{"id":695307,"date":"2019-10-28T02:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T07:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=695307"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:22:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:22:35","slug":"three-sentences-pastors-hate-to-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-sentences-pastors-hate-to-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Sentences Pastors Hate to Hear"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Thom S. Rainer<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most common place pastors hear one of these three sentences is right before they preach or right after they preach. Of course, the prayerful focus on their message is detoured and distracted immediately.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t see how most pastors make it to their sermons when they have been blasted by one of these bombs right before they preach. While three sentences are certainly not an exhaustive list, these are the three I hear most often. To this day, I cringe when pastors tell me they have been hit yet again with one of these three sentences:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cPeople are saying . . .\u201d<\/strong> This one is the coward\u2019s special. Rather than speak for themselves, the critic hides behind the deceitful anonymity of other people. If you challenge the verbal sniper with the identity of the \u201cpeople,\u201d he or she typically responds smugly that they cannot say. They are not at liberty to reveal the identities of the dissidents. Anonymous criticism is not valid criticism. It should be dismissed along with the messenger.<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cI love you, but . . .\u201d<\/strong> The only thing the critic wants the pastor to hear is the verbiage after \u201cbut.\u201d The only thing the pastor hears is the verbiage after \u201cbut.\u201d The critic tries to couch his or her concerns from a posture of love and concern. Baloney! This sentence is similar to the secular phrase from one person dating to the other: \u201cI want to be friends.\u201d There is no love in the statement to the pastor. There is no desire for friendship in the statement to the person in the dating relationship.<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cI\u2019m just not getting fed here.\u201d<\/strong> This infamous sentence has multiple possible translations. \u201cYou aren\u2019t preaching the way I want you to preach.\u201d \u201cYour sermons are too long.\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t preach from the book of Revelation enough.\u201d \u201cThe podcast pastor is so much better.\u201d \u201cThe church down the road is cooler.\u201d Sometimes, the sentence is just a cover because the church member has a consumer mentality, and he or she has not received her preferences or has not gotten preferential treatment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Most church members are good church members. Most church members really love their pastors. The few exceptions, though, are incredibly painful exceptions for pastors. Please prayerfully protect pastors from these verbal bombs, particularly right before they preach.<\/p>\n

    You will be demonstrating true love for your pastor when you do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Thom S. Rainer The most common place pastors hear one of these three sentences is right before they preach or right after they preach. Of course, the prayerful focus on their message is detoured and distracted immediately. Frankly, I don\u2019t see how most pastors make it to their sermons when they have been blasted…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695308,"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":[1,195,175,177,178,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-conflict-and-people-problems","category-grow","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-preaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree Sentences Pastors Hate to Hear | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While three sentences are certainly not an exhaustive list, I cringe when pastors tell me they have been hit yet again with one of these three sentences\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-sentences-pastors-hate-to-hear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Sentences Pastors Hate to Hear | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While three sentences are certainly not an exhaustive list, I cringe when pastors tell me they have been hit yet again with one of these three sentences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-sentences-pastors-hate-to-hear\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-28T07:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T21:22:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/10_28_19_Featured_Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thom S. 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