We pastors care deeply for our church members. We think about you during the week, pray for you, and want to do whatever we can to give you spiritual comfort. But one pastor serves many parishioners, and not all of you are equally sensitive to your pastor’s feelings and needs.
Story by Loren Seibold / This article is reprinted with permission from the 1st quarter 2016 Elder’s Digest
What follows applies to only a small number of people in a congregation, but that small number can do a great deal of damage and may help to account for why only one out of 10 pastors will last to the end of his or her career. Your pastor probably won’t say these things to you—church relationships are too delicate—but, on occasion, they wish they could.
So here are 10 things, in no particular order, we pastors would sometimes like to say to a few of our church members:
