Humility

I was skimming the Nov./Dec. issue of Preaching magazine (it's been buried on my desk for a over a month, and I need to pass it on to the other pastors I share the subscription with!) and came across this portion of an interview with Thom Rainer:

Preaching: If you were a pastor today and you'd just read [your] book [Breakout Churches], where would you go from here?

Rainer: Knowing how I pastored, I probably would fire me right away! But that's not the question. I realize that my dominant spiritual gift in my previous four pastorates was stupidity and so I would tell them to get another pastor. I'm glad I got demoted to academia. It worked out well."

While Rainer's self-deprecation made me laugh, I saw the humility in the midst of the humor. Thom was saying that the church was not about him as the pastor, it was about God and what God wanted to do through the church. And if the church could be more effective with a different pastor, then a different pastor should be found, even if it meant Thom was "demoted".

This same attitude is what helped me realize it was okay to start Watershed. When I was more concerned about seeing God use Watershed to reach young adults in Cedar Rapids than as a platform for me to use my spiritual gift of teaching, I knew it was okay to proceed and that it would probably work (if it was about me, it would have quickly failed - I can say that with honesty!).

Are you living your life with humility like Thom Rainer? It doesn't take self-deprecating humor to reveal it or even to fake it. But honestly ask yourself - am I more concerned about God's reputation than about my own?