The majority of Christian ministers will serve in obscurity and anonymity. This is not a sign of failure. It is a gift. 

 In Out of the Limelight, author C. Randall Schrock urges ministers to reject the drive to make a name for themselves and instead receive anonymity as God’s gift. This may seem counterintuitive, but it reflects Jesus’s teaching about emptying oneself and assuming the lowest place. The author’s passion for this subject arises from his own struggle to accept anonymity and reject the enticements of the celebrity-pastor model.  

 This insightful resource presents a challenge to ministers: reject society’s idolatrous fixation on fame, set aside the drive to make a name for themselves, and discover the blessings of the obscurity to which God has called them. It is praying John Wesley’s prayer: “I am no longer my own, but Yours, put me with what You will, rank me with whom You will … let me be exalted for You or brought low for You.” It is an invitation to downward mobility, as Henri Nouwen phrased it.