PRIDE:
PASTORAL; CHURCH: SUCCESS; CORRECTION: UNWILLINGNESS TO HEAR

Churches and Christian organizations have shown a tendency to fall into the same error that destroyed Israel: inability to receive admonition. After a time of growth and successful labor comes the deadly psychology of self-congratulation. Success itself becomes the cause of later failure. The leaders come to accept themselves as the very chosen of God. They are special objects of the divine favor; their success is proof enough that this is so. They must therefore be right, and anyone who tries to call them to account is instantly written off as an unauthorized meddler who should be ashamed to dare to reprove his betters.

Proverbs 8:33–36; Proverbs 15:10; Ecclesiastes 4:13; Jeremiah 5:3

The Root of the Righteous, 28, 29.