The Deadliest Sin: A Penetrating Look at the Poison of Pride in a Leader

By Chuck Foreman

Leaders are falling victim to the deadliest sin every day! Many potentially great leaders never realize their potential because they unwittingly become slaves to their own pride. In The Deadliest Sin, youll find a penetrating look at the poison of pride in the life of a leader. Chuck Foreman says, Its high time we as leaders recognize that, as a rule, we are not very humble, and that humility is not the absence of pride, but the relentless effort to subdue pride in ourselves.

"Be ready to laugh and cry. But most important, be ready to be confronted with the uncomfortable and even painful recognition of your own double standard in terms of pride and its opposite humility. Chucks book is honest, easy to read, and has short useful topics to discuss with your leadership team. I plan to use it with ours at Harvest."

-Bob Moffitt, author, If Jesus Were Mayor. President, Harvest Foundation

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449756192

Chuck Foreman

Chuck Foreman and his wife, Kathy, served as missionaries in Taiwan for twenty years and were also field coordinators for East Asia with Team Expansion. They have four children and two grandchildren. Chuck and Kathy live in Phoenix, Arizona, where Chuck is the teaching and missions pastor for First Christian Church, a church recognized for its leadership in modeling what it means to humbly serve its community.

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Copyright © 2012 Chuck Foreman

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-5618-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5617-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-5619-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910731

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/23/2012

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 - The Deadliest Sin

Chapter 2 - O How the Mighty have Fallen

Chapter 3 - The Pride Proverbs

Chapter 4 - The Deceitful Human Heart

Chapter 5 - A Social Can of Worms

Chapter 6 - Practicing Humility

Chapter 7 - Authority is a Gift

Chapter 8 - The Accountability Imperative

Chapter 9 - Jesus’ Biggest Beef

Chapter 10 - Influence

Chapter 11 - The Man in the Mirror

Afterword

Notes

To Mom and Dad

I first saw genuine humility—

the relentless effort to subdue pride in oneself, in you.

Foreword

Proverbs 27:2 says, Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips. It seems especially appropriate for someone else [in this case…. me] to write a commendation of Chuck Foreman’s new book, The Deadliest Sin. The author was blessed to be reared in a home with biological parents who are the male and female personification of humility. He graduated from a Bible College that has as its by-line the words of Jesus who came, not to be served, but to serve. Chuck is a husband who lives considerately with his wife and a father who is deadly serious about bringing up his children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Chuck is a Level 5 spiritual leader with a missionary heart. All this to say, he got it—at home, in college, on the mission field, in the local church and in life—and he gets it—when it comes to dealing with pride. He has the moral authority to teach us about this subtle sin that so often derails professed leaders. He has the mind and the gift to articulate what we need to hear most about leadership pride/humility. Chuck’s self-disclosure on this topic is at times startling and at all times refreshing! It contributes dynamically to the purpose for which he writes. A perceptive leadership read; Biblical, clear and relevant!

Ken Idleman

Past President, Ozark Christian College, Joplin, MO

Lead Pastor, Crossroads Christian Church, Evansville, IN

Acknowledgements

Much thanks goes to Sandy, Jon and Linda for tenaciously and tediously proofing the original drafts of The Deadliest Sin, and making invaluable suggestions for improvement.

Cindy, you’re the best assistant on the planet! Thanks for all your help in getting my very rough draft much less rough and for seeing all the endless details of this long project through to the end.

And Kathy Jo, you kept me going with your continual encouragement through the whole writing process. No affirmation does for a husband what his wife’s can do! Thanks for flanking me these 30 years, and for being much less impressed with me than I am of myself. I need your perspective.

My boys, Micah, Nick, and Kurt, how did you get bigger and stronger than me? Thanks for continually reminding me that you can take Dad out any time, any day! Now that’s humbling!

And my sweet little princess, Jenna, you make it all OK because you still think Daddy is all that.

Introduction

"The countervailing virtue to the greatest source  

of evil is not love, but humility." ¹

-Pat Robertson

It occurs to me as I set out to write a book about pride and its countervailing virtue, that this may be the most presumptuous thing I have ever attempted. I mean, really – who could possibly be qualified for such a task? It also occurs to me that perhaps the only safe way to discuss this rare virtue would be to begin with the disclaimer that I am not remotely close to being humble and therefore can only discuss humility from a cautious distance.

This is the conclusion John Dickson came to about himself at the end of his great work Humilitas. The very first step in the pursuit of humility is to recognize that I am not humble. This is excellent news—it means I must be on my way. ²

Even so, I still struggle with determining the best angle from which to approach this whole issue. Does one really deal with humility by discussing its antithesis, arrogant pride? If so, I find myself in a quandary. How can I talk about pride with any integrity unless I admit my own? So here I am, by nature, unqualified to breach an issue we are all likely quite desperately in need of breaching. However, this flaw we share may be the only justification necessary for exploring it. Our guilt, in this case, does not disqualify us. On the contrary, it demands our attention! Our becoming able, or even our willingness, to admit that we are prideful may end up being one of the greatest ends of this discussion. Our relative inability or unwillingness to do so, or our refusal to see our own propensity for pride is precisely why it is called the deadliest sin.

You will find this to be a book of reflections about myself and observations of others known to me, some close to me, who have squandered superb giftedness and failed relationally in life because of never having given the question of their own humility, or the probable lack thereof, a second thought. What follows has evolved out of years of watching leaders, especially, but not exclusively, in the church, become corrupted by their own insatiable desire for recognition and power. They have missed the opportunity for true greatness in the eyes of God and as a result have become destroyers rather than builders of His Kingdom. That, I believe, is the Mother of all Tragedies. These observations have led me to believe that humility is less a character trait and more a purposeful intent, or willful pursuit.

Perhaps this book is actually my own quest. In my mind’s eye, I imagine that you have joined me in the pursuit of this most elusive humble heart. We will both be the better for searching together. May God grant that we discover it.

If you find yourself on the pages of this script, then I happily, refreshingly, welcome you to the club called humanity! If you fail to see yourself here (or refuse), then my point has been made and I can rest my case. The Humble Heart truly is an elusive one. It is evasive. But sadly, when it evades us, it is usually by our own choice – we failed to pursue it relentlessly.

My hope is that you will not give up your quest, for I believe a humble heart, if there actually is such a thing, is truly worth the pursuit. And succumbing to its antithesis is more than undesirable – it’s deadly!

1 

The Deadliest Sin

"For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility  

of love, or contentment, or even common sense." 

– C.S. Lewis ¹

"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." (Proverbs 6:16-19)

Here are the seven. And the first on the list is the deadliest. It is visual; it gives all who care to look a clear view of the heart. Jesus himself said, The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

The eyes illuminate and reveal what the heart desires. When the heart desires to promote and protect itself above all else, the eyes can’t hide it. We all know it well—that look which communicates loud and clear, I’m ‘all that’ and pretty proud of it! I’m above the rules that apply to ordinary people. Please don’t worry your little head with what you imagine my problems are. Even if they existed, you couldn’t possibly comprehend my situation. Your concerns are so ridiculous and beneath me!

If you reflect thoughtfully for a moment on the seven things the Lord hates, it’s not difficult to conclude that the pride behind those haughty eyes can lead, and has led to, every single one of the other six!

Proverbs 16:18 says, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Destruction is a strong word, but there is not one more appropriate to describe the aftermath of insidious pride. What we will see clearly before we’re done is that the destruction of countless lives, relationships, families, and organizations can be traced back to the sin of pride. Of all the things the Lord hates, pride is without a doubt the deadliest.

Who among us has not, at one time or another, been left in the painful wake of