{"id":12608,"date":"2012-11-23T13:03:09","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T18:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"\/news_blogs\/john\/?p=12608"},"modified":"2022-08-10T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T19:24:13","slug":"enduring-all-the-praise-and-adulation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/john\/2012\/11\/23\/enduring-all-the-praise-and-adulation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Enduring All the Praise and Adulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I arrived at work this morning, opened up my email, and suddenly felt a rush of great feelings, like I had passed a test or something. Here’s what I saw in my in-basket.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"My<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wow! That’s high praise! It doesn’t get better than that, except that the Jesus who endorsed me is American of Spanish descent and pronounces his name “Hay<\/em><\/span>-sooss”. While I value his endorsement, it’s not quite the same as the one I thought I had for a moment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s nice when we recognize one another for things we do well. Receiving praise<\/strong> is an affirmation of your accomplishments and skills. When you are praised, it is feedback that you are doing well in the eyes of another. And, it’s one thing for you to think you are doing something well, it’s quite another to have someone else say so. (That’s why CCCC sends endorsements of our Accredited members <\/a>to their donors!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I already had a draft post from some time ago about leaders receiving praise from others<\/strong>, so here it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Receiving Praise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Isn’t it hard to put up with all the praise and adulation you get wherever you go? Don’t you wish you could just spend even one day incognito and avoid all the people pressing in to tell you how great you are? Oh right, that’s the fantasy<\/em> world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in this real world, as a ministry leader you probably do receive both praise and criticism for your leadership. I’ve already written about how leaders should deal with their personal critics<\/a>, so now I’d like to address the more positive side — receiving personal praise. How should Christian ministry leaders respond when people praise them as individuals? Let’s contrast Herod’s response to praise to that of Paul’s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A <\/em>\ud83d\ude25 Example:<\/em> On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, \u201cThis is the voice of a god, not of a man.\u201d Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. Acts 12:21-23<\/p>

A <\/em>\ud83d\ude00 Example:<\/em> When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they yelled out, “The gods have turned into humans and have come down to us!” The people then gave Barnabas the name Zeus, and they gave Paul the name Hermes. The crowds wanted to offer a sacrifice to Barnabas and Paul… When the two apostles found out about this, they tore their clothes in horror and ran to the crowd, shouting: Why are you doing this? We are humans just like you. Please give up all this foolishness. Turn to the living God. Acts 14:11-15<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Paul remembered that he was not doing anything in ministry on his own, but that the source of his authority over demons, of his healing power, and of his preaching was the God he served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Humility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dictionary.com defines humility as: the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc. Synonyms are lowliness, meekness, submissiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may be a good secular definition, but I think a good Christian definition of humility would be: an ever-present awareness of God’s constant help in everything one does<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that you are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he has prepared in advance for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). Given that, what have you to boast about? If you are leading a life of prayer and listening, you are being led by God. You are simply following what he has laid out for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few things about praise to watch out for that could get you into trouble:<\/p>\n\n\n\n