Of the five-fold ministry gifts given to head the church by the Lord in Ephesians 4:10- 14, the Pastoral gift is the most demanding, overwhelmingly-stressful and capable of determining the heaven or hell of many believers, young or old. Because it is the Pastoral gift that stays permanently to care, nurture and sustain the locai church, much is expected to stay to nurture, teach, feed and grow the local church (Acts 20:28).
As a result of this gift, sensitivity, demand and pressures, it is not every minister or Christian that can be an effective Pastor or shepherd of God’s people. Unfortunately, every Tom, Dick and Harry has been made pastors over local churches today, and that is why many are failing, falling and faltering.
A. A True Healthy Pastor – Jer. 3:15; Malachi 2:5-7; 1 Tim. 4:16; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-3; 1 Tim. 3:2; Heb. 7:26.
A healthy Pastor is God-called, God-made, God- placed, growing, Spirit-filled and godly man or woman in God’s church at God’s time.
- Someone with a shepherd’s heart to feed, nurture, train and empower people.
- Someone that cares, visits, shares, understands and operates in love at people’s level.
- Someone that can gently, wisely, firmly take people from where they are to where they should be.
- Some that truly imparts spiritual grace, growth and hunger for God in others.
- Someone that patiently restore, revive and renew people’s commitment to God.
- Someone that spends time to invest in the life, family and well-being of his sheep.
- Someone that is truly happy to see others rise, grow in the Lord and do God’s will.
- Someone sacrifices time, talent, treasures to set godly and worthy examples for the sheep -John 17:19.
- Someone with teaching, praying, prophetic, supernatural graces for fruitfulness, transformations and blessings.
A healthy Pastor plays a great role in the Christian life, journey and destiny of many believers. After God, the next most important person in a Christian’s life is the Pastor. A healthy Pastor engages in Personal, Pulpit and Rancher shepherding of his people. He feeds not fleecing the sheep regularly, systematically, strategically, consistently and productively.
B. Why Many Pastors Are Unhealthy and Failing Today Isaiah 56:10-11; Phil. 3:2; Jer. 6:13-14
To fail is to disappoint, miss the mark, and come short of expectation and standard. Lots of modern pastors are failing God, the church and their calling because of these factors:
i. Not really called into Pastoral work.
ii. Not properly prepared, trained ‘and equipped for pastoral work.
iii. Having wrong motives of becoming Pastors.
iv. Failure to learn, keep learning and growing in ministry.
v. Not knowing the hazards of pastoral ministry
- ‘Wolves in sheep’s clothing
- Money and keeping body and soul together
- Temptations of pride, ego and control
- Temptations of the opposite sex and admirers.
- Plan of Satan to ‘smite the shepherd and the sheep will scatter’
vi. Failure to handle disastrous personal problems in godly ways.
vii. Succumbing to negative counsel to ‘perform’ at all cost.
viii. Failure to nurture, disciple the people but seeking greener pastures.
ix. Becoming worldly, cold towards God and playing politics in ministry.
x. Becoming proud, egoistic, careless, boastful and copying others.
xi. Neglecting the whole truth of scripture and work by biases, prejudices
xii. Erroneous doctrines.
xiii. No accountability, godly mentoring and scriptural corrections.
All these have largely brought incalculable failures into pastoral ministry today. And the failures of pastors have resulted in the failures of churches, because as the Pastor goes, so goes the churches.
C. 30 Kinds of Pastors The Church Needs Today – Psalm 23:1-5; Jeremiah 3:15; 2 Peter 1:4-12; Revelation 2:1, 7
- The number one need of the church for health and growth is a healthy and growing Pastor.
- Everything rises and falls on the kind of Pastors that lead the church.
- God does not do anything in the church in the absence of a good Pastor.
- Pastors are God’s messengers over the church – Revelation 2:1, 7
- The quality of Pastors over the church greatly determines the quality of the church.
- To change any church, change the Pastors.
- The growth of church Pastors is the correspondence growth of the church.
- Many times, the Pastor that the church wants is not the Pastor the church needs.
What Are The Qualities That Are Expected Of The Pastors That Church Need Today?
To answer this question, I have decided to work with the letter ‘P’ for all these qualities start with letter P.
1. Purpose-Driven Pastor: The Pastor must have had a divine encounter with God which gives birth to purpose in his heart (Acts 26:19). He must have a clear and definite purpose for being in the ministry. He must have a clear purpose for the church (Matthew 28:19- 20). The five purpose of the church must be clear to him. That’s WORSHIP – FELLOWSHIP – EVANGELISM – DISCIPLESHIP – MINISTRY OR MISSION.
2. Principled Pastor: He must be a man that builds his life on divine principles that are found in the word of God. The word of God must be the solid ground for his life and ministry. He does not do anything outside the principles of the word of God.
3. Powerful Pastor: He must be a man that’s filled with the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; Acts 10:39). The power of the Holy Spirit must be the president of his life, evident in his ministry, and resident in his heart.
4. Prayerful Pastor: It is prayer that generates power. He must be a student in the spiritual university of prayer. He must be a man of Bible based and Spirit inspiring prayer. His prayer altar must always be on fire. 5. Passionate Pastor: He must be a man that’s kingdom passionate. The fire of the Holy Spirit must be burning in his bones (Psalm 69:9; John 2:17). He must be zealous for God. He must not be a spiritually cold person. He must be an incubator and not a refrigerator
6. Progressive Minded Pastor: He must be a man with growth mindset. He must be filled with knowledge of growth. He must be willing to pay all the prices for growth in the church. He must be growing in Spirit and in all knowledge (2 Peter 1:4- 12).
7. Prophetic Pastor: He must not be spiritually blind, deaf and dumb. He must possess the eye of Elisha, the mouth of Elijah and the ears of Samuel. (Jeremiah 33:3). He must be able to hear God on behalf on the people.
8. Prudent Pastor: He must be a man of knowledge. He must possess the wisdom of God to lead God’s people. He must not be a moron or a dullard. He must be updated and upgraded. He must be correct and current. He must have the intricate knowledge of today’s church.
9. Pragmatic Pastor: He must be a man of positive change. He must know how to welcome change. He must know how to initiate positive changes. He must know what to change and what not to change. He must be free from traditional mindset or religious stronghold.
10. Productive Pastor: He must be free from the curse of barrenness. He must be a fruitful Pastor. (Psalm 92:12-14). He must never be a liability but an asset. Whatever he touches must generate new life.
11. Prunned Pastor: He must be a broken Pastor. He must have gone through the University of the Holy Spirit where his excesses have been pruned and cut off (John 15:1-3). Pride, ego and self adulation must have left his life.
12. Penitent Pastor: He must have been broken. He must possess a genuine heart for repentance. He must be a man that can say sorry when he realized he has erred. He must welcome corrections and discipline of senior ministers (Psalm 51:15).
13. Peace Loving Pastor: He must not be a trouble maker. He must be a man of peace. But he must not sacrifice progress for peace. He must know how to strike the balance. His home must be peaceful, so that the church can be peaceful. He knows how to build a church of unity where peace and love reigns (Psalm 133:1-3).
14. Praise Worthy Pastor: He is a Pastor that lives his life in a way when people see his good deeds they praise his Father in heaven (Matthew 5:17).
15. Preacher: He is a good preacher of the word of God. He knows how to rightly divide the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15). He knows how to preach up Jesus and preach down Satan. He has the transformational anointing in his mouth for his generation.
16. Prejudice-free Pastor: He is a man that believes in the future of the younger generation. He does not look down on them because they are young. He gives the younger generation platform to operate.
17. Problem Solving Pastor: He is an anointed servant of God that knows how to solve members’ problems (Luke 4:18-20). He has the knowledge of the word to provide solutions to human problems. He is a good counselor.
18. Proactive Pastor: He is a man that is incharge of the situations around the church. He knows how to make things happen rather than waiting for things to happen. He is a leader per excellence. He is active and not passive.
19. Patient Pastor: He is a man that knows that he must be patient with God; he must be patient with the church and must be patient with himself. He is not in hurry to succeed: because he knows hurry leads to worry and worry leads to sorry.
20. Participatory Pastor: He is a Pastor that believes in team work. He knows that it takes the team to make the dream. He is a highly relational and skilled Pastor. He uses his relationship to build the church. He carries others along in his ministry. He believes more in association than isolation.
21. Potential-grown Pastor: He is a Pastor who has discovered his potentials. He has built up his potentials to stardom levels. (Isaiah 52:1). He uses his potential to the maximum in expanding the kingdom. He works so hard and he is diligent.
22. Practical Pastor: He is not just a Pastor by theory. He is not a theorist without any practical evidence. He is practical in his Christianity. Transparency is a principle that guides his ministry’s operation.
23. Positive Attitude Pastor: He knows that attitude greatly determines altitude. He builds his attitude continually. He works against his weakness, and fans his strength to flame. (Philippians 2:15). He possesses Christlike attitude, at the same time he is ethically sound.
24. Possibility Thinking Pastor: He is a possibility thinker. He is a man of great faith. He has built his faith to the level of “with God all things are possible”.
25. Persevering Pastor: He is a Pastor who knows that the work of God requires a lot of perseverance. He does not allow the present challenges to make him deviate from God’s purpose for his life.
26. Phobia-free Pastor: He is a man of faith that has conquered fear. He is not being ruled by the spirit of fear. (2 Timothy 1:7). The only fear in his heart is the fear of God.
27. Profitable Pastor: He is a Pastor that knows how to use his gift to bring profit to the kingdom of God. the church of God and profit to himself (Ephesians 4:13). 3
28. Paragon Pastor: He is a perfect example of good things. He knows the power of image and therefore keeps projecting positive image. He knows he is a man of influence and always project good image in order to influence people positively (2 Corinthians 11:1).
29. Persistent Pastor: He is consistently consistent in his ministry. He is focused and stays on course.
30. Paradise-driven Pastor: He is a Pastor that is heavenly minded and earthly useful. He does everything with the consciousness of heaven. He leads people to heaven. He is not worldly minded (Hebrews 11:16).
Conclusively, these 30 qualities must abide and grow in the lives of Pastors that can help today’s church.
Recommended Reading
A PASTOR AFTER GOD’S HEART
How To Overcome Anger
Tips for Improving Mental Health in High-Stress Jobs
Tips for Rebuilding Trust After Betrayal
D. How To Become A Healthy Pastor That Will Not Fail – Acts 6:5-8; 8:5-9; 1 Tim. 4:16
God doesn’t want you to fail. He doesn’t want His investment in you to waste and be lost. So, how can you stay healthy even if you are pastoring in an unhealthy environment? How can you make impact with your ministry, without losing your own life and soul? (Judges 2:7; 1 Sam. 7:13-14; Acts 14:3).
1. Open and transparent living – 2 Tim. 2:19-21
You must be a vessel of honour and a clean channel.
2. Pray and work through to victory over your personal challenges – 1 John 5:4; 4:4
You must be an overcomer in your life, family and work.
3. Be drunk with the Holy Spirit and power-Eph. 5:18
Be led by the Holy Spirit, not human or demonic spirits.
4. Develop, grow, improve and be disciplined-2 Tim. 2:15
Enroll for courses and trainings that will help your personal development in life and ministry.
5. Build your life, family, work and ministry on the undiluted word of God- Psalm 138:2; Matt. 5:18. Never deviate nor innovate the word of God.
6. Stand in Truth, for Truth, by Truth ‘and defend the Truth always – John 8:32; 3 John 3-4.
Transparent, integrity, credibility and honesty in all things must be your watchword.
7. Engage in persistent and prevailing prayers-James 5:16-18
Build up your prayer life and spend time in God’s presence. The fire of prayer must burn brightly on the altar of your heart.
8. Pursue His vision, not your agenda Acts 26:18-19
Receive His vision for your local church/ministry and focus on it. Build and work according to His vision, not your ambition or agenda.
9. Be problem solving and solution- oriented-1 Thess. 5:14 Your life and work must provide solutions to people and solve problems. Your ministry must not be barren.
10. Be courageous to confront and change
Seek for understanding of persons and situations. Then have the courage to confront wisely, patiently and maturedly for change and positive actions.
11. Don’t Pastor with hurts and bitterness
If you don’t want to fail in pastoral ministry, then uproot from your heart every form of hurt, bitterness, unforgiving spirit and politics.
12. Be Accountable
Submit to a good, godly and personal mentor or mentoring. Network with other churches and give report to leaders. Don’t hide behind a finger.