9 Warning Signs Your Pastor May Be Building His Own Kingdom
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This article includes a lot of thoughtful comments on each of these nine points.
1) The Pastor is more vocal about taking the nations, country, or city “for Jesus” than loving individual people
2) Family members seem to fill key church job openings
3) The Pastor is not enthusiastic about uniting with other churches in their geographic region
4) Your proximity to the Pastor is directly related to your ability to further the church’s vision
5) The Pastor positions himself as having just a little better revelation of God’s will than everyone else.
6) In the Pastor’s eyes you are viewed as either “in” or “out”
7) There is passive or aggressive pressure by the Pastor not to associate with others who have left the church
8) The Pastor requires you to have your understanding of God, the Bible, and “the world” be in total agreement with him
9) The Pastor uses pulpit teachings to address conflicts that should be dealt with personally or privately.
These two items jumped out at me. Even sincere pastors can fall victim to these.
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2) Family members seem to fill key church job openings
when church positions seem to come quicker and with higher pay and perks for family members, things have gone off the rails a bit.
(Corboy note: When family members of big name donors are hired and given better pay than their predecessors, that is another red flag.)
4) Your proximity to the Pastor is directly related to your ability to further the church’s vision.
This kinda relates to point 1. If you make money, if you can give money, if you look right, if you will attract other people, if you solve problems, if you don’t make problems, and if you have marketable skills that the church won’t have to pay you for, you will get all kinds of “face time” with the Pastor looking to build his own kingdom.
Here are some situations, witnessed by Corboy that can be red flags:
1) The pastor willingly works for less than he or her stated salary and
needs no church based health insurance, thanks to the pastor being supported by a hardworking spouse or possessing a private income. In such a case, the board of directors or council of elders will, in gratitude, cut the pastor a lot of slack, allowing the pastor to go in maverick directions and escape normal accountablity.
When such a pastor retires, the church may experience 'sticker shock' when looking for a new pastor. A pastor who works for cheap may engage in questionable behavior that no one wants to examine, due to the implicit bribe of working at half salary.
2) The pastor is subtly charismatic and packs the board with admirers. What should be a board of directors becomes a board of enablers who look the other way and then refuse to set limits when the pastor's behavior becomes more and more controversial or questionable.
3) A pastor does counseling but refuses to take any fee. In such a situation, the pastor escapes accountability that licensed counselors are answerable to. A pastor who is certified as a CPE (clinical pastoral education) supervisor is not automatically qualified to function as a pastoral counselor. Chaplains usually function within institutions such as prisons or hospitals, which provide
many explicit boundary structures and protocols. A one on one counseling situation
in a church office is without these boundary structures.