The Selfless Self-Promotion Conundrum - by Ben Morton

Chances are, if you’re reading this, then you’re at least vaguely aware of the world of modern social media. It’s an ocean of voices constantly sharing opinions, tips, rants or whatever stray thought happens to coalesce. It seems like millions of people are crying out to the web to be noticed in the hope that the others will take a break from the same activity to listen for a bit. 

Chances are, you’ve been caught up in the drive to promote your own sense of style and worth - or your collection of favourite hobby-horses or soap-boxes - to build your public profile and show the world who you really are. We all seem to have the idea that it is important to make our online presence an extension of our own carefully crafted façade so that people around us can ‘get us.’

Chances are, you’ve heard that as a writer you need to ‘build a platform', ‘promote your brand', 'publicise your work' and post more content to garner more followers. And if you’re a Christian there’s a fair chance that thinking about this issue makes you feel just a bit icky. 

Yeah, me too.

What are we to do with the fact that the Christian faith is one where humility is prized, and the individual’s identity is found in belonging to the broader body of Christ and the self must give way to the life of Jesus? 

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

I’m not writing this as an example of someone who has it all figured out, or any kind of success story, but rather as a writer who has had this nagging issue in the back of my mind, and a sense that maybe the Holy Spirit is drawing my attention to something I need to learn. So I’m going to spend some time thinking and praying it through on this page and maybe you’ll benefit from it too.

Truth be told, I have never been particularly comfortable with self-promotion, and have occasionally sabotaged myself (possibly unconsciously) because of a desire to be humble and a distaste for self-glorification. As a teenager I struggled with the tension between a desire to pursue fame through my creative talents or to lay them down and serve Christ. I felt like there was no middle road. It was clear to me that the desire for my own recognition was attractive to me for the wrong reasons, and using my God-given talent to achieve it was a corruption of their purpose. I had a very long and painful struggle to let go of all that. People who aren’t believers would probably point to that moment as the reason I never achieved the great things people always predicted for me, but I can’t fault teenaged me for doing what I thought was right at that time, regardless of the consequences.

Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

But God gave me talents so that I could use them, not to bury them and wait for him to return. I need to work and my family need to eat. How do I navigate the issue of being a humble follower of Christ when my talent is the thing I have to sell and it seems unanimous that self-promotion is how artists ‘sell themselves?’ Can I actually sell myself when I belong to Christ? 

I can serve Jesus by using my talents as he intended me to, and by using them to the best of my ability in a way that honours him. In fact, I must do this because they are a gift from him for that purpose. They are not to benefit me, but to serve Him and others. Diligence and faithfulness. Ouch, that hurts. I’m rubbish at those.

But how are people going to know about my faithful and diligent work if I can’t promote myself? I can speak the truth. I can talk about my work and I can talk about my talent, but not to showcase myself. It can’t be about me. God has called me to do this, and a servant doesn’t get credit for doing their work. If I have created something that I believe is likely to be of benefit to others, then it is good that I let them know about it. Not for my benefit, but for theirs.

I pray that for myself, and anyone else who is reading this, that we would know the difference between self-glorification and diligent, humble service accompanied by speaking the truth in love.

How do you navigate the humility / self-promotion conundrum? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Ben Morton AKA Morton Benning.

Bible verses I used

Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth— a stranger, not your own lips.

Don’t demand an audience with the king— or push for a place among the great.

It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table— than to be sent away in public disgrace.

Do you see any truly competent workers?— They will serve kings— rather than working for ordinary people.

Don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

Never act out of selfish ambition or vanity; instead, regard everybody else as your superior.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Some pages I looked at while thinking about this issue.

Beautiful Christian life - what does the bible say about self-promotion?

Lies young women believe - the lure of self-promotion.
SBC voices - marketing, self-promotion and the Christian.
Justin Deeter - four ways to avoid the vanity of self-promotion

The gospel coalition - Justin-Taylor - 10 ways to avoid sinful self-promotion online

Beyond Sunday Worship - Self Promotion In The Church?

CBN self-marketing and Christian Humility are they compatible?

Christian Today - Platform: why a culture of self-promotion threatens to throttle the church

Desiring God - What Is the Difference Between Good and Bad Self-Promotion?

My Song in the Night - Self-Promotion Versus Christian Humility

GoinsWriter - A Surprisingly Satisfying Alternative to Self-promotion

Ben Morton

Ben Morton AKA Morton Benning is an author, illustrator, editor, publisher and occasional lecturer in speculative fiction, as well as a fiction-writing coach who runs his own assisted publication business called Immortalise [helping writers become authors]. He is the author of Playing God, and The Tale of Alathimble Spaide and Other Such Nonsense (Stone Table Books) and creator of Morton’s Anglish Fictionary (Immortalise) and largely responsible for encouraging a lot of creative people to attempt things they weren’t sure they could (or maybe should) do. He and his lovely wife are members of Christies Beach Baptist Church and have almost three adorable girls.