Performance Mentality

Is there anything more toxic to a Christian's soul than a performance mentality? Not that I can think of.

In the beginning of one's Christian walk we are like newborn babes who bask in the reality of the Father's great love and grace. Oh how sweet it is! However, that seems to go away after a few weeks or months as we hear about all the things we "Should" be doing.

Is there anything more toxic to the soul of a ministry than a performance mentality? Not that I know of.

Most ministries are the outgrowth of an exuberant life in the Holy Spirit and are but shadows of the person whose passion has ignited them. However, after awhile the newness wears off and we find that raising money and keeping people engaged takes a lot out of us so we start being more concerned about "Image Management" than "Spiritual Self Management".

That drive to look better than we are is behind the fall of many men and women who started in the Spirit and lost it in the flesh. If I hear one more human introduced as a very "Godly man who loves Jesus with all hie heart..." I will scream. Such adulation places a person so high on a pedestal that he can never confess his weaknesses. It is a recipe for certain disaster. When I am more concerned about my image and my performance than my soul the Lord will have to take some drastic measure to rip off my mask and that means embarrassment.

GHOST CHURCH PLANTS

I was stimulated to write this post after reading one of my favorite web pages from CT Online. It reports that there was a Church Planting Scheme in Texas that took in millions of dollars on the basis that they were growing like crazy and planing churches like cow pies. It was almost all based on deception.

Ghost Growth
Baptist report: Some 'failed' church plants never existed.
Ken Walker posted 12/11/2006 09:06AM

The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) is trying to recoup up to $1.3 million lost in failed and fraudulent church plants, some of which existed only on paper. A late October report revealed that most convention churches started in the Rio Grande Valley from 1999 to 2005 have failed. Among 258 congregations started by three pastors in seven years, only 5 still gather.

Related articles and links

The BGCT hired an investigative team that found evidence of inaccuracies, falsified reports, and lax convention oversight of the church-starting program. Pastors Otto Arango, Aaron de la Torre, and Armando Vera reported 72 percent of the valley's 357 church starts over a seven-year period.

De la Torre gave the most damaging admission of wrongdoing. The pastor of Community Baptist Church in Hidalgo described a scheme where he turned over BGCT checks to Arango, who allegedly deposited them into his bank account and gave de la Torre 50 percent of the money.
De la Torre told investigators he wanted "to be honest before God" and offered to pay restitution. (He) admitted that all 89 churches he sponsored or co-sponsored were only cell groups.

"Arango said that he had made a lot of money promoting his vision of planting churches," the report said. "In addition, he said the 'complainers' were envious of [his church] facility, in part because it was debt free."

Greed—not just for money—can entangle church leaders or blind them to wrongdoing, said Barry Minkow, founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute. "We're greedy for numbers so we can tell people we're effective, which makes us vulnerable on the ministry side," Minkow said.

It was a Performance Mentality that sank Ted Haggard. He was unable to admit his human weaknesses and they burst foth unbidden from deep within.

It was Image Management that sank a pastor of 30 years who recently left his wife and church for another woman. He never was able to admit his temptations to me or anyone else and they overcame him like a hurricane.

The answer for us today is the same as it was for the Apostle Paul almost 2000 years ago. We need a daily dose of reality and God's grace to bring healing and a new mentality to that heart of deceit. "Who shall deliver me from that body of flesh? That God it is Jesus who delivers us daily." RO 7