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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”
# 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 literatures, certificate of merit, special dinner etc will go a long way. You can even organize a yearly award right.
19.     Continuing a dying programme 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
Hypercooperatism
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.

If we are to bring back the glory, honor, respect and sacredness of the church, we must start with Pastors. The condition of the church today is a direct result of the quality of Pastors the church has produced over the years. Every Sunday, tens of thousands of Pastors mount the pulpit to preach and talk to people. They have different motives, characters, habits and believe. They display various personality traits. While some are happy, others are hungry; while some are joyful, others are sad; while some are positive, others are negative; while some are honest, others are deceitful. While some are saints, others are chronic sinners and while some are real, others are fake and charlatans.
In my years of researching, teaching and interacting with Pastors, I have come to discover various kinds of Pastors. I hope Pastors will through this teaching discover who they really are, where they stand and reposition themselves.

The Place of Pastors (Jeremiah 3:15)

Pastors must be Men and women of God, true, genuine, godly, relevant and transparent. They must be called, commissioned and commanded by the Lord. They must be God’s men in God’s place at God’s time. Pastors are crucial to the life and vibrancy of the church. The church cannot rise above her Pastor. God will not do anything in the absence of the Pastors. The conditions of the churches today are simply a reflection of the kinds of Pastors leading them.

Kinds of Pastors Today:

I have come to discover 12 kinds of pastors that are visible in the church today. Though not all, but these twelve represent majority of Pastors leading churches today. I hope you can find who you are among these twelve descriptions.

BUSINESSMEN PASTORS (1 Timothy 6:3-5; Isaiah 56:10,11; 2:14)

Description: They are businessmen and women who see the ministry as avenue to make money. They function as the chief executive officers of their churches. The church is run with business principles. Their major emphasis is money, finance, prosperity and how to make it. They are in absolute control of everything.
Basic Motive: Gain and profit. Their programmes are targeted at how much money is realized. They are using God’s Name, the Church and the Bible to make money and enrich themselves.
Demerits: No heaven-mindedness, disciples and godliness. They breed Christians who are greedy of gain, profit oriented, thieves and crooks. They engage in lying, fantastic promises and spurious prophesies. They apportion church position to the highest bidder.
Way Out: True repentance, freedom from financial lucre and restoration of balanced truth to the church. Business pastors have brought much bad image to the church.

FUNKY PASTOR (2 Timothy 4:3, 4; Jeremiah 6:13)

Description: Worldly, carnal, ungodly pastors who watered down the gospel to please people. They dress anyhow and they allow anything in the church. They are immoral and sex-maniac who take advantage of people. Their messages are the church liberty, ministry on the broadways, easy way to heaven and making you somebody in life.
Basic Motives: Keep the people happy. Don’t offend them by telling them the truth. They exert influence and power over people in order to get their money. Youth and young people enjoy these kinds of pastors.
Demerits: No mention of sin, evil, hell or righteousness. Their focus is miracle, blessing and breakthroughs. Secular talk shows are allowed. Immorality, extra­marital affairs and premarital sex are overlooked all in the belief that God is a loving God. Funky pastors have brought much shame to the pastoral ministry and their name.
Way Out: Genuine repentance and restitution, or else…

VOCATIONAL PASTORS: (Ezekiel 34:2, 3)

Description: They are in the ministry, not as a result of God’s call, but by the call of men. They Pastor as a hobby. They love the honor and respect being given to pastors. Tribal sentiments, ethnic bias, connection to authority, wealth, status and oratory power are what was used to make them pastors. Educational qualifications and greasing of palms also figure here.
Basic motive: To rule over others and to be seen and respected by them. No vision, purpose and commission from the Lord. They therefore lord themselves over the people, using threats and position to oppress those who are genuinely called.
Demerits: They are not concerned with anyone or the church once their position is secured. They lead church backward through secular management systems. They don’t train, develop or empower anyone. The church is always malnourished and spiritually weak under such pastors. Their ministrations are always devoid of God’s power and their sermons always make people sick. Vocational or honorary pastors have caused much havoc for the church today.
Way Out: Seek the face of God as to His plan for your life, resignation and functioning where God wants you.

YESTERDAY’S PASTORS

Description: They are called by the Lord, but they are not in tune with the moves of God today. They are holy, godly and righteous but they are trapped in yesterday’s ways because they are ultra-conservative. Old tradition, dogma and doctrinal correctness are their forte. They spend only on their one gift to lead the church, they detest learning and change.
Basic Motive: To survive and bring back old time religion. They are therefore prejudiced against growth, change and new strategies. They are good in hymnals, bell-ringing and order of service that has become routine and lifeless today. Their relational skills are weak and very low.
Demerits: Lack of vision, purpose and direction in the church. The work is backward; they are confused because changes that have occurred have left them behind. They therefore experience crisis, breakaway, stagnation and backdoor losses. They do everything in the church because they don’t trust anybody. They are skeptic of people and change. Pastors of yesterday usually don’t know the new moves of God for today; because they are too busy looking at yesterday.
Way Out: Change, personal growth, disabused mindset and new focus of the move of God today.

POLITICAL PASTORS (Jeremiah 10:21; Jeremiah 23:11; Micah 3:11)

Description: They were once Servants of the Lord, but are now backslidded. They no longer have time to preach, pray, nourish people and prepare them for heaven. All their time is taken up with meetings upon meetings. They have become servants of the people. Bad friends, economic hardship and strange teachings have changed them.
Basic motive: To make it, either by force or by fire. They therefore engage in church politics. They become cunning, crafty, arm-twisting and they can speak from both sides of the mouth. Their strategic closeness to church authority makes them to determine the transfer, promotion, discipline and suspension of other pastors that are many times better than them. Character assassination is their modus–operandi.
Demerits: Their churches always suffer because they are not always around due to frequent meetings. They are spiritually dry, unable to get fresh insight from God and the church suffers spiritually. They get involve in scandals which they use for their political maneuvering to cover up. Political pastors needs to return back to the Lord, or else…
Way Out: Remember where you have fallen, repent and return back to the Lord. Stop church politics and concentrate on the primary job of pastoring, leading, nourishing and preparing people for heaven.

OCCULTIC PASTORS (Revelation 2:20, 24: Revelation 3:9)

Description: These are the people who have no business being in the ministry, but they are there all the same. Some are former occult practitioners who claim to be born-again, while others are herbalists and magicians who decide to hood-wink people by modernizing as pastors. They live double lives. They appear to eat at the Lord’s table but also deal with the devil in secret. They use means and demonic power to perform spurious miracles.
Basic Motives: Their motive is gain, power and control over people. They therefore use candles, coconut, incense, salt, kolanut, sponge, soaps, special baths and native roots as “prayer support”. They engage in fake vision, false prophecy and spurious miracles. They read the sixth and seventh books of Moses. They are usually polygamous and womanizers.
Demerits: Using other means to ‘Jazz’ up the work so that crowds can come; people under bondage and oppression; making people sure children of hell; immorality thrives; witchcraft and calamities in churches; people dying and losing their destiny in such churches. Oppressive air of bondage will be thick. No form of godly spirituality among the people. Occultic pastors will always be exposed by their traits and they will lose their ministries sooner or later.

SHALLOW PASTORS (Zephaniah 3:4)

Description: These are proud, garrulous, self-centered and self-willed pastors. They are islands, too busy to attend conferences or seminars or listen to anybody’s tape. They believe that everyone should learn from them but they cannot learn from anybody. Their anointing has grown to the extent that they don’t need to read the Bible every day, have time of prayer and fast unto the Lord.
Basic motives: Their motive is to succeed in ministry financially, materially and socially. They therefore spend church money to buy expensive shoes, clothing, cars and properties. They have nothing to really give to people spiritually. They thrive on stories, noise, demonstrations, pushing people and mimicked styles and prophesy. Their sermon dwell on their worth, wealth and fame.
Demerits: People are fed half truths, lies, motivational talks. They are always on the move, have nothing really to share and give to the people. The people are therefore largely unsaved, canal, sinful, ungodly and religious. They therefore move away to where the grass is green and the water is still. Shallow pastors will always lose serious Christians to other churches.
Way Out: Return to the Lord, load yourself and prepare to feed people with balanced diet of the Word.

MINISTRY PASTORS

Description: These are ministry-focused pastors. They are committed to and consumed by the work of the ministry. In their order of priorities, ministry is number one and everything else takes secondary position. These pastors neglect their families, children and personal lives in the name of doing ministry. Their children are wayward, bitter, un-catered for, angry and unconverted. Their wives are miserable, frustrated, neglected; feel cheated and lonely.
Basic motives: To fulfill their ministry irrespective of anything or anybody. Their desire is to prove themselves and the readiness to neglect everything for the ministry. They move from crusade to revivals, from prayer mountains to special seminars. They are too spiritual to play, pray, enjoy and relax with their wives, children and family, because sinners are perishing. They are always in a hurry.
Demerits: They experience divorce, have wayward children, unsettled homes and unfulfilled ministry. Their wives become demonized or engage in extra–marital affairs due to frequent absence and lack of care. Pastors that give ministry the number one priority above their God, home and personal development will always experience crisis, breakaway and being forsaken by the Lord. Lack of peace, progress and tranquility, both in the church and personal lives will always be the outcome of the mistake of putting ministry before God and your family. Ministry pastors will always experience burn out and frustration in ministry.
Way Out: Return back to the Lord. Make your God and family as number one and two, and ministry as number three.

SICK PASTORS (Revelation 3:14-19)

Description: physically okay but spiritually sick. Sick because they don’t know the Lord, they are sinful, ungodly, evil, immoral and wicked. Though they sometimes find themselves leading large congregations, yet, they preach the Jesus they have not met. They only use their spiritual activities to cover their spiritual nakedness.
Basic motives: They don’t know why they are in the ministry. They want to be like the Jones and Joneses. They are copy­cats. They struggle with sin, evil and low self-image. They take out their anger, sin and frustration on the people. They are sick because they lack basic leadership skill. They are sick because they are not good examples and role model to follow. They are sick because they operate under curse and disobedience.
Demerits: Destroyed lives of people under them; carnal, covetous, stinginess, unforgiving spirit, and readiness to curse and destroy people who dare question their ungodly activities. They usually kill churches and cause stagnation by making the saints to sin and backslide. Sick pastors will always produce sick churches that will find growth very difficult and stagnation very easy.
Way Out: Repent, seek the Lord, apologize and do a new work.

WOUNDED PASTORS

Description: They have experienced back-stabbing, disappointment and calamities in ministry. Their work has dealt them a hard blow. Through some mistakes and ignorance, they have been wounded in ministry. They are therefore bitter, sad, hurting and hateful in the ministry.
Basic motive: Vengeance, retribution and survival. They have been wounded by sin, devil, people, partners, colleagues and members. Some have lost wives, husbands, children, names, properties and health in the course of doing ministry. Some have deep pain due to betrayal by mentors, leaders, associates and spouses. And the wound is fresh and new.
Demerits: Bleeding hearts, hurtful feelings, lack of trust, discouragements, frustration and quitting the ministry. They don’t help anybody in the ministry again and they are always skeptical of people’s intentions. The un-forgiveness in their hearts hinders the flow of God’s spirit in them. As long as you don’t allow the Lord to heal you, your church will always suffer the hangover of your wounded heart.
Way Out: Release the past; handover your hurts unto the Lord and marsh on in faith. Forgive and forbear.

TECHNOLOGY PASTORS

Description: They are pastors on the move, who are always on the fast lane of life. Moving from city to city, nation to nation, making money at the expense of the souls under them. They spend weeks away from the church. They junket from place to place in the name of doing ministry while the church at home is dying and scattering. They monitor by means of audio and video messages of sermons.
Basic motive: Money, pleasure and properties. They use God to better their lot in life. Their living standard is above the income of their church. They always travel for ministration and business deals. While traveling, they continue to monitor the church through phone, e­mails, websites, phone-in-conference. They use these technologies to conduct services on Sunday and at vigils. In some cases, they stay permanently abroad and control the church from there.
Demerits: Their associates are not trusted; they are given responsibilities without authority. The church goes through turmoil, murmuring and lack of care, nurture and empowering. Such pastors lose their churches, their people and they eventually capitulate to the God of mammon, pleasure and fame. They lose their God and their ministry. God usually replace them with capable people who have a heart for things of eternal value.
Way Out: Genuine repentance, restoration and rediscovering the basic purpose of ministry.

GROWING PASTORS

Description: Very few, but these are pastors after God’s heart. They are called and commissioned by the Lord. They pursue a god-given vision. They display high integrity, character, godliness and a heart for things of eternal value. They are not perfect, but growing every day. They are balanced, learning, open to change and full of the Holy Spirit.
Basic motive: They desire to make impact for God. They want to see lives, families, nations and cities transformed for the Lord. They have no personal empire to build; rather they want to extend the frontiers of God’s kingdom throughout the whole world. They see ministry as opportunity to serve, help and empower others. They de-emphasize money, gain and pleasure.
Strengths: They invest in people; sharpen their leadership skills; maintain good relational skills; work over their weaknesses, build godly character; empower, equip and enable others to rise up to their highest potentials. They are not threatened by the gift of others. They speak the truth with grace and seek to disciple everyone for the Lord. They ensure that the church is built on the truth, undiluted and balanced Word of God. They pastor growing churches where the people are genuine Christians that continually grow in the things of the Lord. They raise leaders and equip them to carry on the work of God.
Results: Good, great and growing churches that will go on to affect things positively for God.
From these descriptions of twelve kinds of pastors, you can see that only one can really lead the church to true and sustainable growth. This is the reason why majority of our churches are sick, stagnant, crisis–ridden and are dying today because they are being pastored by the wrong kind of pastors.
Where are you? You can repent, and change today to be a growing pastor in all ramifications so as to lead the church into the future.

(This article is written by Dr Akin John)