As there are increase in the number of churches across the oceans of our land, so A the number of Pastors is greatly increasing. Every year, Bible schools and seminaries are graduating more Pastors. Churches are ordaining lots of Pastors and many self-called Pastors are coming to the church scene. The demerit along this fact is that spirituality is at very low ebb. Practical and godly Christianity is very scarce. The kingdom of God is not being populated. One traceable factor for this is that there are more of dangerous Pastors today than healthy Pastors. We can know them by their fruits.
A. Scriptural Foundation:- Ezekiel 34:1-10; Zechariah 11:5-8; Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27; John 10:12-14; Jeremiah 50:6; Isaiah 56:11.
Dangerous means danger, hurtful, injurious, pain- inflicting, sly and destructive. Quite sad that majority of today’s Pastors are demonstrating these qualities in abundance today. It was there in scriptural times, but much more pronounced today.
i. It means to be fake and flaky.
ii. Fleecing the people for profit.
iii. Lead people astray.
iv. Inflict terminal and eternal hurts on people.
v. Abuse people in the name of God.
vi. If we don’t avoid them, our churches are doomed.
vii. Until they are redeemed, refurbished and transformed by the Lord, our churches will always feel their negative impact.
B. Traits of Dangerous Pastors
Here are the 50 traits of dangerous Pastors in our churches today:
1. Absentee Pastors: These are Pastors who are too engaged with their secular activities that they don’t have enough time to nurture the flock of God. Most of the time they are traveling from one place to another.
2. Official Pastors: These are Pastors by titles and positions who don’t possess any pastoral qualities. They occupy spaces but lack weight. People die under them spiritually and in instalments.
3. Misleading Pastors:- These are Pastors who don’t know the way and they are leading the flock. Their lives and teachings are misleading. They will lead God’s people to destruction.
4. Self-called Pastors: These are Pastors who never wait for God’s calling. They called themselves to ministries. And many times they are called by their economic circumstances.
5. Called But Not Colleged Pastors:- These are pastors who may have the calling of God upon their lives but never go for any training. No formal, informal and non-formal training. And many times such Pastors detestaining.
6. Nicolaitan Pastors (Revelation 2:6):- These are Pastors who have not been dewormed from their idolatry background. They therefore practice what is termed “Christopaganism” with their influence on the church.
7. The Wolves:- These are Pastors who are wolves in shepherd’s clothing. Their chief aim is to steal, kill and destroy the sheep. They are Satan’s representatives. People die in their church in mysterious circumstances.
8. Ebola Pastors: These are Pastors who have contacted spiritual Ebola virus by their contacts with other Pastors who have also contacted spiritual Ebola virus. Such Pastors are highly infectious in the church. They lead people into sin and ungodliness.
9. Polygamous Pastors: These are Pastors who have derailed from 1 Timothy 3:2. They could have as many wives as possible, yet they continued to lead the church of God. They practice simultaneous and concurrent polygamy.
10. “Pseudapoimen”: These are Pastors who are guilty of exaggerating the facts or embellishing the truth (1 Timothy 4:2). They lie, twist and turn the truths on its heads.
11. Mammon-Driven Pastors:- These are Pastors who are under the influence of mammon. They do everything for money. They worship the golden image. They are materialistic driven. They are money mongers. They are ministers of silver and gold.
12. Secularistic Pastors: These are nominal Pastors. They secularized the work of ministry. They build ministry on human knowledge to the neglect of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
13. Hyponeumia Pastors: These are Pastors who are suffering from low presence of the Holy Spirit. They have grieved the Holy Spirit to the level that He has abandoned them.
14. Maladministration Pastors:- These are Pastors who have problem with church administration. They are largely ignorant about church administration. They practiced “SS” Administration (Stupid and Satanic Church Administration).
15. Self-Independent Pastors: These are Pastors who acts like the El-shaddai. They are not submissive to any authority. No father, no mentor. They are always on their own.
16. Spiritually Deformed Pastors:- These are Pastors who are spiritually deformed. They are spiritually blind, deaf, dumb and lame. They backslide, commit grievous sins but still carry on in ministry without any discipline or restoration process.
17. Old Age and Outdated Pastors:- These are Pastors that age is no more on their side. Sometimes they are older than the church. They are outdated and outfashioned, but they still occupy the pastoral seat.
18. Political Minded Pastors: These are politicians who see the pulpit as a good platform to spread his political campaign. He is more concerned about the immediate than the ultimate.
19. Businessmen Pastors: These are business men who eventually venture into pastoral ministry, with the motive of promoting their business empire. They practice many monetary schemes, like lotery, MMM in their churches, which will eventually lead to crisis.
20. Tradition-Minded Pastors: These are Pastors who don’t believe in change. They love to hold on to human traditions to the detriment of divine revelation. They fight change and are ultra-conservative.
21. Wounded Pastors:- These are Pastors who have been wounded in the course of discharging their ministerial duties, and who never allow the wounds to be healed and, in the process, going about with hurt to hunt people.
22. Occultic Pastors: These are Pastors who also belong to different cults. They are members of the Ogboni Confraternity. They go into occultism for power, fame and money.
23. Turbulent Marriage Pastors:- These are Pastors who have troubles in their marriage that they never seek divine as well as human solutions. They do ministry while their homes are on fire.
24. Volcanic Pastors: These are Pastors who have temperament problems. They cannot control their anger. Most times they pour their angers on church members.
25. Sexually Sick Pastors: These are Pastors who don’t have control over their sexual libido. They sleep around. They pollute the church with their sexual escapades. They have girl or boy friends among members and have children outside wedlock.
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26. Honorary Pastors: These are people that the church just ordained as Pastors to honour them, even though they are not living up to their pastoral responsibilities. They dominate, control and act as power- brokers in their churches.
27. Immatured Pastors:- These are Pastors who lack spiritual maturity. They are spiritual babes who are saddled with the responsibilities to nurture the church to maturity. Their immaturity usually scatters the church due to poor handling of issues.
28. Power-Deficient Pastors: These are Pastors who lacked the power of the Holy Ghost in their lives. They are unfruitful, unproductive and barren in their ministries.
29. Talkative Pastors: These are Pastors whose mouths are loose. Their mouths ack discipline. They talk anyhow and at anywhere. They don’t know what to keep or reveal, therefore the members don’t come for counseling nor reveal secrets to them.
30. Funky Pastors: They are Pastors who are worldly. They are more concerned about their outer looks than inner looks. They dress to gain attention with the latest hair styles, which they refer to as packaging.
31. Micro-manage Pastors: These are Pastors who are moron and dullards. Very good in doing everything by themselves. They don’t delegate and even if they do, they won’t allow you to do it, because they are on your shoulders.
32. Disorganized Pastors: These are Pastors that know next to nothing about organization. They are completely disorganized in their approach to ministry, life and living.
33. Purposeless Pastors: These are Pastors who are in ministry without any purpose. They are ignorant about the purpose of God concerning ministry.
34. Goalless Pastors: These are Pastors who are not different from goats. For a man without a goal is a goat. They don’t set any goal for themselves as well as their ministries.
35. Technology Pastors:- These are Pastors who are trying to replace spirituality of ministry with technology. They are after getting all technological materials, to the neglect of the spiritual life of the church.
36. Shallow Pastors: These are Pastors who are very shallow. They are not resourceful and so are not resultful. Their sheep will always be thirsty without water to drink. They are wells without water.
37. Greener-Pasture Pastors: These are Pastors who see the work of ministry as a career, not around to nurture their small churches to growth, but always looking for greener pastures. Their usual comment is I won’t stay long here’.
38. Comedian Pastors:- They are in ministry to entertain people, not to educate them. They are to make people to have a nice time, not to transform them. They always charge for their services. They don’t develop anybody, disciple nobody, but keep people dependent on the Pastor for everything.
39. Cleptomaniac Pastors: These are Pastors who are thieves. They steal sheep, money, calling, idea, materials etc. They are light-fingered and adept in shortchanging their people. They steal the heart of people from God and His will. (2 Sam. 15:6)
40. Rigid Pastors: These are Pastors who are too rigid. They are spiritually stubborn, biased and unyielding. They shut out new light to hold on to dark, archaic and out- modeled methods, which makes their churches irrelevant.
41. Horby-Horse Pastors: These are Pastors who hold so strong to their hobby and one issue or doctrine they love so much and build all their preachings on that one hobby. They never balance their preachings, but only on one line of truth they cherish so much.
42. No Boundary Pastors: These are Pastors who are carefree and careless with the opposite sex. They talk, touch, kiss, embrace and counsel behind locked rooms with the opposite sex and care not for whatever people say or do. Rumours and sidetalks will ruin such church.
43. Maintenance Pastors: These are Pastors whose concentration is only on maintaining those who are inside but don’t add new people. They detest evangelism and new people in the church.
44. Prayerless Pastors:- These are Pastors who have lost their prayer life and prayer altars. They explain away prayers and fight those who love to pray and intercede. No prayer intercessors for the church
45. Caricature Pastors: These are Pastors who are not original in anything except in copying others. They go from church to church to copy what they do. They lacked divine ideas. They are not creative and innovative.
46. Non-growing Pastors:- These are Pastors who refused to embark on the journey of growth. They are the same in knowledge, attitude and style year in, year out. Their sermons are the same and grown stale.
47. Divide and Rule Pastors:- These are Pastors who are very good in turning the people against each other. They sow discord among the brethren and never want the church to be united.
48. Disobedient Pastors: These are Pastors who are totally disobedient to the voice of God concerning their lives, ministry and ministerial geography. Their disobedience brings retardation and downward spiral to their churches.
49. Cursed Pastors: These are Pastors who are under one curse or the other, and who have done nothing to break the curse. They bring curse, barrenness and retrogression to their churches. Curse of mentors, former fathers, and benefactors hinders their lives and work.
50. Stagnant Pastors: These are Pastors that are barren ground in life and ministry. Things don’t grow nor become fruitful with them. Things move from bad to worse with them and under them.