Ambition in Ministry: Our Spiritual Struggle with Success, Achievement, and Competition

The drive to excel. The need to achieve. The desire to compete. These are concerns that face every pastor, but rarely are these issues discussed openly. Pastors, like other professionals, are human beings who have a need to achieve. Unfortunately, because pastors are expected to be models of altruism, this need frequently goes unrecognized or is denied outright. Pastors then are faced with the problem of learning to channel this unexpressed desire into positive, healthy avenues, while they struggle at the same time to curb any feelings of self-serving ambition. They must discover how to balance the needs of their vocation with their own need to compete. And pastors must silently confront and resolve issues of personal integrity that relate to the never-ending struggle for bucks, bodies, and souls.

At last, Robert Schnase brings this potentially dark side of ministry to light. In Ambition in Ministry, he examines the motivations for accomplishment in ministry and, in so doing, identifies a number of power-hungry personality types: the Wily Politico, the Spiteful Malcontent, the Favor Currier, the Arbitrary Intervener, and others. Schnase demonstrates how such persons destroy community and develop a politics of manipulation or resignation in ministry. Ambition in Ministry confronts these issues openly in order to help pastors recognize their feelings in this area and to suggest ways clergy can use natural aspirations to strengthen their ministry and avoid the destructive, life-sapping desires of self-promoting ambition. Essential reading for every ministry professional.