The Dangers of Personal Fulfillment in Ministry

Personal fulfillment is the most dangerous motive in ministry.

The problem is that often times, people use ministry for their own self- fulfillment, self-gratification, and measurement of personal success. Those falling prey to the entrapment of self-fulfillment find themselves eager to gain recognition by those who lead them. They strive for notability among their peers and publicity by those who follow them.

Here are a few disastrous results that follow:

1. They turn ministry into means that are self-serving, self-motivating and self-fulfilling.

Rather than serving for the SOLE benefit of others, their primary drive in ministry is to benefit how they feel about themselves, and to fulfill self-generated ambitions. The deception that they suffer from this often goes undetected because a secondary desire to help and minister to others is also present, giving the self-fulfilling minister the illusion that their motives are pure.

2. They often struggle with being discontent with current roles and tasks in ministry. One indicator is that they hardly ever give their all to a task, assignment or position, because they are too concerned with the next step up in the ‘ministry ladder.’ They have difficulty giving their all and full attention to currently involved ministries because they often focus on what others are doing, achieving or receiving recognition for. There is often envying of others, and the ministry of others. Tasks are many times left incomplete.

3. Self-esteem becomes the barometer in ministry. They begin to measure the success of their involvement and their ministry by how they feel about ‘self.’ Anything that negatively affects self-esteem becomes the enemy. Anything spoken by those who lead them is qualified and quantified by how it makes them feel, regardless of the intention, goal or purpose of their leader. These people will often jump from one thing to the next to help maintain a certain level of ‘fresh’ self esteem.

4. Personal opinions, religious tradition and up-to-date jargon, often influence their concepts in ministry more than the Bible does. They become more interested in what ‘appears’ effective rather than what the Word of God says is effective. The focus is on relevancy rather than sound Biblical doctrine. Biblical methods become overshadowed by what’s popular and trendy. Concessions are made to appease the flesh and appeal to the senses. Spiritually becomes secondary to religious trends. The ministry goals become more crowd please oriented than true salvation oriented. God’s Word becomes secondary to human concepts, ideologies and methods.

5. Viewing ministry within the scope of God’s kingdom, plans and purpose becomes faded. Ministry becomes the means through which they fulfill their own life's plans rather than a means by which God works out his plan and purpose. God’s will become secondary to their plans and the goals that they’ve set to attain.

6. Their definition of ministry success is focused on themselves. Ministry is about what they get out of it, not about what they put into others. If it excites them, arouse them, motivate them, etc., it is viewed as an awesome ministry. If it’s challenging, exhausting, problematic, and met with difficulties, they somehow feel that something is wrong with others, that ministry or those who structured that ministry.

7. Their identity becomes rooted in their personal ministry growth and not in Spiritual growth or growth in their relationship with God. They don’t focus on growth in the God’s Word, but in personal fulfillment. Their primary focus is on how they feel about self, and how their roles, tasks and position elevate them to a place of satisfaction about their achievements.

These seven areas are prime indicators of a person being pulled away into a place of no return.

Self-gratification is not identified in the true meaning of ministry. The word mostly used in the New Testament for ‘ministry’ is the Greek word meaning to attend to, as a servant.

The gratification in serving comes with knowing that we are doing God’s will for our life, and that we are personally affecting the life and salvation of others.

It is extremely important for everyone involved in ministry (of any type) to spend time diligently checking, evaluating and gauging their motives for ministry.

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