How Leaders Accidentally Reject the Gospel

If you're like me, an emerging leader, you value high performance, high achievement, excellence, work ethic, working hard, and working smart, I want to tell you that the ideas in this post can come across as challenging, uncomfortable, and even slightly offensive.

Beware Performance-Based Identity

So many of us have inadvertently built our identities on our performances. The way we know what we have built our identities on is by asking ourselves: "What makes me feel good about myself?" If the answer is:

• when I get straight A's
• when I score well on my tests
• when I make the team
• when I get the part in the school play
• when I get the date for Homecoming
• when I get selected in the audition
• when I please the judges and score high on a competition...

Those are not bad things in and of themselves. After all, we are called to do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) , which is a high standard if I ever heard one. However, there is a fine line between performing well to glorify God and performing well because we need to feel worthy, valuable, lovable, acceptable, or approved. Crossing that line takes the gift of performing well and turns it into idolatry.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Did you catch that? It felt awkward even saying that! It felt offensive, like I was taking this "Christian thing" too far—like I’m becoming a "Jesus freak." But it’s true. Idolatry is real. It can be offensive to realize that even the good things we do--performing well with what we think are good intentions, can actually become a sin when we place our security, confidence, and self-worth in those accomplishments instead of in Christ and in His work.

The Performance Trap

When we place too much importance on our successes or failures, we fall into what’s called the "performance trap."

The "performance trap" is a concept from Robert McGee’s book The Search for Significance, which I’m taking my leadership mastermind students through this school year. According to McGee, the performance trap is the false promise that success will bring ultimate happiness and fulfillment. Instead of feeling good about ourselves because of what Jesus has performed for us in our place, we want to feel good based on what we accomplish for ourselves.

When we rely on our own achievements for our self-worth, failure becomes unacceptable. We think that we must succeed. Each of us has areas where we feel this intensely—places where we believe, "I must not fail." For me, that area is leadership because I teach students how to lead. My students have shared that they feel trapped by performance in areas like schoolwork, grades, test scores, performance on the field or court, what their coaches, parents, or teachers think of them.

Recognizing the Symptoms

How do you know if you are trapped by your performance? Robert McGee outlines eight symptoms that can help you identify whether you’ve taken your performance too far and allowed it to become an idol:

1. Perfectionism
2. Avoidance of risks
3. Anxiety
4. Fear
5. Pride
6. Anger & Resentment
7. Depression
8. Chemical addiction

It’s helpful to realize that many of the problems we face are rooted in identity—our search for significance, self-worth, and personal value. The problems arise when we seek our identity in all the wrong places.

The Righteousness of Christ

As Christians, we believe that Jesus gave us His righteousness in exchange for our guilt and sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." When Jesus gave us His righteousness, He credited it to us—imputed it to us. He also credited us with His goodness, worth, and value.

Free from Idolatry of Success and Failure

In Christ, we don’t have to idolize success. We don’t need to succeed in order to feel good about ourselves. And in Christ, we can afford to fail. It’s okay to fail because, just like success, our failures do not define our true worth. I love the truth that nothing we do can add to or take away from our worth. We are already perfectly righteous. There is no more righteousness to be gained in heaven. Did you realize that? You are already as righteous now as you will ever be.

Use Your Worth

Here’s a closing challenge: If you believe that in Christ you are already worthy, how will you use your worth? How will you use your standing before God, your position in Christ, your status as a son or daughter of the Most High? What healthy risks can you now take, knowing that you don’t have to succeed? You can actually fail and be okay, still feel worthy, valuable, lovable, and acceptable.

How will you use your worth to glorify God now that you can detach your identity from your performance?

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For more information about how to work with Brenda in group leadership classes (via Zoom or in private workshops) or in monthly one-on-one mentorship sessions, please visit www.weleadthis.com or email [email protected]

More resources for Christian leadership can be found here: www.weleadthis.com/resources