part of the picture and didn’t originate with him, and that the church would go on just fine without him. A humble pastor understands how much he needs God’s help, and takes a good look at his weaknesses but doesn’t despair, because God has promised to come to his aid. A humble pastor has no problem with others looking good, and is always seeking after the good of others, not himself.
The same applies to churches. I’ve seen a few proud churches, and they’re ugly. When we see a church that thinks it’s a big deal, it somehow makes that church seem small in our eyes. But when we see a church that’s aware of its weaknesses, and that’s quick to forget about itself in service of God and others, that church becomes unmistakably attractive.
God does indeed give grace to the humble.
I’d rather have humility than wealth and power. I’d rather walk with a limp than a strut. I think sometimes of Daniel 4, in which Nebuchadnezzar not only became great but knew it. God humbled him until he acknowledged “ that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:32). This story is a powerful reminder of God’s sovereignty over nations, but it’s also a good reminder of how much God hates pride, and how quickly he can take away everything that makes us think we’re great.
I appreciate humble pastors, even as I long for God to make me one. I long for humble churches that know they’re nothing apart from God. God gives grace to such pastors and churches. They think righty about themselves. We have many reasons to be humble, but it seems to elude us. But it’s worth pursuing, because it puts us in the path of God’s grace, which is where I want to be.