Some pastors are overly concerned about their critics.
Dave has a great article over at our RedeemingChurchConflicts blog. Here is just a snippet to hopefully tempt you to click through and read it all:
“Pastors, just like the rest of us, want to be liked. They desire meaningful friendships and frequently go out of their way to demonstrate hospitality to church members. They also want the admiration of the members of their church because they know the grace-filled message of God’s Word will be more readily accepted if the messenger is appreciated for both his biblical knowledge and consistent Christian character and gentle witness. Most pastors seek to avoid conflict with church members believing that such encounters may severely undermine the role they have been called to play in the lives of those they lead in the church. Not only that, they know that if enough members band together against them they will likely lose their ministry position.
In response to these relational pressures, some pastors give in to a serious sin:
Rather than confronting church members about their sinful attitudes, words, and actions, some pastors allow their (natural, human) desire to be accepted as admired friends to trump their God-given responsibility to hold their members accountable for sin.
The Bible describes this heart motivation as the fear of man (Prov. 29:25). Rather than fearing God preeminently and living for God’s approval, people who are controlled by the fear of man fear people and live for the approval and respect of people. Among pastors, this too often leads to the second most frequently mentioned regret in Dr. Ranier’s article:
Some pastors are overly concerned about their critics …“
Read the rest here: