"Giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God..." 11 Corinthians 6;3,4.
It is no gainsaying but a true fact that respect for pastors by church members and the society is at a very low ebb today. Pastors have become the butt of jokes everywhere.
Wealthy people don't respect pastors because they believe that every pastor has a price and can be bought with money. The society at large sees most pastors as 'money monger' and that church is a commercial venture. At every turn, aspersions are cast at the church and the name of our Lord is dragged in the mud, due to the misdemeanors of big time,popular and famous pastors. People plot, plan and work against pastors through wrong accusations and the press and social media is daily awash with fake, cooked up stories of pastoral sins and evil deeds. It was not like this 35 years ago when I got saved. Then, there was high respect and honour for pastors.
We looked at pastors as junior Jesus because of their Christlike lifestyles and honour them for the great and sacrificial work they are doing.
What happened and why this evil trend today? Well, our research has uncovered the following reasons;
1. Becoming a pastor is no longer by God's calling but promotion and appointment by your church.
It started in the middle 80s, when churches that want to expand by all means begins to appoint, ordain every Ade, Ada and Adamu into pastoral positions. There was no more considerations for Gods calling into the ministry. By so doing, many who have no business or grace to shepherd GOD'S people found themselves in this stressful work and they mess up big time, and still messing up. If God did not call you into this work, His power will never back you up. You are simply on your own, and you will cut corners to meet up with people's expectation of you.
2. Scandals upon scandals by pastors.
In the last 25 years, there had been lots of nauseating financial, sexual and leadership scandals by pastors that lowers the sacredness of the pastoral office. And no denomination or church is spared from these scandals. From Cape to Cairo, Johanessburgh to Juba, Lagos to Los Angeles, Abuja to America, the church is reeking with lots of scandals that has made the public to lose great respect for her pastors. The scandals of one pastor rubs off on the rest of us all, because the public believes we are all the same.
3. Abusive tendencies that hurts people.
Pastors in denominational and independent churches have practiced and continues to practice financial, leadership, administrative, doctrinal, counseling, prophetic and family abuses that has deeply hurt people and broke their trust and respect for the pastoral institution. Too many people have been hurt by the church and they have stopped attending any congregation today, though they still retain their CHRISTIAN Faith.
4. Trial and Error ministry by most pastors.
Sad to note that majority of modern pastors have little or no training for ministry. The more reason there is so much incompetence, ineffectiveness and gambling with the souls of people under their care. Untrained pastors will surely lead people astray. Half-baked pastors will waste the souls of many people in hell. I make bold to say that one month, two months training or seminar will never make a pastor to be spiritually,ministerially healthy to lead people to heaven. Incompetent pastors will never earn the respect of people.
5. Scriptural discipline is lacking in churches.
Respect for pastors is very low simply because those who sins or abuse their position and office are hardly disciplined by the church. Things are explained away and covered with the proverbial carpet. Pastors who are cut red handed in drug abuse, sexual sins are not removed from ministry but rather transferred to another town,church and place to continue in their shameful activities, thereby bringing hurts to to others and reproach to the name of Christ.
6. Jesus has been dethroned from His Church.
Today, it is man, not Jesus, that is being lifted up in most of our churches. Christians in churches can defend and die for our G.Os, but cannot do same for Jesus. Pastors today run their churches according to their own philosophies, not the teachings of Jesus. Many modern pastors don't like the life and teachings of Jesus and do all they can to sidetrack him. In fact, all the attention is on pastors, and Jesus is relegated to the background, small wonder that many fall away like pack of cards when they get disappointed in their human idols.
7. Secular tendencies has taken over.
Respect for pastors is very low today because most churches have resorted to secular methods, styles, branding, swagger and management to run a spiritual entity. Educational degrees, packaging, dressing swagger and deception has turn the spiritual house of God into secular pursuits where carnalities and flesh reigns supreme. Thus, when people sees the shallowness and hollowness of our packaging, and discovers that Holy Spirit is not there, our respect takes a great tumble. Pastors have tried to command respect by investing in big titles, big chairs, big garments,big buildings and big pockets, yet our respect scales continue to look downward because we are not what God says we should be.
8. The Word of God is mutilated and twisted for our own gain.
Majority of modern pastors lacks the true knowledge of the Word and will of God. Biblical illiteracy is very high in today's church. Erroneous teachings, practices and biblical mutilations are very rife in the pulpits of today. It seems the only scripture we know is only about giving, praying against the enemy and making quick monies. We even use prophetic words to hoodwink, make merchandise and deprive people of their hard earned money in the name of first born redemption,family deliverance and prophetic liberations. Small wonder pastors no more amount to anything in the eyes of the society.
9. Idolatry of the world reigns supreme in our pulpits.
What shall I say about the idolatry of the world by modern pastors, in the name of "God has blessed me and I must show it to the world"? We love this world and must enjoy it as much as possible. We live for 'things' and are ready to cut corners just to have them, not minding the image we are projecting to the world. We acquire and run after perishable things of the world at the expense of our eternal souls. We lay our treasures here on earth, where moth and rut corrupts them and are not different from sinners out there. How can they continue to respect us when they see no difference between them and us?
10. The healthy FEAR of the Lord is not in our hearts.
The holy writ says that the 'fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom', but that is no more the case with us. The fear, dread and holy awe of the Lord is no more in our hearts, that is why a pastor can defraud, steal, get drunk with alcohol and shortchanged his office, members and still mount the pulpit to preach on Sunday's. That is why a pastor can rape his daughter, take money from armed or pen robbers and still goes around to preach and pray God's blessings upon people, Projecting who he is not. And when his secrets is discovered, he blames it on the devil, thereby bringing shame to the name of Christ and the holy office of a shepherd of Gods flock.
11. Years of neglecting true discipleship.
Most churches only focuses on numerical growth to the utter neglect of spiritual growth of the converts. People are not taught to grow in the Lord, become Christlike in their daily lives. Therefore, we have Christians who are babes, carnal and unstable in the Lord. They are disciples of their churches and G.Os, not that of Jesus. And since the Christians of today are the pastors of tomorrow, we have carnal, ungodly, spiritually destitute people becoming pastors in droves and their unchristlike lifestyles have brought shame and disrespect to the gospel of Christ. Undiscipled pastors will always walk and work in the arm of the flesh.
To bring respect back to the pastoral institution today demands for genuine repentance from pastors and churches.
We need to apologize to our nation and society. Each pastor must go back to God for transformation of heart and life. Some pastors need to quit the ministry because God did not call nor grace them for this tough job. Pastors must start building spiritual character over charisma. We must return back to the Bible, Holy Spirit and fruits of the Spirit afresh. We must go back for training,retraining and continuos training in ministry matters. We must stop bringing every dick and Harry into ministry. We must do our churches in biblical ways and principles. It is then and only then can we see God's revival,and society will respect the pastoral institutions again.
Ultimately, you don't demand for respect, you earn respect by your lifestyle and actions. So, each of us will have to prove to society that we are true, it is then you can start to earn their respect again.
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