A pastor named Chen published an article on a public platform recently. He pointed out some of the current ministry problems faced by some pastors with a humorous tone and gave his suggestions.
The problems are as follows:
1. Being eloquent: "In fact, their speeches are short of substances. "
2. Nagging: "They talk about false visions."
3. Behaving in their own way regardless of the audience's feelings: "The audience are impatient while the pastor still talking about boring things."
4. Wash one's face with tears: "Some pastors like proving their piety with tears; but, the audience find it awkward."
5. Mr. Amen: "They shout Amen from time to time while nobody responds to them."
6. Pretending to Understand Everything: "Some pastors are tone-deaf. However, they pretend to have a good music foundation. They may not understand English; but, always want to show off with a few English words."
7.Magnifying and overanalyzing things: "They like pressuring others with laws of the Bible and criticizing others."
8. Loud voice: "They think that using a loud voice could make their words more convincing."
9. Non-stop speech: "They talk non-stop from the beginning to the end. They don't care about the ears of the audience."
10. Arrogancy: "On the podium of God, they dare to speak like this: " Do you still remember my words?" or " As far as I am concerned......'
Pastor Chen offered the following suggestions to his fellow pastors:
1. Before teaching the knowledge of life, please figure out the essence of life.
2. Have a thorough understanding of the Bible before leading others.
3. Obeying the teachings of God before making others obedient to us.
4. Receive theological education before educating others.
5. Let the Bible speak for itself. Avoid using personal expressions.
6. Try to be concise, pure and accurate when making a speech.
7. Don' t teach too much at one time. The audience can't digest that much.
In another article published in the public account of "spiritual feast", Pastor Chen talked about the ten crises of contemporary pastors. "They should play the role of prophets like in the Old Testament. They should not dare to accuse of the dignity of the people and show concerns to the society. They should never deliberately flatter the audience," the article said.
The ten crisis are as follows:
1. The loss of confidence in God and the Bible.
2. The suspicion of the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. They don't believe sermons can change the life of pastors.
4. They don't repent even they have deviated from the teachings of the Bible.
5. They can't see through the problems of the church.
6. They don't dare to point out the problems even if they have seen them.
7. They deliberately show off their knowledge.
8. They steal the glory of God.
9. They took sermon as a kind of commercial speech.
10. They are not well prepared before preaching the gospel.
Translated by Emma Ma
