I was born in the 1960s and even I can remember a time when a persons honor was their honesty. There was a time when speaking the truth was highly revered; when being articulate in your communication was something important. Today we seem to have allot of pastors who are not concerned with being accurate in their speech and being honest with the people they serve. Instead what we are seeing is a total paradigm shift in the way many pastors are behaving towards the people they are to be serving. I know of a pastor who likes to say "All I can do is tell you what the Bible says." what he is really saying is whatever he says that is what the Bible says. He has the same characteristics as the Catholic Pope. We are seeing more of this in certain churches. I will not say which denomination that this is happening in but I believe that we are seeing allot of pastoral failure in pastors that are in there 50S-60s. These are the people who where raised during the hippie generation. And many of them were raised by abusive and alcoholic fathers
The Bible says: 3Jo 1:9 ¶ I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
It is a known fact that there are symptoms to tell when someone has mental problems such as depression. We are seeing more depression then we have ever seen in this country. A country that has more things to do and more materialism and a heightened technology so that people are able to do more things for fun then ever before in this country and the world for that matter.
There are ways to tell when people are suffering anxiety and depression. One way is how much they eat and how much they buy. There is another way and that way is seen in those who want to have authority over other people. Mt 20:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
Mt 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
It is a fact that when a pastor forgets that he is the servant of the people he replaces his pastoralship for an abusive, critical, defensive, authoritarian attitude and although he may say some right things in his sermons the Godly spirit is absent in his speech, attitude and spirit. He then becomes critical of others and makes sure no one is critical of him. He talks negative about others to people who he favors in his church and preaches at others for backbiting. He then begins to speak more from his own experiences then he does from scripture and at the same time out from the other side of his mouth he says we need to go by what the Bible says.
One of the biggest problems I see among IFB pastors today is that many of them push people into ministry's and they tell people if you are not out soul winning every Saturday then you are not spiritual. This is called manipulation. The duty of a pastor is to assist a church member in what the member believes he has been called to do in the church. Too many IFB pastors have tried to become the holy spirit in peoples lives and have hurt the cause of Christ.
Every human being was made differently by God with different tastes, ambitions and desires. But many IFB pastors that have been trained in our modern so called Bible colleges have been brain washed into the belief that they have to push people into ministry if anything is going to be done. So it is the IFB pastors that have no faith when they do this.
Unfortunately we are seeing this in some pastors. Called pulpit abuse. It is not uncommon these days to see these pastors who think that they can behave how they want to behind the pulpit saying such terrible things such as "I am like the apostle Paul" or "at least I don't do that",or "I am not like some people at least", or "I do not do those things". Or they like to tell allot of stories about themselves using themselves as the example to be followed steering away from Biblical truth.
I know of a pastor who uses his experiences to preach with as though those experiences are reveled truth in other words they are on par with scripture.
As people become more selfish people become more consumed with self. We especially see this in some supervisory roles. Especially in roles where people have spiritual authority over others. Such as some pastors. I must admit I have seen too much when it comes to some pastors being dishonest with their people.
Today I am writing from three experiences that I have had with three pastors that were not honest with their people. Being a minister myself I am very concerned with the negative affect this has on our communities; on immature Christians who are new and impressionable. I am also concerned how these kind of unqualified pastors influence people who are outside of the Local Churches. I am afraid that when the world is confronted with these kind of pastors that they are going to think that if that is the way preachers and church people are then I want no part of church or anything to do with Jesus Christ.
This same pastor even told me that he believes in the philosophy that he tears people down to build them up. That same philosophy came out of the cults. That also came out of Nazism and communism. It is also called mental manipulation. That way the pastor transcends the Leadership of the Holy Spirit of peoples lives and he in effect becomes the Holy Spirit.
One of these pastors unbiblical philosophy is that you tear the people (in church while preaching) down and then build them up. This is also the same pastor who has said many times that "we need to go by what the Bible says". He is obviously not going by what the Bible says. Because in 1 Kings 12 there is a principle taught 1 Kings 12:4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.
5 And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed.
6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?
7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.
Pr 15:1 ¶ A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Pr 28:1 ¶ The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
This article is not meant to be one sided. I realize that there are also many cases when there are members who are blind to themselves as well and become just as much a trouble maker as any novice pastor.
Dictatorial Pastor. This type pastor almost totally controls what is presented to the church. He keeps his church uninformed and under his control. By nature most members trust their pastor and if told something is true, they tend to believe without checking it out. Dictatorial pastors tend toward pseudo Fundamentalism, most Mainstream pastors are inclined to keep their congregation informed. A dictatorial pastor will only tell his congregation what he wants them to know.
The Pastor is considered the dictator, the pope who takes God's place. What ever he says goes. No one must question his authority. He is held in very high esteem, if not even worshiped. This is no more evident then at branch chapels where amazing things happened. One pastor would call up where you work to find out exactly how much money you made so he could figure out exactly how much tithe you owed the church. Then you are required to pay up. Some pastors and visiting speakers want you to empty out all your pockets in the offering plate. One person was torn between putting all his money in the offering plate or buying a pair of shoes that his child desperately needed. Another key point is starting the service exactly on time or else you get locked out; however, the pastor ends the service whenever he is ready which is usually very late, and his voice is about to give out from yelling for the past hour about how sinful you were this past week, and that I am endanger of hell fire if I don't repent. After about 50 choruses of Just as I am, and repeated pleas to come forward for salvation the service ends unless someone comes forward and needs to be baptized. It seems that many of these pastors are on a big ego trip, and come from broken homes with an alcoholic father. The classic example is
I will be adding more.
