Pastors make an easy target for criticism. Every week they are on display, carefully explaining God’s Word, challenging us toward Christlike living. But sometimes we look to find things to criticize. It’s easy to overlook all the good things a pastor does and focus on our personal opinions.
Like all of us, our pastors are not perfect. So I’m not saying that we should follow them blindly and never confront error through the proper channels. But some words from the writer of Hebrews may help us find the right way of thinking about our leaders who are presenting God’s truth and modeling servant leadership. The writer says, “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account” (13:17, NIV).
Think about that. Before God, our pastor is responsible for guiding us spiritually. We should want that burden to be joyous, not grievous. The passage indicates that causing grief for the pastor “would be of no benefit”. (v. 17). We honor God and make things better for our church when we give honor to those He has appointed as our leaders. Pastors who preach God’s Word need a good word from God’s people.
Sad, but the pastors I know are all in the caliber of what @nairobilay has just displayed.
Trust me confidence and submission becomes a joke. Not nowadays anyway. Most have made the church a side hustle. They have to eat. And yes, EATING they do well
Facts
a) Most of them pastors have not been called by God. On the contrary, they have been called by their stomachs, desire for fame and to control people’s minds.
b) If there is no coin to be made from preaching, 99% of preachers would not be preaching. If there are no freebies like expensive parish houses and free cars, do you think many priests would remain in priesthood?
c) Religion and by extension, religious ‘leaders’, rarely transform people. Today, if you miraculously remove Christianity from Kenya, do you really expect the homicide rates to sharply increase? Do you expect theft to triple overnight? If you remove religion, most likely you wont see any difference in how people live. In fact, Africans became more corrupted once they adopted Christianity.
d). Walking with God is a deeply personal decision. Being religious is normally a customary practice. You are a christian not because you assessed different religious figures and you settled on Jesus. You are a christian because you were born in a christian enviroment. hence, many Christian ‘leaders’ are merely so because of traditions not out of deep convictions. If they themselves are not fully convinced of Christianity, how can they purport to teach the same?
e)There is no better way to preach than through your actions. Shouting from the pulpit is normally very artificial.