Just a thought or two: Spiritual narcissism, and other things...

Just had a conversation with Dan Rockwell, he writes one of the blogs that I follow regularly, called Leadership Freak. We have never met in person, but the beauty and the upside of social media is the ability to connect with people who are interested in the same things you are, people who are wiser or have more experience than you. Or, as in my case, connect with someone to talk about organizational issues who is  not mired down in it. I'd like to give him a shout-out and thank him for personally reaching out.

As seem to be the way God moves, this comes on the heels of stumbling across across a short blog by John Bishop about his new book, Dangerous Church (I haven't read the book, yet). Bishop's piece gives such a wonderful definition of what it means to be narcissistic, that I think you should read it context for yourself. Like reading the Bible, I think it is always important to read things I context. Anyway, the quote is this:

Entitlement in the simplest form is spiritual narcissism. A person who struggles with being narcissistic is someone who is essentially all about themselves. When leaders are all about themselves, they will eventually realize they are all by themselves.

I love this definition:

Narcissists hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and automatic compliance because they consider themselves special. Failure to comply is considered an attack on their superiority, and the perpetrator is considered an "awkward" or "difficult" person.

What kind of churches have we made for ourselves? Yes, for ourselves, because we certainly have not made them to honor and worship God. When did what we do everyday become more important that what Jesus has done for us?

I am prayerful and anxious to see our churches alive with passion for fulfilling the "Great Commission" again. How do we accomplish our calling when we are being inundated with meeting after meeting, followed by power struggles between the powerful and the insignificant, pushing and pulling us down a path to nowhere? Aren't we supposed to be building up the body of Christ, searching for and saving the lost? Are we doing our job?

How do we overcome our spiritual narcissism?

So, what's a church to do? Change or die.

What's a member to do? The Apostle Paul might say, stay and fight the good fight....Or go?

Maybe it's just me. Thoughts, Comments, Suggestions?