Thirty-eight years ago I presented a lecture to a group of pastors regarding the three "Ps," or pitfalls, faced by ministers. Today, as I look around, I see that the same challenges remain. Perhaps they need to be addressed more urgently than ever.
What are these pitfalls, and how can they be handled?
Professionalism
When the young ministerial intern arrives at his or her first church, he normally exhibits considerable enthusiasm. He's enthusiastic about his calling. He valiantly and fearlessly wields the sword of the Spirit in battle for His Lord.
However, after having faced disappointments and defeats, he often finds that his zeal has evaporated under the hot sun of pastoral engagement. The sword of battle hangs flaccid at his side. For some, this evolution takes longer than for others. But there are in fact very few who escape it entirely.
It is as though the "first love" of ministry is lost and is slowly replaced by an unemotional professionalism. Tasks are still being fulfilled, but in a routine, dutiful, mechanical way. Preaching, outreach, counseling, and visiting are no longer done under the inner constraint of the divine call. To a disturbing extent, ministry has simply become a career, or a mere job.
When this kind of professionalism dominates, heart-to-heart communication slowly degenerates into a computer-like technique. The pastor may go through the forms quite skillfully, but where is the spirit? The real minister ministers with the kindness of a saint showing personal interest and touch. He doesn't think of his church as a work station and his parishioners as cases; rather, he thinks of his church as a hospital where wounded people can find loving and tender care.
Cold professionalism may look "cool" in the pulpit, especially when accompanied by high-sounding titles. However, that coldness draws few to Christ for the simple reason that it doesn't actually lift up Christ. It cannot actually solve problems. Biblical theoreticians may succeed in unraveling theological knots, but when they are not reaching into the Scriptures to meet human need, little solid, long term benefit comes to the people. A minister can avoid the pitfall of professionalism only if he loves the Lord of the church, the people, and the work he has been called to do. Like Jesus, the true pastor suffers with and even for his sheep.
It is a penetrating question: What do our members most need from us? Theory? Technique? Authoritarianism? Scholarship? These things have their place and can be helpful, but they need first of all inspiration, hope, kindness and comfort, gentle under standing, a heart beating with true interest in people, constrained not by mere professional duty, but by the love of Christ. The letter of perfunctory professionalism killeth, but the spirit of passionate proclamation in partner ship with the Spirit maketh alive.
Petrification
While on a recent trip to Brazil, I bought several fossils. They make nice displays. But they are cold, hard, and dead. It is a law of ministerial life that one either grows or decays and petrifies. I have never met a minister, no matter how seasoned and experienced, who didn't need to keep growing spiritually and intellectually.
Few things keep a pastor growing more than public evangelism. Preachers can wither up and petrify from the sheer lack of working with people on the soul level. Vigorous evangelism keeps a minister both "fighting trim" and methodologically up to date.
In-service training and progress in knowledge that God calls people to the ministry who do not enjoy (at least to some extent) study. Life-long study and earnest mental application is par for the ministerial course. Frequent exercise is as necessary for the ministerial mind as it is for the body. If the mind is being starved, ministers become anemic and superficial, petty preachers who simply mouth the obvious.
While in prison, waiting for the executioner's axe, Paul still wanted to grow through study. Some snicker at and depreciate book knowledge, but Paul loved his books and asked Timothy to bring his "books" and "parchments" (2 Tim. 4:13).
The time in which we live offers unprecedented opportunity for this type of growth. The minister with his computer and the Internet has immediate access to almost unlimited resources of information and knowledge. There is no reason and certainly no excuse for us to stagnate.
Pessimism
The older minister is probably more subject to the pitfall of pessimism than is the young minister. The older man is more likely to have experienced disappointments and failures, even a series of them. Thus, he faces the danger of becoming pessimistic, which can, by the way, spread to others, even the congregation. Ministers, though human, must avoid this at all costs.
If anyone ever had a reason to be pessimistic, it was Paul in prison. Yet Paul from his prison wrote that most joyous of his epistles, Philippians. Without doubt, Paul knew times of inner gloom and possibly even some despair and depression, but in his epistles there is no evidence of his communicating it to others.
Criticism is often the maidservant of pessimism. No minister can truly be an ambassador of God and speak critically and disparagingly of God=s church and its leadership. No ambassador can speak in a derogatory way of his own country and government and continue in office. Speaking negatively of colleagues and leadership is a sure way to close the door to any advancement. It is also a sure way of opening the door to negativism and depression. A minister may well become weary in body and faint at heart, as at times everyone does. But the truth is that people have enough troubles and burdens of their own without having to endure a pessimistic, critical pastor.
Antidotes
These are some of the pitfalls that ministers face. There are others of course, but these are especially insidious, because they do not pounce upon their ministerial prey at once. Instead, they develop slowly, like a malignant cancer.
The three "Ps" of prayer, purposefulness, and passion represent helpful antidotes. The spiritual autobiography of the apostle Paul gives the ultimate answer. He tells of how God Himself pointed out to him the source of power that makes the minister strong, productive, and successful: "His answer was 'My grace is all you need, for my power is strongest when you are weak.'"
