There are big names out there. When we speak in our circles, certain names are revered. That circle may be our Thursday night young adults Bible study; the local church that gathers on Sunday afternoons; presbytery; or the parachurch organisation you serve. And the names are used as references in conversations, debates, or discussions, scoring points and credibility. In fact, working closely with one of them might even elevate your status. These are the influential and impressive. But influence has its pitfalls.
Big names have existed throughout church history. More will come—and go. Even in the apostle Paul’s days, there were big names. He refers to “those who seemed influential” (Galatians 2:6).
Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or a prominent leader in your denomination, you have influence.
But, as a Christian, you should recognise that you too are influential. Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, an accountant for a multinational company, or a prominent leader in your denomination, you have influence. The singular effect of this isn’t important. Because each of us serves a role in God’s great plan. In this article, I want to exhort you both to realise that you have influence, but that it is also limited in some important ways.
Influence in Light of the Gospel
First up, your status and credentials don’t affect the content of the gospel. The gospel remains, regardless of your position in the church or society. You may be a local church ruling elder, the president of a seminary, a bestselling author, or the director of a massive Christian organisation, yet the gospel is unaffected. Even though you hold an important leadership post, your influence holds no sway over God’s gospel.
We don’t determine the gospel, regardless of our influence.
You aren’t able to add, subtract, multiply, or divide the gospel’s content. Think back to Galatians 2:6, mentioned above. Paul’s fellow apostles—James, Cephas, and John—were simultaneously some of the most authoritative leaders of the early church and profoundly wrong (Galatians 2:4-6). These big names couldn’t add to the gospel, with their insistence on circumcision and cleanliness. If this were true for the apostles, it is also true for you and me. Outside of the scriptures, there is no authority to determine something new concerning the content of the gospel. Our call as followers of Jesus is to spread the gospel; we don’t determine it, regardless of our influence.
How to Be Influential—for God
Next, as I alluded to in my introduction, you do nevertheless have influence. And you should use it, even if all that means is being aware of how people will use our lives as yardsticks for the gospel we profess.
People will use our lives as yardsticks for the gospel we profess.
With this in mind, integrity will be one of the surest ways we can influence others for the gospel. It isn’t about the names we can drop or people we rub shoulders with. Rather, it’s about our own growth in grace and character, living consistently with our faith before others. Influence by proximity or association is borrowed at best. But God calls on us to develop our own influence, which is inseparable from becoming and loving like Christ. In the end, both people and God will examine you—not your work, productivity or the names you’ve bound your identity to.
Returning to Galatians 2, the influential crowd that Paul confronted were wrong. Their big names and charisma counted for nothing when it was shown that they preached some other gospel (Galatians 2:2). Therefore, for the young man in ministry, it’s more important to spend more time being mentored than seeking to imitate your mentor’s success. Nor does it matter to have your name appear alongside your mentor’s at that next major conference (Luke 10:20). Association with and the commendation of Christ—living consistently with his gospel—outweighs all.
This is where your influence truly matters, when others are moved to evaluate the gospel on the basis of your Christian conduct (1 Peter 2:12).
The Limits of Influence
It will come to an end. Some of your influence will wane and eventually fade away because of death. Perhaps your term in an influential office comes to an end. But in an ultimate sense, all of our influence is limited by time and space.
In an ultimate sense, all of our influence is limited by time and space.
Yes, it might extend beyond both, lingering for centuries in countries outside of your own. We need only think of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, or R. C. Sproul, and the list could go on. Such people’s influence may even continue until the Lord returns. On the other hand, your influence could be forgotten within a generation; just ask the youth pastor who’s all but forgotten two years into the new youth pastor’s tenure.
However great our labours, let us not forget that our influence will be limited. This should, I think, move us to carefully consider how we’re using that influence; and what we’ll make of it as we reflect on it in eternity.
Complement Others Instead of Competing
Recognising our limited influence is also an important means of acknowledging God is working in others—and that we can’t do it alone. We are all labouring in God’s vineyard, regardless of our office, status or title. In other words, the bishop and the barista operate in the same space; the latter is not somehow insignificant in the kingdom of God or inferior to the former. Likewise, the president of a seminary and a pastor engaged in training rural pastors have much in common. One should not imagine he’s better than the other. Each of us is labouring in the same field, just in different corners.
The bishop and the barista operate in the same space.
Thus, big names and influential figures would do well to recognise their co-labourers. They should uplift newbies and novices. As an influential person in your own right, don’t forget that God is working beyond your ministry. He’s doing that with men and women you might not have picked, but he has.
Influence and Responsibility
Other people’s influence ends when their disqualifying sins or gross moral failures are exposed. Even the most influential have their flaws. They err. They sin. Strip a man of his influence, and he’s still a man. No matter how much preaching he does or how big a seminary he leads, he is fallen. You are, too. Sinful. This means that each of us is prone to sin, to wander into sinful desires or ungodly ambition. All this means we should be alert and accountable, maybe more so as our influence grows.
All of us have clay feet, so don’t be blinded by influence—your own or another’s.
Back to Galatians 2, one last time. Few people would have surpassed Peter in the early church in terms of influence. Yet Paul called him out for conduct that was horribly contradictory to the gospel (Galatians 2:14). Worse still, his influence led others astray (Galatians 2:13). This could then be true of ourselves or those we look up to. All of us have clay feet, so don’t be blinded by influence—your own or another’s.
In the end, all of us have one thing in common, despite having tremendous influence or none at all: we struggle with indwelling sin and must regularly repent.
