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First person: Pastors and ministry leaders, stop drinking your own Kool-Aid

When the problem is with the leader, in almost every case, it starts when that pastor or ministry leader starts drinking his or her own Kool-Aid.
  • May 12, 2025
  • Phil Cooke
  • Featured, First Person, Latest News
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First person: Pastors and ministry leaders, stop drinking your own Kool-Aid

Crisis situations come in all shapes and sizes, from sexual abuse, financial mismanagement, outside critics, legal issues, and more. But when the problem is with the leader, in almost every case, it starts when that pastor or ministry leader starts drinking his or her own Kool-Aid.

RELATED: Check out more stories from Christian media expert Phil Cooke. 

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There’s an old saying that you should never believe your own press, and it’s a critical standard for leaders. However, time after time, especially when leaders start becoming popular or successful, they start believing what people are saying, and that’s what gets them into trouble.

Quietly taking extra money from the church? Why not? People don’t understand the pressure I’m under and expect me to live a better lifestyle.

Living more luxuriously? Of course. I need a bigger house and a nicer car since I’ll be meeting with more influential people like me.

Don’t have time for the people in my church or my team? It’s because of the demands on my time. I can’t be available to just anybody anymore.

The list goes on and on, but you get it.

Need for humility

Whatever nice things people say about you, be grateful, but take them with a grain of salt.

The minute you start believing all those things, it gives the enemy a foothold, and drinking that Kool-Aid is never a good idea.

And now that I think of it, looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever met a leader who crashed and burned because he or she was too humble.


EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Christian media expert Phil Cook and originally published by philcooke.com.

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