My Greatest Problem as a Pastor

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

See if you can identify the common denominator in the following scenarios. Here’s the first: You’re awakened from a sound sleep one night. You try to gain your senses and discover the cause. Your dog is whining indicating she wants out. You glance at the clock and notice it is 3:30 a.m. You lay there just hoping that either the dog stops whining OR your spouse takes care of the problem because you don’t want to get up.

In the second scenario, someone stops by the church office to offer you a piece of constructive criticism. Nothing major, just a suggestion on how you might change the way you have been doing a particular ministry. You know the idea has merit, but your initial reaction is to be defensive and give reasons why the way you’ve been doing things is just fine.

Now the third: You’re driving down the road on your way to an important meeting. You glance at your watch and wonder if you’re going to make it on time. The reason is in front of you. There’s a car going 45 mph in a 55 mph zone. You see a double yellow line that indicates you’re not going to be passing this sight-seer in the near future. You squeeze the steering wheel and mutter, “What’s this guy doing? I need him to get out of my way so I can get to my meeting!”

I must confess that the scenarios I’ve just described are not hypothetical. The reason I know this is because the subject in each is me. Did you spot the common thread? What causes a man to think that his sleep is more important than his wife’s, that his ideas are so above reproach that he resists constructive criticism, and that his car deserves to be on the road more than someone else’s? The answer is the same, and it’s very simple, very common, and very dangerous.

My greatest problem is pride.

Who struggles with pride? To be honest, for the first half of my pastoral ministry, I didn’t think much about that question. What came to my mind when I thought of pride was the professional athlete who complains that his multi-million-dollar a year salary doesn’t do justice to his talent. That guy struggles with pride, I would tell myself.

Then in 2006 I attended a workshop at a biblical counseling event taught by a fellow pastor. Frankly, his subject intrigued me. He called it “Practical Steps for Killing Pride and Putting on Humility.” I remember thinking, “I think I’ll go. Maybe I’ll pick up some ideas that I can use to help other people.”

God mercifully had someone else in mind and used those sixty minutes to put a spotlight on a sobering reality. I struggle with pride. Previously I had not detected my pride because I had such a narrow view of it. It is not just the braggart who demonstrates pride. Bragging is just one manifestation of this sin. Pride rears its ugly head all the time, yet I’d failed to recognize it and thus had often excused it.

My greatest need is humility.

The Lord then used a few books to open my eyes further. As I read these helpful resources, and more importantly as I pondered the biblical passages they cited, I began to see what God Himself says about pride. It struck me how dangerous this foe is. I also learned that most if not all of my other problems (marriage problems, parenting problems, church problems, and so on) have at their root this fundamental heart issue. I knew I needed to take a closer look at what pride and humility really are. And so, I did. Frankly, it was a humbling experience. A good one, too.

My people’s greatest need is humility too.

I knew I couldn’t keep what I was learning to myself, so the following year I preached a sermon series entitled Killing Pride, Cultivating Humility. I shared with the church family about my own struggle with pride and was surprised at the response. Again and again, I heard my brothers and sisters say things like, “Pastor, thank you for sharing this. I’ve never thought about how dangerous pride is. I struggle with it too.”

It’s not an exaggeration to say I received more feedback from that series of messages than from any I had preached in the previous two decades. It resulted in us making the pursuit of humility a core value at Wheelersburg Baptist Church.

Three reasons pride is the pastor’s greatest enemy.

My fellow shepherd, I want to make a bold statement and then seek to support it biblically. Pride is our greatest enemy. It’s possible that I’m overstating the case, but I don’t think so. The biggest challenge to our pastoral ministry is not outside of us, but within us.

“Prove it,” you say. Okay, consider this: God Himself records a statement three times in His Word. We find it first in Proverbs 3:34, which is quoted in the New Testament in both 1 Peter 5:5 and in James 4:6. This is what the Scriptures tell us, not once, not twice, but three times.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” As we unpack that sentence, we discover three guarantees regarding pride.

#1: If I am proud, God is against me.

The Greek verb for “oppose” (antitassomai) means “to be hostile toward, to battle against, to set oneself against, to resist.” The word appears in Acts 18:6 which says, “But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest.” It’s bad to have people oppose us, yet this is far worse. If I am proud, God Himself opposes me.

Let this sink in. The Lord Himself resists, battles, and sets Himself against the proud. Proverbs 8:13 says, “I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech (NIV).”

Why is pride such a big deal to God? As the Puritan Thomas Watson explains, “Pride seeks to ungod God.” That’s a good way to think of pride. When I am proud, I am attempting to take God’s place. I am trying to ungod God.

This of course is unthinkable. God created me to love and live for Him, but when I am proud, I am preoccupied with myself. Some manifestations of pride are easy to spot. “Boastful” and “arrogant” identify two rather noticeable demonstrations of pride. But some are not so obvious and, quite frankly, are often excused.

In his booklet From Pride to Humility, Stuart Scott offers a helpful checklist to help us spot our pride. Here are ten indicators that I battle. I am proud when I…

1. Fail to be grateful.
2. Look down on others and show little tolerance for differences.
3. See myself as being indispensable.
4. Focus on my abilities OR on my lack of them
5. Have to be perfect.
6. Talk too much.
7. Am consumed with what others think.
8. Resist or become angry when criticized.
9. Fail to be teachable.
10. Fail to show compassion

Do you see yourself in the list? When we are proud (regardless of how we manifest it), we are ungodding God and need this reminder. God opposes the proud.

#2: If I am proud, I will not receive grace.

Consider the second part of James 4:6. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Note the implication. God gives grace to the humble, but not to the proud. The proud forfeit God’s grace.

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “Why do I feel like God is distant from me?” The problem could be pride. Psalm 138:6 says, “Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.”

Grace is the unmerited favor and help of God. To be saved, we need grace. But we also need grace to live. This is why pride is so dangerous. When I exhibit pride, I am short-circuiting the experience of grace.

#3: If I am proud, I need to humble myself.

We see the solution for pride at the end of James 4:6. God gives grace to the humble. The word “humble” (Greek tapeinos) essentially means “to be low.” When I am proud, my chin flies up and I look down on others. Humility is the opposite of that. And it’s to the humble that God extends His grace.

This is God’s promise to us. He says He will help those who are low, who heartily admit to themselves, to others, and most importantly to Him that they need help. The only prerequisite to His grace is humility. If we humble ourselves, the Lord gives us His grace.

Ministerial pride is not a new problem.

My friend, you and I are battling a very experienced foe. Back in the 1600s, Richard Baxter delivered this charge to pastors regarding ministerial pride [The Reformed Pastor, p. 137]:

“One of our most heinous and palpable sins is PRIDE. This is a sin which has too much sway in most ministers, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men. Yet is it so prevalent in some of us, that it fills our discourses, it chooses our company, it forms our countenances, it puts the accent and emphasis upon our words. It fills some men’s minds with aspiring desires, and designs. It possesses them with envious and bitter thoughts against those who stand in their light, or who by any means eclipse their glory, or hinder the progress of their reputation. Oh what a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly and subtle insinuating enemy, is this sin of pride!”

Is there hope for a proud pastor? Indeed, there is. But to experience this hope, we must do what a proud man will never do on his own. We must put our total dependence in God and His glorious gospel. He sent His Son into the world to pay the penalty for our pride (and for every other sin). What’s more, He who conquered the grave now promises to set us free from our pride so that we can live for His glory. As James 4:10 explains, if we humble ourselves, He will lift us up.

A ministerial action plan for the next three minutes

1. I encourage you to spend sixty seconds right now meditating on James 4:6. Ponder the words carefully and prayerfully. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

2. Invest another sixty seconds praying through the words of Psalm 139:23–24. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

3. Take another sixty seconds and sing (don’t just read but sing) the following stanza from Isaac Watts’ beloved hymn. Nothing helps us defeat pride like surveying the cross on a regular basis.

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

©2025 Brad Brandt. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Read Part Two here.