Pastors are the spiritual heads of the church. God calls men and women to occupy positions in his house, but one of the chief among them is pastors because they have intimate interactions with their members. They receive the call of God and respond to it. Then they are blessed, ordained, and sent forth to an assembly to be shepherds to them.
There are certain qualities a pastor must possess to be able to carry out his role well. As stewards of God’s house, they are also expected to be accountable for the work they carry out in the church, and be accessible and accepting of their members. They are to preach the truth in love and humility, but sadly, these days, most pastors are more concerned about feeding their bellies than taking care of the church of God.
Some of them turn their backs on their members or try to act superior to them as though they were God himself. Some deceive their members, steal their money, and cheat them out of the good things in life because they want to be the only ones experiencing good things. Other pastors deliberately create competition and fuel enmity between family members. These pastors are called ‘dangerous pastors’.
It is very important for every Christian to discern for himself who a true pastor is because his/her lives, beliefs, visions, and actions are directly or indirectly based on what their pastors tell them.
You may ask, “How do I identify these dangerous pastors?’ “Are there signs of a dangerous pastor?” This article will help you discern the truth as it describes 5 signs of a dangerous pastor. This is something you don’t want to miss, so settle down and dive in!
1. He Hides or Downplays Basic Scriptural Truths
This is the first of our 5 signs of a dangerous pastor, which is very glaring. A dangerous pastor will sometimes manipulate their members to feeling they are not up to par or wise enough. He hides from them some basic truths that will make them matured, powerful and strong believers so he can keep having an upper hand.
Imagine what will be the fate of a church where the members doesn’t know that sin sends men and women to hell. Unfortunately, many church goers nowadays have itching ears. They don’t want the truth, and surprisingly, thats what they get, because God answers us based on the idols in our hearts (According to Ezekiel 14:4). You’ve got to desist from such congregation. Your pastor must believe the basic bible truths like salvation by faith, sanctification by faith, Holyspirit baptism, Miracles, and signs and wonders, evangelism, etc.
If your pastor is one that doesn’t believe people can be babtized with the Holyghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, then its likely he’s not well taught. He might not be dangerous in the actual sense but if after he’s been taught, have seen scriptuaral proofs, and even seen the moves of the spirit and yet still condemns it, thats dangerous. You might want to relocate to a bible believing church so that man will not rob you of all that God has for you.
Some dangerous pastors might even go as far as justifying sins or avoids condemning some societal sins like homosexualism, lesbianism, LGBTQ world as a whole to avoid persecution or arrows. They want to remain loved by the populace, forgetting that we are the light of the world.
The world is in darkness and we are the seed that God has planted to salt the earth and show the world Jesus, the light of God. A true pastor will not care about what the populace says about him. He stands with the truths of the Holy Bible and dares every persecution for the glory of God. That’s the kind of pastor you should seek to have over you, not the “people” pastor.
A true pastor must also be humble and ready to accept counsels, the truths from scriptures and life.
If he’s a bad pastor, he’ll not care about what you say or whether the suggestion you make is great and will benefit other members of the church. He takes delight in saying, ‘I said we will not do it, and that is final!’ Mind you, never oppose your pastor. He is the spiritual head of your church, but then, a pastor is also a human and should’t downplay his members and leaders.
Especially if they are spiritual people too. Mind you, he may manifest these signs without knowing he’s doing the wrong thing. In that case if you’ve known the truth and believe that God have sent you their to be an Aquila and Pricilla to him, keep praying for him. God will touch him someday.
2. He has no Empathy for His Congregation
Look at this story of Joy. Joy is one of the financial partners in her church. Her church is erecting a new children’s hall, and she pledged to contribute a third of the amount required for the project. A few days later, her mom died and was buried immediately. Her pastor never visited her or tried to find out what happened. She even sent him a message to inform him of her loss, but he didn’t call or reply to the message.
Two months later, when the project was halted because her share of the money was not available, he called to ask her when she could be settled enough to send her share of the money.
When you notice that a pastor is unconcerned about what happens to members of his congregation, doesn’t listen when they share their problems with him, or always says, ‘God knows I can never be in this situation. How did you get here?’ You can identify it as one of the 5 signs of a dangerous pastor.
This kind of pastor won’t render help to a member who lost his job, whose child is sick, or who is financially down if such person hasn’t been paying tithes or contributing to the church project.
He doesn’t care about the effect of inflation on the finances of the members but will insist they pay up their tithes and levies for church projects. Even if they try to complain, he will shut his ears against their cries. Why should a pastor be concerned about finishing a project over the health and well-being of the people he was sent to look after?
In the case of Joy from the story shared earlier, the pastor began to tell her the Bible says “It is better to keep quiet than make a vow one cannot pay”, and even as she told him her mother had died, he said, “Let the dead bury their dead” that she should do the work of the kingdom. He even said she should give him more money because she wasn’t the one who died!
This lack of empathy is one of the 5 signs of a dangerous pastor.
3. He Manipulates His Members to Enrich His Pocket
One of the 5 signs of a dangerous pastor is that he will do anything to get money out of his members for his personal purposes. He cajoles, deceives, manipulates, and twists the word of God to achieve this.
He can quote scriptures like “Enlarge the borders of your tent” to get his members to build him a bigger house. He can hinder a member from going into business or getting married if he notices there will be no benefit to him.
A story was told of a pastor who had a well-to-do woman in his congregation. Soon she got married to a man who was well-to-do as well. Together, they supported the pastor with their time and cash until her husband had to go to another state for a project, which he was to fund and be reimbursed for after the inspection at the end.
Due to this project, they could no longer support it as before. In fact, the support this time was even less than the one she gave when she was single.
When the pastor noticed the woman was willing to give but the husband was holding her back because of her heavy commitment to the project, he decided to sow a seed of discord in the marriage. He began to tell the woman that the Lord had shown him visions of her husband’s other family and the reason he left the state for another state.
When her husband denied it, the pastor told her to bring money for prayers for him to confess. After spending her money on prayers that didn’t work, the pastor manipulated her to divorce her husband. Years later, she discovered she had been deceived, but she had lost her husband.
4. He Makes an Enemy of Those Who Opposes Him
A dangerous pastor is always right, even when he is wrong. If anyone dares to point out something he is not doing well, that person becomes an enemy.
Among the 5 signs of a dangerous pastor this article talks about, this one is the most aggressive of them.
This pastor understands that he can lose his livelihood, which is sponsored by manipulation, or his authority and respect among his congregation if anyone begins to question him. The other members. He could bring their questions too, and he may not be able to call them early.
He could try to silence such ‘troublesome’ fellows by publicly humiliating them, talking about them, or even blackmailing them.
If you notice your pastor always singling out people who oppose him to humiliate them, or if you notice he antagonizes those who question his rules, methods, or sayings, know for certain that your pastor is dangerous.
5. He Is Careless With The Opposite Sex
The final sign we explore under the 5 signs of a dangerous pastor is that this pastor behaves carelessly with the female members of his congregation. He or she will not abide by apostle Paul’s command to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow after love…”
He always touches them inappropriately, hugs them, or kisses them on the cheeks without their consent.
He would compliment their dressing with lewd comments or use sexually inappropriate language around them.
He might even call them out in front of the congregation to comment on their looks, which might be embarrassing to the female.
It is important to note that sometimes this pastor might not realize what he is doing, but if he often offends in these rules, then know for sure he is a dangerous pastor who may hurt your family or relationships.
This article has attempted to describe 5 signs of a dangerous pastor. If you notice these signs in your pastor or another pastor you know, you have to be careful.
If you belong to such congregations, seek another. If you cannot change your church, change districts or locations and attend another. We can easily say ignore, but whatever you subject yourself to for a long period of time gets absorbed into you.
Don’t allow dangerous pastors to rob you of the blessings God has packaged for you.
Meanwhile, if you are a pastor that finds yourself offending in one or more of these signs, turn around and repent. Let the blood of Jesus wash you so you can turn a new leaf and be a blessing to the flock that God had committed into your hands.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1John 1:9
