Pastors Who Don’t Deserve Churches

Last week I wrote about churches that don’t deserve to have pastors. I’m disheartened that such churches exist, and your responses lead me to think that there are more of these congregations out there than I realized.

Sadly, there’s also such a thing as the veteran pastor – or the would-be pastor – who doesn’t deserve to be called to a church. As an equal-opportunity offender, I felt that I should take on this subject today.

More seriously, I’m addressing the subject because church lay leaders need to be wary of these individuals.

If it’s ever possible to pray too much, it certainly isn’t during the pastor search process. 

I have to confess that a couple of times while coaching pastoral search teams, while thinking that these dear folks were blessed to have my help, I was taken in and deceived by one of these undeserving pastor candidates. That’s not something I enjoy admitting, but I want you to be as careful and prayerful as I would be if I were involved in a search process again.  So here we go.

Five kinds of pastors who don’t deserve churches.

1. The pastor with big gaps in his moral character. Those lists of qualifications for church leadership in Titus one and I Timothy three are there for a reason. It’s true that the Apostle Paul’s standards are so high that – taken to an extreme – they would disqualify everyone. Nevertheless, interpreted with reason and common sense, knowing that Paul expected every assembly to have one or more of these men, every precious word of these lists should be exegeted carefully and considered seriously.

The stories of pastors with sexual indiscretion proclivities, of course, are legion. But there are just as many would-be-reverends who have issues with lying, pride, unresolved childhood wounds, not loving their wives and children, workaholism, plagiarism and anger control.

How are you going to find out about these flaws before it’s too late?  Asking candidates or having them check boxes on an application isn’t going to cut it.  The closest thing to a “blamelessness” insurance policy you can get is to interview (not “check”) a number of references, beginning with those the candidate supplies to you but also including others referred to you by those initial references. I tell churches that you need to find out what this man got in trouble for in kindergarten and first grade.

2. The pastor who thinks he should be the church’s dictator. I’m aware that I’m writing to Christians who are members of congregations with several kinds of church polity (governance): congregational (bottom up democracy), presbyterian (elder leadership) and episcopalian (top down authority from headquarters), are the three main categories.

For the most part, only in episcopalian denominations is the pastor expected to exercise one-man rule over the congregation, and even there this authority is more theoretical than practical. In the real world, very few congregations want their pastors to be dictators. Those who try, know how to cite their education, intelligence, experience, ordination, or a few Bible verses taken out of context.  The problem is that would-be dictators hardly ever tell the church – during the hiring/calling process – that this is their intent. That brings us to a third type of pastor who doesn’t deserve a job:

3. The pastor who takes the position on false pretenses; he’s not honest during the candidating process. Right about now I can hear a chorus of pastors saying, “Yeah, but churches are notoriously dishonest with their pastor candidates also!” and that’s true, but that’s a different post for a different time.

Besides the false pretense of being willing to submit to, rather than lording over, some kind of church board, Pastor Unworthy might also pretend to love the church’s music (which he actually hates), adore senior citizens (whom he finds disgusting), agree with the church’s constitution (which he intends to ignore or replace), or put his roots down and stay in the town for many years (which he has no intention of doing).

4. The pastor who wants to change everything, right now. Pastors should be change agents. God wants His people to be in a perpetual state of metamorphosis (Romans 12:1,2, II Corinthians 3:17,18). God wants his churches (mission stations on the mission field with members who are missionaries) to be continually adapting themselves, in love, to make as many disciples as possible, for God’s glory (Matthew 28:18-20, I Corinthians 9:15-23).

This means change and pastors and other church leaders (shepherds of the flock in Acts 20:28-32 and I Peter 5:1-4) are supposed to lead it.  Shepherds don’t just feed the sheep, they lead the sheep. But change should never be simply conformity to the pastor’s tastes or preferences and it should always be undertaken with patience, tact and sensitivity to the reality that all change involves both gains and losses.

While all pastors should be change agents, wise pastors know they must earn the right to cash in those “change coupons” at the right time and in the right way. The “woods are full” of former pastors who tried to change everything they thought should be changed in a year or two.

5. The pastor who is only in it for the money. I can hear a thousand pastors laughing right now since most of them could be making much larger salaries – and working fewer hours – doing something else.

But I’m not talking about the extremely rare individual who goes into the ministry for the sake of the salary; I’m talking about the not-so-rare individual who has served to or beyond a normal  retirement age, has lost his passion, energy or health, or even – I shudder to write it – his love for the people of his congregation or town, but continues on in his position another year, followed by another year, because he feels he can’t survive without his salary.

I’m not saying that such individuals should be quickly and unceremoniously walked to the door – most of them deserve respect, honor and consideration.  But I’m pleading with such individuals to trust God with their future and to not “hang on for retirement” for another year when their ability or desire or opportunity to lead their church onward and upward has evaporated.

I hate to flatly say that such men are “only in it for the money,” but that’s pretty much what I’ve heard on a number of occasions: “I can’t afford to retire.”

As a 72 year-old still living by faith, I dare say that our wonderful heavenly Father, who has cared for us for all these years, is not going to let you down.  He will, in fact, honor you, for graciously making way for a younger leader.