Satan’s 5 Favorite Strategies: Church Leader Edition

You’re probably thinking: Seriously? A blog post on the Devil? I mean come on… I thought this was a blog for thoughtful leaders.

Well, I’m with you. Talking about the work of the enemy is not an easy task.

The challenge, I think, lies at the extremes. There are some Christian leaders who never talk about Satan, and others who talk incessantly about him. You know what I mean. In the case of the latter, every time the toast burns or something doesn’t go their way, Satan is behind it and it’s time for an exorcism. Neither extreme is particularly helpful.

In a similar way, the greatest mistake I believe you can make with evil is to overestimate or underestimate its influence. It doesn’t have ultimate power, but it also isn’t powerless. Evil is active. And in some way, it’s probably influencing your thought life, ministry, and family right now. At least that’s what the scriptures claim. And Jesus himself acted as though evil was very real.

The greatest mistake you can make with evil is to overestimate or underestimate its influence. Click To Tweet

Before I entered ministry, I believed what the Scriptures taught about evil and Satan because, well, I had confidence in the authority of Scripture. But reading passages about evil felt like I was reading about some other time or place. I just had no idea how any of that worked nor did I feel I had any experience with it.

My time in ministry has changed my perspective. Suddenly passages that seemed arcane (like for example, the references in Ephesians to evil, or Jesus’ very real struggle to stay faithful to his Father) began to pop off the page. The Scripture’s understanding of the battle between good and evil began to explain a good deal of what I was feeling inside of me as a leader, but also around me in relationships, in culture, and even, sometimes, in the church.

Again… please don’t hear extremism in what I am saying. But even if you’re skeptical about evil, you might also have noticed that we do live in a strange world, with headlines that depress, good leaders that get derailed, people that struggle against each other and against themselves. It’s like there’s a virus in the system that we just can’t seem to shake. Because, of course, there is.

C.S. Lewis, of course, treated the subject of the presence of evil in the world masterfully in The Screwtape Letters, written during the ravages of the Second World War. It’s a book that has not lost its punch seven decades after its publication. Going back centuries further, you can read Thomas Brook’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices—an astonishingly insightful book (HT to Tim Keller for the reference).

The key to overcoming the activity and influence of evil in your life and your world, of course, is to recognize it. When you expose it to the light of Christ, evil loses its power.

So, in the hopes of shedding some light on evil’s activity, here are some of the strategies I see presently at work in the lives of leaders and churches.

It's like there's a virus in the system that we can't seem to shake. Because, of course, there is. Click To Tweet

1. Division

If there’s one strategy Satan comes back to again and again, it’s creating division in the church. And why wouldn’t he? It works.

Strangely, in our culture, some Christians wear their divisiveness as a badge of honor. It’s not. It’s actually a badge of evil.

How do we know division is a sign of the activity and presence of evil?

Paul actually defines which human behavior is motivated by God and which is motivated by the enemy in Galatians 5.

He begins by listing the characteristics of people whose lives are under the influence of evil.

Ready for the list? Here it is:

• Hatred
• Discord
• Sexual immorality
• Jealousy
• Impurity and debauchery
• Fits of rage
• Dissension
• Factions
• Envy
• Conceit

Sadly, too much of that sounds like church.

Even if you remove the sexual sins (which, tragically, are often present too), the list sounds like a job description for self-righteous Christians. But, actually, it’s Satan’s job description.

Contrast that with what the Holy Spirit generates in peoples’ lives. When the Holy Spirit gets hold of a person and a church, he produces:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

The contrast could hardly be sharper.

But wait, you say, what if my conviction is from God?

Sure, occasionally we need a Martin Luther to nail 95 theses to the door. But most of us are not Martin Luther.

And even if you need to ‘take a stand’, it’s probably not a stand for Jesus if it ultimately produces more division and bitterness than it does unity and love. Sometimes love is tough, but love never ends tough.

If you want to drill down a bit further, I’ve written about how the church today might be getting discipleship wrong in this post and again here.

Regardless, if your definition of Christianity has anything to do with hate and division, it’s not Christianity.

If your definition of Christianity is full of hate and divisiveness, it's not Christianity. Click To Tweet

2. Arrogance

Arrogance can creep in so easily among church leaders.

There are two primary ways Christians succumb to arrogance: success, and by using a common but false definition of ‘maturity.’

Let’s start with the first. The most difficult test of character is not failure. It’s success.

Here’s why. It’s pretty easy to be humble when you’re failing. It’s just far too easy to take all the credit when things go well.

As a result, leaders of growing churches and ministries almost always have a daily fight with arrogance. Or at least hopefully there’s a fight. Because if there isn’t, arrogance will win. Every time.

I know in my life as the church has grown, as more people have read my blog or even listened to my podcasts, the battle against claiming credit is daily.

The most difficult test of character is not failure. It's success. It's easy to be humble when you're failing. It's much harder when things go well. Click To Tweet

I remember that when our church was little, I regularly prayed: “God, write a story so big here that only you can possibly claim credit.”

The truth is, God has. Our church or my wider ministry has impacted far more people than I ever dreamed or could possibly have pulled off. But I still have to fight myself to make sure that I’m not trying to snatch credit for anything God has done in my life or ministry.

The goal of Christian leadership, after all, is not to get people to follow you. It’s to get people to follow Jesus.

The goal of Christian leadership isn't to get people to follow you. It's to get people to follow Jesus. Click To Tweet

If the battle against pride isn’t daily, pride will win.

A second way that arrogance creeps in is when Christians falsely characterize Christian maturity as knowledge.

If you listened to many in the church these days, you’d think knowledge equals maturity. The more you know, the more mature you are.

Scripture suggests that’s a false test. After all, as Paul points out, knowledge puffs up; love builds up.

Knowledge makes you arrogant. Love fosters humility.

As a leader, I need to be daily transformed by love and humility. When I do that, I resist the devil.

Knowledge makes you arrogant. Love fosters humility. Click To Tweet

3. Discouragement

If you’re feeling beat up by the first two points (and in different seasons, I’ve felt beat up by both of them… well, actually, I needed to be beaten up by both of them), then you might gravitate toward another of the devil’s favorite strategies: discouragement.

Discouragement says:

• I’m no good.
• I’m not making a difference.
• I always mess up.
• What’s the point?
• I might as well give up.

We’ve all been there. But I believe that none of those messages are from God.

Want a little hack? Read the book of Ephesians, and everywhere it says “you” or “us”  just substitute your name. Put your name in the blanks below:

Even before he made the world, God loved _______ and chose _______ in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt _______ into his own family by bringing ________ to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

I know that’s a little cheesy, but it actually helps you battle well.

The best antidote to a lie is the truth. So ground yourself in the truth. And also in the truth about yourself.

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4. Self-pity

If discouragement is left unchecked, it grows. Self-pity is discouragement on steroids.

Self-pity chisels in stone what discouragement whispers.

It tells you there is no out. That this is the way it will always be. And it simultaneously tells you it’s all your fault and none of this is your fault. Paradoxically, you believe both.

Self-pity chisels in stone what discouragement whispers. Click To Tweet

Self-pity is dangerous because it moves you to the sidelines.

Living in a state of self-pity means you don’t need anyone to take you out of the game because you’ve taken yourself out.

It’s an incredibly effective strategy and completely counter to the gospel.

The final thing self-pity does is rob us of all joy. Satan can’t steal our salvation. But he can steal our joy. And he delights in doing it.

Don’t let him.

Satan can't steal our salvation. But he can steal our joy. And he delights in doing it. Click To Tweet

5. The slight crossing of moral lines

Occasionally leaders move from relatively deep obedience to an extraordinary moral breach overnight, but usually, it’s far more subtle than that.

As C.S. Lewis says in The Screwtape Letters, “The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

So how does this happen?

Often it happens when you start to compromise on the small things. Maybe you take a deduction you shouldn’t on your taxes. Or you get a little too close emotionally to someone you’re not married to. Sure… nothing happened. But deep down you know something is happening in your heart. Or maybe you just shade the truth a little in conversations to make yourself or the situation look better than they really do.

The first moral lapse is always the hardest. Then it gets easier from there.

You may be asking God for more in your life or leadership, but whenever you ask God for more, he usually asks you what you’re doing with what he’s already given you.

If you’re not faithful in the little things, you won’t be faithful in the bigger things.

Obedience may seem boring or inconvenient in the short term, but it’s richly and deeply satisfying in the long term.

If you refuse to compromise now, it becomes much easier to resist compromise in the future.

If you're not faithful in the little things, you won't be faithful in the bigger things. Click To Tweet