Comparison by Doug Webster Control by James MacDonald Casual Holiness by Roberta Hestenes Busyness by Kirk B. Jones Discouragement by Jim Wilson Nominations from the Floor
In planning this issue, we asked readers of Leadership Weekly, our online newsletter, to tell us what sin they’d nominate as The Eighth Deadly Sin for themselves. We received lots of thoughtful and candid replies. “Overfamiliarity with God,” wrote one pastor. “It’s hardly possible to be too close to God, but it is possible to become so accustomed to the idea of God that we no longer stand in awe of him. As preachers, our times of worship are easily identified as our work—and devolve into mere duty. Our recreation, much of it, is wrapped up in church duties. We handle the things of God day in and day out. “Because of this, we may begin to lose the awe that keeps us in profound respect of the holy and righteous God who will judge his people.” We need to take a step back from ministry now and then, to look with fresh eyes at who we are as ministers, what we do in God’s name, and why we do it. In this special section, we invited five church leaders to write about five different sins peculiar to the pastorate. And scattered throughout the section, we’ve included “nominations from the floor”—samples of the responses we got from our online request. We invite your vote: write contact us to let us know the temptation you consider most unique and deadly to ministry. Why spend this much space on sin? Our calling as ministers—and ours as a journal—is not just to point out shortcomings, but to turn our people, and ourselves, again and again to the only hope for correction and forgiveness and redirection, to restore the awe and profound respect due the One who saves us all from our sins—Jesus Christ, the Righteous. That is our goal here as well.Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
