It was a battle royal. They were two department leaders in the same church, both genuinely loving the same Lord, both wanting to work for the cause of Christ, yet shouting at the top of their voices at each other. The women’s leader and the youth president both wanted to use the gym/fellowship hall on the same night. The confusion arose when, by mistake, both the youth and the women got approval from the office to use the gym at the same time.
What interested me as I listened around the corner, but carefully out of sight, were the arguments used by the two leaders. They didn’t blame the church secretary. They didn’t try to determine who’d booked the gym first. It was simply that each felt his/her program was more important than the other’s.
The women’s leader argued, “Don’t you kids ever do anything but play basketball? You should be having a prayer meeting in the prayer chapel. Don’t you know we’re preparing for a mission’s banquet that will raise more than $10,000 for an orphanage in Zaire? We’ve a guest speaker scheduled. The advertising’s at the printer’s. Nothing could be more important than this banquet. Our banquet has priority over your silly basketball game!”
The youth president countered, “This is no silly basketball game! We’ve been gearing up for this night for two months. I’ve got a Christian pro basketball player coming to speak to the kids. We’re expecting more than 50 non-Christian teenagers to be here. No women’s missionary gathering is going to pre-empt what our youth group’s been working on for more than two months to reach these high school kids!”
The question was: whose work in the church was more important? Whose ministry had priority? Which is more significant, raising $10,000 for an orphanage in Zaire or reaching 50 non-Christian teens with the gospel?
The disease is ergocentricity. It’s the attitude that says, “My work is more important than your work,” and it’s a big destroyer of church unity.
Self-centeredness and self-sufficiency surface in many forms, sizes and shapes. The egocentric person says, “I’m more important than you are.” He’s so caught up with himself that he’s totally unaware of anyone else. The ethnocentric person says, “My culture is more important than your culture.” Every missionary in a cross-cultural setting has had to come to grips with this, as he tries to unload the cultural baggage he takes overseas with him. He learns that North American culture isn’t better, it’s just different.
Ergocentricity is perhaps less understood. It’s the attitude that surfaces when we’re so engrossed in what we’re doing, we forget the legitimacy of what our brother is doing. It rears its ugly head when our ministries so consume our emotional energy, we lose sensitivity to the ministry of the man down the street or the staff member in the next office. It shows up in a variety of situations.
I’ve seen it in a multi-staff church. George was the pastor responsible for setting up the new small group ministry in the church. He had great enthusiasm and good organizational abilities. He had the backing of the senior pastor and the whole church seemed ready to move together into small group ministry.
In his enthusiasm, George dropped the bombshell at the weekly staff meeting. He expected the six other pastors on staff to share his commitment to the small group ministry. Each of the six together with his wife, was expected to attend one of the groups. The fact that the other pastors were tied up most nights with children’s meetings, visitation programs, new converts’ classes, music rehearsals and youth activities didn’t really enter the picture. These other activities were to be adjusted to make room for the small group meetings which were more important. “After all”, claimed George, “the people have to see we’re all behind this and supporting this new direction. Isn’t that right, pastor?”
What George failed to see was the equal importance of the ministries of the other men. The significance of “his” small group program was in no way undermined by the other men continuing with choir cantatas, counseling sessions and children’s programs. In his passion to do what God had given him to do, he was blind to what God had given others to do.
As George persisted, it had an unsettling effect on the prayer time that closed the staff meeting. There was no peace in the prayer. Further, it resulted in a breakdown of staff relationships and tension around the office, in the days following. There was resentment towards the new small group ministry. In the end, the new ministry became counter-productive to the rest of the church’s ministry and had to be dropped.
Ergocentricity can be deadly. It’s divisive. It breaks relationships. It breeds arrogance and pride. It also provokes a reaction in others, bringing out the worst in people. When a person is ergocentric, others react with pettiness, frustration, stubbornness or a critical spirit.
I first had to struggle with this when I returned home after 10 years of overseas missionary work in Africa and Asia. As I visited churches, I saw aggressive pastors erecting large new multi-million dollar complexes that seemed to me to be ornate examples of poor stewardship. It was hard to take. After struggling overseas with inadequate facilities and equipment for several years, and seeing a great response to the gospel, it seemed to me that my work was indeed more important than what was being done in some of the churches I was visiting. At least, I felt it was more deserving of a bigger slice of the church’s financial pie.
What I failed to realize at first was that the disease, ergocentricity, which I saw in my brother, was just as much in me. Some pastors I visited had little or no interest in my missionary work. They were ergocentric, caught up in their own work. But I had the same attitude. I was so caught up in my calling, my sense of mission and what I saw God doing overseas, I failed to appreciate what God was doing through my brothers at home. My work was no more important than theirs.
Perhaps you’ve had to work with or for an ergocentric pastor. One senior pastor said to me recently, “All the young fellows on my staff are a pain in the neck. They just don’t realize what the real ministry of the church is all about. They don’t feel the burden of the church. They’re only interested in pizza parties. They’re so caught up in their latest musical production they have no time for the real work of the Lord. I’m the only one who seems to understand what the real ministry of the church is all about.”
There it is: ergocentricity. It’s the attitude that says, “My work is what’s critical around here. What you guys are doing just doesn’t count.”
The danger is that a a person’s ministry grows, he becomes more and more like an island. He locks his door and his schedule to everyone else. I have to watch this. I’m a workaholic. I get engrossed in what I’m doing. The danger is that I might not take time for anyone else. Obviously I have to guard my time, but I must also have an attitude that acknowledges the other guy and allows him to do his thing for God, and I must give him adequate recognition for doing it.
I feel sorry for one of my close friends who’s ergocentric. It’s resulted in his becoming a loner. He stays aloof. He’s so caught up in what he’s doing that nobody else matters to him. Sure he’s busy and carries a heavy load. And what he’s doing is important to the kingdom. But he doesn’t need to project the impression that only what he does is important. He’s hurting himself, those who must work with him and those to whom he’s trying to minister.
Preachers can unwittingly be ergocentric in their approach to laymen. Either directly or indirectly, pastors can say, “I’m doing the really spiritual work around here. I preach. I counsel. I marry the living and bury the dead. You folk in the pew can do the less important things. You can paint the Sunday school classrooms, landscape the church lot and operate the church nursery. Just leave the significant work to me.” Obviously such an approach fails to recognize the pastoral job as “equipping the saints for ministry.” It’s an attitude that short circuits the effectiveness of a church’s ministry, limits its numerical and spiritual growth and most importantly, bottlenecks evangelism and care in the hands of one person who feels superior and indispensable to what God is doing.
Relationships between churches and para-church organizations provide a good opportunity for ergocentricity to develop. One man recently blasted me because in the 35 or so ministry programs in our church, we don’t have one specifically geared to helping alcoholics. As we met, I had no difficulty acknowledging the need and urgency of his ministry. It was something we’re not doing and which certainly is a great expression of Christian concern and love.
He went on however, to tell me I should cut out many of our present church ministries to make room for his program. In his view, most of what we are doing is secondary to reaching alcoholics. This dear man only had an interest in what he saw to be important and for what God had called him to do. He was blind to what the rest of the body was doing.
The truth is, we’re all part of the body. We need each other. We’re all important. We all have our places. Several years ago, a Chinese pastor in Hong Kong told a story to illustrate how we’re all part of the body of Christ. The story also shows the cure to our ergocentricity.
An elderly Chinese man wearing glasses was walking down a narrow lane. As he walked, a strange thing happened. His nose suddenly started talking with his eyes.
The nose spoke first. “You eyes are so weak and sickly! You can’t see properly. And because of your problems, this man has to use glasses to see correctly. The problem is, though there’s nothing wrong with me, I have to carry the entire weight of the glasses. You eyes don’t carry any of the load. I have to bear the burden of the weight of the glasses all by myself.”
The eyes responded to the nose. “We’re sorry you have to carry the load all by yourself. There’s really nothing we can do about it. This is the way God made us. We apologize for you having to carry the weight of the glasses. Of course, you know there is no way that we could carry them. We need you to help us.”
“I don’t care. You should get yourselves attended to. I want you to know I’m not going to carry the glasses any more.”
With that, the glasses came off. The old man was left to struggle down the narrow road without the use of his glasses. He couldn’t see very well and stumbled and groped to find his way until he walked into the wall of a building.
What part of the old man got hurt first? Of course it was his nose! And the nose of the old man learned an important lesson. The nose, though it was strong, needed the eyes, though they were weak. The nose learned that every part of the body is important.
Ergocentricity is costly. Unity is priceless. Every part of the body of Christ has its function, and harmonious churches live with this awareness.
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