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Beyond Pulpit Pride: How to Support Your Pastor
Criticizing pulpit pride is easy. Praying for the person standing there is harder, and more needed.
I never liked pulpits, and I did not know why until I was older and had some experience behind me. Then I read a line by Sienna Krieg that got me thinking: “We must be scrutinizing the words behind every church sermon.”
A pulpit is the wooden stand in a church that leaders preach from. Over the years, I have watched it become a barrier between the person preaching and the people listening. What began as a practical necessity has turned into something else, and it may get worse.
Pulpit Pride
A pulpit can work like a trophy. Not in every case, but standing behind one can feed the ego, much like a new pin or patch after a military promotion, or the letters doctors collect after their names.
There is nothing wrong with advancement, leadership, or being in the spotlight. The issue is the part of us, our flesh, that craves status, recognition, and the feeling of being above others. This is called “pulpit pride.”
Some pulpit pounders are puffed up with it, treating the pulpit as a gift from God meant to elevate their rank. It becomes a symbol of status instead of a place…
