This is from a 2009 interview that Garrett Wishall conducted with Tim Keller. The question is narrowed to “20-something pastors” because it appeared in Towers, which is Southern Seminary’s newspaper. But what Keller says here applies to pastors and church leaders of any age.
Q: What safeguards should 20-something pastors have in place to avoid the idolatry of ministry fame and the attitude of big numbers equals success?
Tim Keller: If you know it is a danger, that is a very important start. Additionally, when you find yourself unusually discouraged because things aren’t growing or people aren’t listening to you — you have to catch yourself. You have to realize ‘This is an inordinate amount of discouragement, which reveals the idolatry of justification by ministry.’ Meaning, you say you 
believe in justification by grace, but you feel like and are acting like you believe in justification by ministry. You have to recognize you are making something of an idol out of ministry. When you do experience inordinate discouragement because things aren’t going well, you need to say, ‘It’s okay to be discouraged but not to be this discouraged. This is discouragement that leads to idolatry,’ and you repent.
Additionally, idols create a fantasy world. You may think that you are just thinking about ministry strategy, but it could be you’re fantasizing about success. So be careful about doing too much daydreaming about success, what you would like to see happen. Because it’s really a kind of pornography. You’re actually thinking about a beautiful church and people acclaiming you: be careful about fantasizing too much about ministry success and dreaming about it and thinking about what it’s going to look like.
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Did you catch that Keller said dreaming of ministerial success is a type of pornography? Perhaps there is some connection here with the fact that a horribly ridiculous amount of pastors also have pornography addictions. But I think all of us may struggle with this type…dreaming of success and committing ministry idolatry.
Evidence. I came across this post because I’m discouraged today. I’m discouraged because I feel as if I am working my tail off to write better, to write more, and expand my writing ministry. It’s not happening.
Ill be honest and say that I’m a little discouraged with other ministry stuff today too. I feel almost unnecessary. I’m just being honest. And as I began to feel the weight of discouragement I remembered something I read at a prior date (I think from CJ Mahaney) about the relationship between discouragement and idolatry. So, I did a Google search and came across this article.
Yep. I have idol problems and I need Jesus. May my passion be to further His kingdom instead of my own. Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to destroy my idolatrous heart that only rips me off with mock success.
