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Pastors are God ordained channel for the edification and stability of His church.However there are some common mistakes that can hinder a pastor from fulfilling this God ordained role.

1. Starting a church with a wrong motive. Some of these wrong motives are:
Church work will better my financial standing. “if he can do it, I can also do it” manifest.I have no job, therefore God’s work is my only alternative. I am too big to work under anyone.

2. Pastoring a church without a distinct call into the office of a pastor (Heb. 5:4).
3. Starting a church because someone suggested it and you think you can do it.
4. Co-founding a church with some other pastors. A man with two head is a monster; a ministry with more than one head will end in confusion.
A lot of churches are daily dividing, scattering the sheep and wounding the souls because the foundation was faulty.
There cannot be two set-men, there will always be one set-man and many vision helpers (Ezekiel 22:30)
5. Hunting for straying believers to serve as foundation members for the new church. This is very destructive, unless the foundation is sure on the house will collapse.
You shouldn’t use broken blocks to set your foundation. When starting your ministry, seek after the lost and disciple them. If you see a man changing church 4 times a year, he is a problem, he will burn down your work!
6. Thinking that any church that is growing rapidly must either be compromising or be using charms.
Everyone must be careful at this junction! Your work is big enough to occupy you, don’t be a busy-body in other men’s affairs.
7. Bringing other pastors down so the members can come to you.
If you do your work well, your sheep will come to you. Only Jesus needed to go down so you can climb up. There are many stars in the sky and all of them shine. The shinning of one does not hinder the brightness of the other!
8. Lack of specific vision. Ministries without vision will scatter in confusion. Vision is the precise definition of your destination. A church without vision will only be duplicating other churches’ mission.
9. Living hypocritical life. When you don’t live what you are preaching, your church will be dying gradually.
10. Trying to do everything by yourself. Rome was not built on a day. People must grow, opportunities to good, opportunities to make mistakes and he be corrected. Those who will not delegate will suffocate.
11. Getting entangled in secret moral scandals. There is nothing secret that will not be made open. You are involved in God’s work, and nothing is hidden from his sight.
12. Thinking that God is not interested in numbers.
13. Believing that quality is better than quantity, forgetting that good biblical quality must multiply and become quality.
14. Stylishly sending away sinners from the church, thinking that the church is only for the saints. Meanwhile as far as God is concerned the sheep and the goat must grow together, until the time of harvest when the two will be separated from one another. the church is an hospital.
15. Doing God’s work in the energy of the flesh. Pastoral work is a spiritual assignment, unless the spirit leads you, you can’t experience the desired lifting.
16. Running around without genuine effective prayers.
The work of the ministry cannot be done in the energy of the flesh. We are not fighting against flesh and blood. As a Pastor, you are in the forefront of a spiritual battle and you cannot afford to be prayerless.
17. Using all your time to pray and expecting heaven to do the rest. God answers prayers, but men take steps. And until steps are taken, signs will be absent.
18. Refusal of reward committed members with what eyes can see. Christian literature, certificate of merit, special dinner etc will go a long way. You can even organize a yearly award right.
19. Continuing a dying program even when it is no longer productive or making the necessary impact.
20. Refusal to improve your speaking ability which can be done by listening to your own tape, doing some English exercises and listening to other people.
21. Thinking that big programme can only be initiated when there is big money on the ground.
22. Pursuing money instead of pursuing souls.
If you have enough souls money will come. God is not keeping the record of your money but He is keeping the record of the souls you are winning!
23. Pursuit of tradition saying “we must continue the way we’ve always done it, nothing must change”
24. Refusal to use new people in church services.
25. Allowing the rich in the church to influence his day to day decisions.
26. Treating everybody equally. This looks like a virtue but the truth is that not everybody is equal, and they cannot be treated equally.
27. Treating some people as sacred cow, talking with prejudice and judging with sentiments.
28. Refusal to discipline some people because of their usefulness in the church and their perceived indispensability.
29. Forgetting that the church is a voluntary organization where people can come and go at will.
This is why you must not be talking to your members as if they are slaves or nonentities. Don’t use corporal punishment as a form of discipline: when people are well instructed, they will perform well.
30. Complaining of sheep stealing when members leave for another church. It should be noted that sheep will always go for greener pastures. However there are goat-like sheep who loves wandering about from one prophet to another, collecting prayers like basket and not retaining any.
The Pastor should (i) Impact confidence into them
(ii) Let them be involved in service
(iii) Pray for them not to enter into trap of the enemy.
31. Using position to tie people down in the church with no regard for their maturity in God and understanding.
People are easy to hire and difficult to fire, you must therefore be careful so you don’t initiate a civil war against yourself.
32. Not releasing those who want to leave the church unto their destiny and callings. There are people who are with you presently for training and exposure. At the right time they must leave, if you try to keep than you are keeping trouble!
33. Not realizing that the church is made up of different kind of people: Judas, Thomas, Absalom, Peter, John etc. Expecting everyone to be behaving in the same way!
34. Blaming the people, the church members for lack of progress. This should not be so. Whenever a vehicle is not performing up to the expected standard, you don’t blame the passengers but the driver.
35. Not training the members or the workers but expecting them to be productive and perform excellently well.
36. Sharing responsibility according to charisma and not character, forgetting that God does not look as man looketh.
37. Getting angry publicly and showing it to such an extent that church members will begin to beg them.
38. Disallowing women from becoming their best in God. Remember, in the upper room, women were there!
39. Preaching as moved by the Holy Spirit without specific outline / preparation … which would have been useful for record purposes.
40. Not recording your messages. Every unrecorded message is a pitiable loss of part of tomorrow.
41. Door-step harvest. Not going out for souls but expecting them to come in into the church. Pulpit preaching is no alternative to outreaching.
42. Exposing yourself to HIV of ministry. HIV means Having Insufficient Vision. Once there is nothing to pursue people become flabby and slothful. And ultimately there will be no energy, no zeal, no achievement.
43. Developing Hold The Forth mentality. When a Pastor has decided to hold the forth it is assumed that he is under heavy attack. Meanwhile we are supposed to be on the offensive.
44. Sticking to old methods and desiring to climb new heights.
Old methodology will rarely produce new result. You must seek divine wisdom in order to get distinct results.
45. Overlooking some units in the churches not been too significant forgetting that different things attract different people.
46. Struggling with church diseases that could be tackled and subdued with some simple steps e.g.
Sociological strangulation
Hyper-cooperatism
Old Age
47. Patching with sin and corruption on the altar.
The altar is a dignified place and should be kept sanctified. When you notice “workers of iniquity” deal with them decisively or your effectiveness will be undermined!
48. Complaining about limited growth instead of appreciating God for the present state, so He could do more.
49. Excessive use of committees, which though encourages participation, could precipitate inefficiency & wasting of time.
50. Not trusting subordinates, thinking always that there may be break-away.
Despite the frequency of break-away, you will still need to trust your subordinates. You only need to be careful not to put all the burden of the ministry around one person.
Handle you Aaron appropriately and teach your people the power of loyalty.