The difficult and necessary work of battling greed

Editor’s note: This column was written by a member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s Shepherds Collective. For more information, visit sbtexas.com/networks/shepherds-collective.

I’m a dreamer. I constantly look at our church, my life, and everything around me wondering how things could be better. And while holy discontentment aided by godly ambition is a good thing in ministry, an insatiable desire for more can be a pastor’s downfall. At its core, an excessive obsession of progress, gain, or power is the overflow of a greedy heart.

Greed is a sin many of us are aware of, but that we do not think we struggle with. In fact, when Tim Keller prepared to teach on the seven deadly sins early in his ministry, his wife rightly predicted that the week on greed would be the lowest attended of the classes. While some pastors are willing to admit to being an impatient father or a short-tempered leader, no one thinks of themselves as a greedy person.

Greed is most often considered in its most obvious form: financial greed. But greed at its core is a self-centered, obsessive, insatiable desire for more. In other words, it’s a heart condition that can manifest by obsessively wanting something more and being willing to do nearly whatever it takes to attain it.

Is there one thing you can’t live or do ministry without? In the depths of your heart, what do you hope to receive at the end of each Sunday’s sermon? What keeps you from quitting each Monday morning? What is the next goal you think will finally make ministry not as difficult? What is the one thing you want more and more of, but somehow you never seem to get enough of?

It could be money, power, or fame. It could also be the desire to be liked, complimented, or simply recognized for all the long hours you put into caring for your church. It could be wanting to control your own schedule so you can truly give yourself to what you love. It could be the desire to know how to respond to every difficult pastoral situation that walks in your office. Or it could be wishing one day your church was big enough to not have to deal with the problems plaguing you today.

The danger of ministerial greed is that self-centeredness is baptized in the waters of ministry, and we end up chasing a romanticized mirage rather than Jesus. Left unchecked, the desires of our heart end up driving our ministry. And if its dissatisfaction doesn’t spur you on to try harder, it may end up leaving you feeling alone, bitter, and hopeless.

Pause right now and pray Psalm 139:23-24 to God. Ask Him to search you, your heart, and your thoughts to see if there is any grievous way within you. Ask the Spirit to convict you of any ill motive or carnal desire in your ministry. If the Spirit convicts you, confess your sin to God. Confess your sin to trusted pastors or brothers He has placed around you. Pray that God would lead you in His everlasting way, that your heart may be fully content in Jesus, and that your life and ministry might be aimed toward His glory alone.

Brother pastor, if greed has crept into your heart, there is no greater thing you can do than to bring it to the light, walking in transparency before God and in community. Invite people into the depths of your soul, asking them to pray for your heart. This is not fun or easy work, but it is necessary—not just for your ministry, but for your soul. Look at the assurances of 1 John 1:5-9 and James 5:16: God promises forgiveness, cleansing, healing, and fellowship to all those who lay their hearts bare before Him and His people. Then and only then will we be able to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).

A greedy heart will never be satisfied unless it is redeemed and transformed by the all-satisfying power of Jesus. God has put eternity in man’s heart, and Christ alone will truly satisfy his deepest longings. As Augustine confessed, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Only when you come to Jesus and rest your heart in Him can you find true, lasting satisfaction.