“Because a leader needs has ministry position to give him what it was never meant to give, he needs to see himself as more ascension than he actually is. And because he looks to the ministry to give him his sense of worth, he is tempted to assign to himself more power to produce results than any leader will ever have. In his search for spiritual rest instability, he again and again does poor spiritual math, adding two and two and getting five. No leader has the power to create change. No leader is able to determine results. No leader can control the response of people, let alone the flow of events. No leader has the ability to soften hearts, to make them faithful, humble, and courageous. No leader can control the opinions of fellow leaders. No leader can cause people to hunger for the gospel. No leader is a change agent; rather, every ministry leader is a tool in the toolbox of the one who alone holds the power of change in his hands.

“A leader’s pride in ministry achievement is not only a self serving delusion; it is redemptive fevery, taking personal pride and what only the redeemer can do. It is a thin bubble that will soon break, because it is not true, and it does not give the spiritual nutrients that every leader needs.”

Paul David Tripp, Lead, p. 170.