7. Power-hungry pastors often compromise their ethical values.
Whatever ethical values they have go out the window if they believe it will help them get into a position of power.
For example, some prominent political leaders in our nation (Al Gore and Kirsten Gillibrand, to name a few) were once pro-life when it comes to abortion, but turned pro-choice when they thought it would help them gain traction in their political party.
Also, I know of a prominent pastor who once believed in the inspirational integrity of Scripture, who jettisoned his biblical beliefs when he was made the senior pastor of a prominent historic landmark church in New York City.
What good is your position of power if you are not going to follow your convictions of right and wrong?
8. Power-hungry pastors have few boundaries to maintain personal and family health.
Power hungry people are constantly on the go and have very little time for personal reflection, renewal and emotional health. Furthermore, they often are so driven that they cheat their spouses and children out of the precious quality time they need since they are always on the phone cutting deals, solving problems and trying to accomplish the next big thing.
9. Power-hungry pastors are only loyal to themselves.
Power hungry people are narcissists who have a need to control their environment, their friends and their futures, which means that, ultimately, they are only loyal to one person: themselves.
They only have people in their inner circles who flatter them and never challenge their egos. They usually don’t have close friends, hobnobbing mostly with other power people, in which both people know they are merely using one another to obtain or maintain their power.
10. Power-hungry pastors head up organizations for stature rather than service.
They will go from one church to another or one position to another based on which organization will give them the largest platform and most influence. It is never about God’s calling, but more about influence, public exposure and proximity to power.
Money is another important issue to them; however, they deem position and influence as more important than money because they believe, in the long run, more influence will bring in more money anyway.
11. Power-hungry pastors exaggerate their value.
When I am with power hungry people, I usually take every word they say about their influence and accomplishments with a grain of salt since their main objective is to impress me rather than give me an accurate picture of their lives.
For example, I have been with leaders who told me about how large their organizations are, but I have never seen them able to draw a crowd of people anywhere near the numbers they tout. They have erected a symbolic house of straw that they tout as if it were the new Freedom Tower that stands in lower Manhattan!
12. Power-hungry pastors have a superficial inner life.
Power hungry people usually live in denial as to their real motives and, thus, usually do not allow the searing hot conviction of the Holy Spirit to operate in their souls.
Consequently, they do not have much of a prayer life, do not enter into deep worship, and rarely read the Scriptures except if they need to put a sermon together or quote passages for a political speech.
Furthermore, they attempt to use God for their own ends instead of dying to self and serving God for His own ends and glory. Many actually are so deceived, they think God is playing this game with them and is actually empowering them to get more and more attention and power.
Little do they realize that Satan is also involved in their lives and setting them up for a huge failure or fall in the future, which can decimate their lives, families, careers and organizations!
May the Lord help us all to see the above issues we are all grappling with, and may all of us be honest with ourselves and our God so we can be delivered from our unholy ambitions and lay down our crowns at the feet of Jesus!
