The Danger of Making Yourself the Hero of God’s Story

“I must be dreaming! I can’t believe I’m hearing this. I never thought I would live to see the day that I’d hear an American say such things!”

Those words, spoken with tears and great emotion, were spoken by a church leader from a French-speaking country in West Africa at a leadership conference I attended along with some of my MRN colleagues about 6 years ago.

What prompted such a reaction? An apology.

After being asked to address the African leaders assembled from several countries, we acknowledged that too often, Americans involved in mission have acted like colonial masters, in controlling and disrespectful ways. We expressed regret over past mistakes and owned the hurt and harm it had done. Then we asked the African leaders to share the visions God had given them and tell us how we could help them accomplish those visions.

I was not prepared for the response. It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. We heard stories of being hurt by Americans. But we also saw passion for God’s mission and experienced grace and welcome despite some harmful past experiences.

Several leaders told us stories of Americans showing up uninvited, taking pictures with African leaders and their ministry events, and then using those pictures in fundraising for the Americans who weren’t meaningfully involved in the ministry they photographed. Those who were doing the work got no credit and got none of the money raised off of their work. That is a form of exploitation, and it breaks trust and creates bitterness over time.

While this is not standard practice in the missions world, neither is it rare. Often those who do such things are not even conscious of the injustice they are committing. Just because foreign nationals don’t speak about it doesn’t mean they don’t see it and feel wounded and exploited.

One of the key principles we should always observe in all ministry is: “All Glory to God.” One of our core values at MRN is that “All kingdom stories are God stories.” We don’t have any MRN stories. We are only minor characters in any God story. All kingdom stories should be told with God as the hero, not us. When we describe what God is doing somewhere in the world, we need to make sure he is presented as the principal actor, and he gets the credit. Where others are involved, it is important to mention them as well, just like characters in Biblical accounts. But let’s tell the truth about ourselves and other humans. We are flawed, weak, frequently clueless, inconsistent, and perennially out of our depth. When ministry works, that’s God. All glory goes to God.

Moses found this out the hard way. In Numbers 20, after putting up with decades of a willful, whining Israel, Moses lost his cool and took credit for God’s miracle of bringing water out of a rock. He placed himself on the God side of the equation instead of on the human side when he said, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” and then dramatically struck the rock with his staff instead of just speaking to it as God instructed.

Moses was claiming partial credit and acting in ways that made him the hero. That was not what was needed, and God did not accept it. Moses’ actions made Moses the object of trust in the eyes of the people instead of God. That could become a huge problem when Moses was gone.

As important as Moses was, and as much respect as he deserves even to this day, he was a mortal, and he attempted to upstage God and rob God of his glory. Because of this, Moses didn’t get to enter Canaan. He only got to see it from Mount Nebo. Unfair? Not at all. It was only appropriate and necessary correction.

It’s not that God is proud, or a glory hog. It is that only God can receive glory and not be ruined by it. God knows that when his glory is given to humans, it warps them. It turns into a harmful form of idolatry. Receiving the glory corrupts the character of the humans and diverts the faith of those giving it to them.

In a rather jarring passage from Luke 17, Jesus says.

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

In the USA, we don’t like to acknowledge social castes and have less social stratification than many cultures through time. This offends our democratic, meritocratic sensibilities so much we easily pass over it. But this teaching matters. All glory goes to God. We earn nothing from God because no matter what we do for him, it is only what we rightly owe. We do it with the bodies he gave us, and the energy he gave our bodies through food he provides. (See Deut. 8:10-18)

When we tell stories of God’s work, we need to make sure we are the ones holding the camera, not the ones on camera. If we are in the frame of the actual pictures, we need to be to the side and not front and center. Ask Ananias and Saphira what happens to those who steal glory not due to them in order to garner false praise from the church. It is not pretty. It is lethal.

When we give glory to God and take our rightful place as his servants, it reduces the tension between us. We don’t have to fight over credit or resources. We can honor others as we all glorify God. It is not only right, but also practical and healthy. It forms people who put their trust in God instead of in God’s servants, which reduces the pressure on us to be more than we can be. When we lay down our messiah complexes, and glorify God, everything gets better. All glory to God!