The Pastor's Perspective

  Have you ever worked tirelessly behind the scenes to build something up, only to watch someone else step into the spotlight and receive all the credit and applause ?      When our efforts are overshadowed, our natural human instinct is to feel a sting of envy, resentment, or quiet frustration . Thoughts of sabotage may pop up in our mind or we just may just want to give up doing what we are doing altogether. We instinctively want to guard our platform, protect our reputation, and hold tightly to our influence . Lets face it it hurts when we put in all the work only to see someone else take all the credit.      In our spiritual lives, this subtle obsession with personal recognition is the single greatest obstacle to building God's Kingdom . We live in a culture obsessed with self-promotion, personal branding, and accumulating "followers." As a pastor I see it every day as I look at certain churches, at some celebrity preachers ministries and if I am b...