Daily Devotional July 24 - Don't be too quick to pastor bash

"But Jesus called them to Him, and saith unto them, ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever shall be great among you, shall be your minister." Mark 10:42-43
It might not be like this in all countries, but in America our ministers are subject to entirely too much criticism and ridicule. I believe Jesus and I believe that it is mandatory to respect your pastor. And I don't mean tolerate, but genuinely look to them with esteem, thinking good thoughts toward them and making provisions to support them with some of your time, energy, talent, skills and finances.

If you do not have this kind of relationship with your pastor, you are missing out on a blessing and you are not observing sound scriptural counsel. Giving respect to the pastor/minister is a God thing, whereas the mind-set that looks down on the pastor, finds fault at every occasion possible and looks for reasons not to support the pastor is worldly.

What if you just can't get behind your pastor, because you know that he/she hasn't been faithful to their calling? Then get together with some of the other parishioners and go to the pastor privately and ask what you can do to assist him/her in renouncing the sinful behavior and restoring him/her to a right position again. If you are genuine and really want to help, and not hurt, this will probably be the impetus the pastor needs to pull up his/her bootstraps and take care of business and make things right.

If you just can't stand behind your pastor, it's time to move on. You should be in a church where you are moved by the Holy Spirit during the service, during the prayer time, the music and the preaching. You should look forward with anticipation of the next great move of God in your life being kindled at church. You need a new outlook. In most cases, it's not the pastor at fault causing the apathy, indecision, irreverence and inconsistency of the parishioners. It's that people in America are not studied in the scriptures and they have made up their minds about how the process of spirituality should work, based on their own private interpretation. Many have developed their own religious system which puts themselves as the greatest among you and some even put themselves on the throne belonging to God. They have developed a callousness toward 'organized religion' and a mind-set of ridicule toward preachers that is irreverent and irresponsible. They do this so that they will not have to be accountable and take their family to church, after all if they are convinced that 'all pastors are a lessor sort than themselves,' why would they go.

Most pastor/evangelist/TV personality/prophet bashing doesn't have anything to do with the individual being bashed. Most people don't know enough about that person, in some cases never have even met them, to make any determination of value. Most pastor bashing is due to personal biases, prejudice and ignorance. A good rule of thumb is: Don't say anything about anybody that you cannot confirm personally.