Each of us has a trust fund, but it’s not the kind that the wealthy set up for their heirs to enjoy a lucrative income for a lifetime. This kind of “trust” fund is the combination of influence and reliability that you build up over a lifetime. Though it is invisible and immeasurable, it is one of the most valuable assets that you possess. How much of a difference you make will depend significantly on how much people can trust you. If you mismanage your personal trust fund, your influence will diminish, and your effectiveness as a leader will suffer.
Spiritual leaders must accept the fact that the character and reputation of the messenger will affect how the message is received. This is why Paul exhorts us to be “a vessel unto honour.” (2 Timothy 2:21) Furthermore, every Christian has some level of influence on others. Whether you are a pastor, missionary, evangelist, Sunday school teacher, father, or mother, how well you can lead people spiritually depends greatly on how much people can trust you.
There are many ways that you can mismanage your trust fund. There are obvious examples that do irreparable damage to reputations, like adultery and embezzlement. But there are many other mistakes that, while not having the same level consequences as these, reduce the balance of your “trust” fund nonetheless. Here are three for you to consider.
You lose people’s trust when you respond before you have adequately researched.
We live in the age of instant communication. We can broadcast our thoughts to the entire world in just a matter of seconds. Because of this, many people feel that they must comment on news and current events as soon as possible or miss their chance to be heard. They fear that delay might make them seem “irrelevant.” The danger is that if we speak our minds on a subject before we have had adequate time to gather reliable information, the conclusions we draw will likely turn out to be wrong because we were operating with incomplete or inaccurate information.
Every wrong conclusion that we broadcast reduces our credibility with others. As Proverbs 18:13 bluntly states, “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” When a spiritual leader responds to an issue before taking the time to do real research and learning the facts, his followers will be less likely to trust his judgment the next time.
The story of Joshua and the Gibeonites vividly illustrates the need for adequate research. The Gibeonites came to Joshua, pretending to be from a far country and asking for a peace treaty. Joshua and the elders asked a few basic questions but did not do any real investigation into who the Gibeonites were. Blindly, they entered into a treaty with them. “And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.” (Joshua 9:14) Just three days later, they learned that the Gibeonites were actually Canaanites and that they had been deceived. They could have avoided this mistake had they engaged in prayerful, patient research.
The next time you are tempted to share your views on a news story or some current event, stop and take the time to educate yourself about it. That means spending more than a few minutes scrolling the top hits on a search engine or reading a few articles that were shared on social media. Most importantly, wait for details to come to light instead of jumping to conclusions. Don’t deplete your “trust” fund by impatient ignorance.
You lose people’s trust when you present your personal opinion as absolute truth.
This second mistake is related to the first. Once you have done your research on an issue or current event, you will usually arrive at certain conclusions. You can place those conclusions into one of two categories: opinion or fact. If you want people to trust you, it is imperative that you not confuse the two.
Our pride causes us to conflate our opinions and facts. We think that because we are persuaded that something is so that it must be so. Thus the line between opinions and facts gets blurred.
This mistake is commonly made when discussing other people’s motives. You cannot know what is in someone else’s heart unless they tell you. Asserting that someone did something for a certain reason when you have no way of knowing their motive damages your credibility.
Then there are issues which no one can say with absolute certainty what is or isn’t true. Science is not infallible, journalists are not omniscient, and experts can’t predict the future. Even eyewitnesses of the same event can give contradictory accounts. There will be many times when, having done our due diligence to educate ourselves, we can still only speculate. It is not wrong to speculate, but it is wrong to treat your speculations or those of others as if they were facts.
Sanballat made this mistake when he alleged that Nehemiah was leading a rebellion of the Jews. He said, “It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel.” (Nehemiah 6:6) Sanballat’s argument was a logical fallacy. Gashmu believing something to be true did not make it true. We commit the same mistake, thereby damaging our credibility when we attempt to appeal to our own authority as proof that our opinion is a fact.
Ironically, most people know when you share an opinion as if it were a fact, even if they don’t recognize when they do it themselves. And when spiritual leaders make this mistake, people lose trust in them.
You lose people’s trust when you major on trending topics instead of timeless truths.
This last mistake is one that many young spiritual leaders tend to make. Social media and the twenty-four-hour news cycle have trained us to believe that what is trending is what is important. Because we naturally want to focus on what is important, we then make the mistake of focusing on what is trending. Christianity is not immune to this tendency, either. Biblical doctrines and philosophies are also subject to popular trends driven by social media, Christian publishers, or organizations with large followings.
Following trends is spiritually exhausting, and it is terribly ineffective in growing mature disciples of Jesus Christ. We are to “observe all things,” not just what is popular at the moment. The best way to accomplish this goal is to preach and teach the word of God systematically and not reactively. As the Lord said to Israel, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10)
Some would object that such an approach to ministry renders us irrelevant. This cannot be the case because there is no portion of scripture that is irrelevant. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
We ought to be sensitive to others’ current needs, and there are certain passages of scripture that deal more specifically with some topics and should be applied. We can present timeless truth in a timely manner. But when popular trends drive our ministry and our agenda and when we jump from bandwagon to bandwagon, people will have a hard time following us. Our distraction will become their distraction, and instead of increasing our credibility, we will lose people’s trust.
In conclusion, we should be concerned about credibility because, like it or not, how some people view us will affect how those people view God. God is trustworthy, and therefore we must be trustworthy too. Let us manage our “trust” fund well for the glory of God.
© 2020 Steven Chambers. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
