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4 Deadly LIES Pastors Tell

He said, “Oh, I know you wrote what he told you. But it’s all made up. None of that stuff happened.”

He went on to tell me the “true facts,” if you will, of his brother’s testimony.

There are no words to describe my disappointment.

Why would a person lie about his testimony? That question has nagged at me ever since.

The only answer that makes sense is to enhance his impact in the congregation, to make himself seem to be more than he is. And how sad is that.

3. Do not lie to us about your ministry.

To our everlasting shame, the term “ministerial exaggeration” has entered the language. If anyone should tell the unvarnished truth, it should be those disciples of Jesus Christ entrusted with the truth of God in the gospel of salvation.

A half-century ago, a well-known preacher began assembling a list of the largest churches in America. Each year, those churches and others which “might” be in the running received a phone call asking for their latest numbers. I actually took that call a couple of times myself.

The compilers of those statistics learned all too quickly that preachers can be adept at creative counting.

On Easter Sunday, perhaps they brought in a Hollywood celebrity and had 2,000 in attendance, in contrast to their usual 300. But, check the preacher’s resume and all too often it will say, “When Reverend Hotshot came to Hillshot Church, they were running 250 in attendance and are now running 2,000.”

Some pastors have been known to fudge on numbers when nothing is at stake, when telling the simple truth would have done just as well.

I once organized a conference and invited in a professional to speak. We charged admission, so the actual number attending was not in doubt, something like 250 or so. But the guest speaker promptly put in his newsletter that we had packed in a thousand people for his seminar.

I wondered if he did not know that some of us read his newsletter and would catch that. The only conclusion that made sense is he did not care.

Do not lie to the church about where you went, how you spent your time, whom you saw, what was said and the plans that were made.

All you have is your integrity, pastor. Lose that and you’re gone.