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8 Dangerous Pastors Who Will Destroy Your Church

5. The immature

Dangerous pastors, who have never grown up, tend to be quick to take offense, cannot handle correction and worry about their careers. Any criticism is unwelcome and the critic becomes marked as an enemy.

Many dangerous pastors pastors can be spotted by their use of slang, by their adolescent clothing and hair styles, and by their discomfort in associating with people old enough to be their parents and grandparents. My observation is that anyone God ultimately uses in great ways, He first has to “break.” (Think of breaking a horse.)

Until a minister—or any Christian—sees himself as unworthy, a sinner deserving of hell, one who dare not trust himself because “in my flesh there dwells no good thing” (Romans 7:18), and throws himself on the mercy of God, he’s not much good as a shepherd of God’s people.

Has this pastor been broken? Ask people who have worked with him fairly recently; they will know.

In saying this, I’m reminding myself we were all young and immature at one time. I’m grateful to those small churches that took a chance on me (mostly, I expect, because they didn’t have a lot of choices, being poor as well as small).

Second Peter 3:18 is a good reminder for pastors as well as everyone else: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The issue then becomes: Is this young pastor showing signs of growing, of being teachable, of being able to make corrections when shown something he got wrong? Do not go forward until you learn the answers to these questions.