{"id":694751,"date":"2019-07-29T02:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=694751"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:22:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:22:35","slug":"how-to-disagree-with-your-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/how-to-disagree-with-your-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Disagree with Your Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"

My disposition has been noted on more than one occasion by others and by me.<\/p>\n

I love pastors. I respect pastors. I honor pastors.<\/p>\n

In the course of a week, someone will note the occasional outlier. They will point out the negatives of pastors. They don\u2019t take care of the members. They are in it for the money. They are dictators and bullies. They don\u2019t lead. And on and on and on.<\/p>\n

Of course, anytime you look at nearly 400,000 people, you can certainly find the bad apples in the batch. It seems like some church members make it the goal of their lives to focus on the negatives of pastors. We have a few of those who show up on this blog.<\/p>\n

But this one thing I know: most pastors are godly and honorable leaders. They love their church members. They love their communities. They love their families. They love the God they serve.<\/p>\n

Are pastors infallible? Of course not. You know as well as I that no pastor is perfect. They will make mistakes. They will have a bad day. They will get frustrated.<\/p>\n

Should you, then, disagree with your pastor? Should you confront these leaders with something they have done wrong? Should you point out their omissions? Let me respond by offering ten guidelines for you to consider.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pray first. <\/strong>Okay, this one is obvious. In the heat of the moment, this one can be obviously forgotten too.<\/li>\n
  2. Understand the frequency of the criticism issue. <\/strong>Look at this example. If your church\u2019s average worship attendance is 100, you likely have around 200 active members (\u201cactive\u201d defined loosely). If every church member took the liberty to disagree or criticize the pastor once a year, your pastor would be dealing with a critic two of every three days.<\/li>\n
  3. Understand the negative magnification issue. <\/strong>If you are disagreeing with or criticizing your pastor, you obviously understand the humanity of pastors. They aren\u2019t perfect people. And though they would hope otherwise, most of them will obsess over your criticism. For many of them, one criticism has a ten times greater impact than one praise or compliment.<\/li>\n
  4. Make sure it is absolutely necessary. <\/strong>If this issue is one of preference or not getting something your way, drop it. Your criticism will likely do a lot more harm than good.<\/li>\n
  5. Don\u2019t begin with, \u201cI love you pastor, but . . . \u201c <\/strong>Most pastors will only hear everything after the \u201cbut.\u201d The prefatory phrase will typically be perceived as insincere.<\/li>\n
  6. Don\u2019t say, \u201cPeople are saying . . . \u201c <\/strong>Speak for yourself, not the cowards in anonymity. Any leader should discount or ignore \u201cpeople are saying\u201d criticisms.<\/li>\n
  7. Don\u2019t express your disagreement on a Sunday. <\/strong>Don\u2019t criticize pastors right before or after they preach. In fact, hold off all disagreements for a day other than Sunday. If you wait a day or two, the urgency to criticize may go away.<\/li>\n
  8. Make clear you want to hear the pastor\u2019s perspective. <\/strong>Too many disagreements are pet peeves or personal preferences. If you have a sincere and serious disagreement, you will want to hear the pastor\u2019s perspective. Listen as much as speaking, if not more.<\/li>\n
  9. Seek to be a part of the solution. <\/strong>Criticizing and stating negatives are easy. Most of us are adept in finding problems. If you really care about your church and your pastor, you will be willing to offer a solution and to be part of the solution.<\/li>\n
  10. Pray again. <\/strong>If you have made the move toward disagreeing with your pastor, pray after the fact. Pray for your pastor. Pray for yourself. Pray for you words to be received well. Pray for your church.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I was in conversation with a pastor called to ministry from the business world. His call was genuine I am sure, but he admitted he was a frequent critic of his pastors before he became one. \u201cI often knew a better way, and I wasn\u2019t hesitant to let my pastors know,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that I am on the other side, I can\u2019t believe how insensitive and even ungodly I was. The life of a pastor is so stressful. If I only knew then . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

    Indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should you disagree with your pastor? Should you confront these leaders with something they have done wrong? Should you point out their omissions? Let me respond by offering ten guidelines for you to consider.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,195,177,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-694751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-conflict-and-people-problems","category-lead","category-preaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Disagree with Your Pastor | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Should you, then, disagree with your pastor? 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