Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples (John 13:34-35 NLT).

To my esteemed Colleagues, Associates, Fellow Leaders, Students and Friends in the Kingdom, there is a sober weight on me in this hour.

The world is accelerating, pressure is rising, and people are hungry for something real. But one of the greatest threats to regional growth is not only what happens outside the Church—it’s what happens between churches and ministries when leaders begin speaking against each other.

Jesus made the mark of true disciple-hood unmistakable mentioned in John 13:34-35 above. That means our witness is not just our sermons. It’s our tone, our honour, our restraint, and our willingness to celebrate what God is doing in someone else’s field. 

Not Career Politics

And let’s be honest: I have watched leaders fall into jealousy when another church grows faster, reaches different people, or has a more effective strategy. But the harvest is not a competition. The harvest is plentiful. Enough to go around! In fact the moment we live in is both urgent and overwhelming. “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few” (Matt 9:37 KJV). If one part of the Body advances, the whole Body should rejoice.

So, treating the ministry like a competition or when leadership becomes a career, it begins to resemble politics: territorial, image-driven, and influence-hungry. Yet Jesus contrasts the hireling who runs with the shepherd who stays for the sheep. To Peter He didn’t say, “Build your brand!” He said, “Feed My sheep” (John 10:12-13; John 21:15-17).

The Gospel doesn’t need Competing Brands it needs a United Body

Scripture warns us plainly what envy produces: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice…” (James 3:16 NIV). That “disorder” doesn’t stay private. It leaks into teams, congregations, and entire cities. It creates suspicion, factions, and spiritual sterility. “If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another” (Gal 5:15 KJV).

Leaders especially must refuse the corrosive pattern of talking down other leaders. “Do not speak evil against one another” (James 4:11). Comparisons are a trap: “they measuring themselves by themselves… are not wise” (2 Cor 10:12 KJV). Paul confronted the “ministry rivalry” spirit head-on—“I am of Paul… I am of Apollos”—and called it carnality (1 Cor 3:3-7). The gospel doesn’t need competing brands; it needs a united Body.

The more we centre the conversation on Jesus—rather than ourselves, our platforms, our offence—the more heaven can breathe on the work: “If I be lifted up… will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32 KJV).

Together We Can do a Great Work

Nehemiah gives a sobering picture of what stops building: not only opposition, but distraction—voices trying to pull workers off the wall. Nehemiah’s answer was blunt: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down” (Neh 6:3 KJV). That’s a word for leaders right now. We are doing a great work. We cannot come down into petty rivalry, insinuation, and side-conversations that weaken the wall.

So I’m appealing to us all—pastors, leaders, students and believers—without lecturing, but with urgency: let’s choose maturity. Let’s speak with honour. Let’s pray for one another. Let’s bless what God is blessing. Let’s stop poisoning the well we all drink from. The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s Church (Matt 16:18), but we must refuse the kind of internal division that slows the harvest.

We are ONE BODY (Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:12, 27; Eph 4:4-5; Psalm 133:1 KJV)

In Him,
Pray for us all.
Apostle Dr Alan Pateman

​​​​​​PS: We need fathers in the pulpits, fathers who are lifting up sons. The spirit of ambition is never God, but the leading of the Holy Spirit.

NOTE: Don’t forget, Dr Alan’s books are available as Paperbacks, Hardcovers, or eBooks on all Amazon markets, the iBookStore, NookStore, Lulu, and other retail outlets. As of now, also available as Audiobooks, on Amazon.com and Audible.com.