If you are secure enough in
Jesus to have your boat rocked a bit, then read this carefully and prayerfully
with your seat belt fastened. Originally posted by Thom Rainer
I’ve been working with
pastors and those they serve for over three decades.
That means two things: I have
a lot of experience and I am old.
In the course of three
decades, I have seen some pastors thrive and some pastors fail. And I have seen
two common reasons for pastors failing. They lack leadership skills and they
lack relational skills.
Most pastors have no formal
training in either. Yet they are expected to lead and relate the first day they
begin serving a church. Indeed, many pastors are expected to be bosses of
full-time or part-time personnel even though they may have never led anyone.
So what is the difference
between a good pastor boss and a bad pastor boss? We will address the good
pastor bosses later. For now, I will share with you our conversations with
those who served under bad pastor bosses.
Here are the top ten complaints we
heard:
1.
Micromanagement. “I can’t do
anything without the pastor getting involved and showing me a better way, or
even taking over. He drives me crazy!”
2. Avoiding
conflict. “We have tons of unresolved
conflict in our church because our pastor won’t address the issues. He tries to
please everyone, and so he pleases no one.”
3. Avoiding making
decisions. “Our church seems like we are
stuck in molasses because the pastor just can’t make a decision. He seems to
live in fear of making the wrong move.”
4. Stealing
credit. “My pastor can’t stand for
anyone else to have a good idea. It has to be his own. So if we have a good
idea, he ridicules it. But a few months later he ‘discovers’ the same idea and
takes full credit for it.”
5. Shifting
blame. “If you listened to our
pastor, you would think he is blameless. If something does go wrong, he is
quick to blame someone else for the problem. Two words I’ve never heard from
him are ‘I’m sorry.’”
6. Hoarding
information. “I don’t get it. He
keeps all information close to his vest. He seems to think it gives him some
kind of authority or control. We on staff really don’t know what’s going on.”
7. Failing to
listen. “We’ve learned not to express
any opinions to the pastor. We know he is only thinking about his next sentence
instead of listening to us.”
8. Setting a poor
example. “Our church doesn’t reach
anyone for Christ. And guess who never mentions evangelism, much less does
evangelism? Our pastor.”
9. Having a poor
work ethic. “He probably works about
four hours a day, but he gets furious when he thinks we aren’t doing our job.
Total slackard!”
10. Not developing
staff. “He doesn’t train us, work
with us, develop us, or point us to good resources. In fact, he rarely spends
any time with us. I can’t call him a leader because he’s not leading us.”
