By Dr. Francis Akin-John

It happens to most of us. Ministry gets really hard, and we get wounded. Our wounds then become scars, on which other scars later develop. If we’re not alert and self-aware, our heart gets hardened. Be aware of these signs of increasing hardening in your life:

1. You want to spend less time with your church members. You used to enjoy their company, but not as much anymore.
2. You start looking for the negative in most situations. You assume that a problem waits behind every door, so you go looking for it.
3. You don’t trust people like you used to. You got burned one too many times, so now you don’t take that risk.
4. You don’t grieve over non-believers anymore. Likely, your world has become more about protecting yourself from the wolves in the church than about getting the gospel to the lost.
5. You don’t think much about a “God-sized vision”for your church. That kind of vision requir-es trusting Him, believing in His people, and planning a long stay in the church’s struggles to do.
6. You assume that your church won’t grow. You give up hope when a hardened heart no longer believes God will use people like the ones you serve.
7. You find yourself getting jealous over others’ ministry success-es. Jealousy is the sign of a frightened and hardened heart, not a soft, godly one.
8. You don’t forgive people like you formerly did. You used to be gracious and long-suffering toward sinners, but no longer; now, you get frustrated and even bitter when others sin.
9. You hide your sin and do not turn from it. That’s always a good sign of a hardened heart.
10. You start wondering about non-ministry jobs. It’ll all be easier if I just get out of ministry,you think. Your calling loses its significance in light of present struggles.
11. You get short-tempered with your family. Your increasing frustration has to come out somewhere, and your family bears that brunt.
12. You find no joy in anything you do. No matter what you’re doing, nothing brings you excitement and joy. Hardened hearts don’t leap anymore.

If you find yourself in any of these hardened places, go to the Lord to break up the fallow ground of your heart and make your heart soft for Him and ministry again.

10 TIMES TO TURN DEAF EAR IN MINISTRY

Charles Spurgeon, in his Lectures to My Students, wrote about the importance of church leaders having one deaf ear in ministry. The one open ear helps you to be wise in ministry, but the deaf ear helps you to avoid being unne-cessarily burdened and frustrated. Based on Spurgeon’s writing, here are times to turn a wise deaf ear:

1. To people speaking in anger. We’ve all spoken in anger, Spurg-eon says, only to later regret it—so it’s wise to “not lay them [angry words of others] to heart, for you also have talked idly and angrily in your day.”[i] It’s best if we don’t get stressed about somebody else’s “passionate words.”
2. To previous conflicts in the church. Spurgeon pointed out that church members will quickly try to get you on their side, but the good leader will say, “as [I] have not inherited [my] predecessor’s cupboard, [I] do not mean to eat his cold meat.”[ii]
3. To conversations about your own salary. Spurgeon does say that a pastor must speak up if his family’s need aren’t being met, though he must do it in an appro-priate manner.
4. To gossips in the church. Spurg-eon described them this way: “No one needs to look far for perpetual motion, he has only to watch their tongues.”[iv] If you can’t always stop them from talking, you can stop yourself from listening.
5. To information not meant for you. The one who eavesdrops is a “mean person” who is little better than the “common informer”[v]—especially when he secretly goes about listening to learn what others think about him.
6. To criticisms about you. They’ll come simply because you’re in a leadership position—and your open ear is wise to learn some-thing from each criticism—but it’s right to turn a deaf ear to the criticisms that are unwarranted. We don’t need to worry about what Spurgeon described in his inimi-table style as “the stupid utter-ances of the ignorant.”[vii]
7. To praises about you. They’re dangerous, feeding our pride so much that we sometimes seek them “like little children when dressed in new clothes, who say, ‘See my pretty frock.’”[viii] We feed on praises that eventually choke our soul.
8. To lies about you. Sometimes you must defend yourself, but a good general rule of thumb is: “Your blameless life will be your best defense,”so don’t give the lie more life by seeking to refute it.
9. To stuff about other churches and ministers. Focus on your own church, Spurgeon says, and don’t get enamored with somebody else’s dirty laundry; furthermore, “Do not encourage disaffected persons in finding fault with their minister, or in bringing you news of evils in other congregations.”[x]
10. To the enemy’s lies if you find yourself in this post. This point is my addition to Spurgeon’s list. As church leaders, we stand “in a position which makes us choice targets for the devil and his allies.”[xi]