What causes a pastor to be ineffective?

Charles Bridges wrestled with this question almost 200 years ago in his classic The Christian Ministry: With an Inquiry Into the Causes of Its Inefficiency.[1] In his discovery he specified ten character flaws which hinder ministerial effectiveness, and his insights are as true today as they were in 1830.

4.   Lacking in Christian self-denial

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

A life of self-denial is Christ’s call for all of His disciples, especially for His leaders. Using the athletic imagery of the day, Paul taught the same thing: “I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:26-27).

Self-denial is needed in our attitudes and expectations. If we place our own interests above God’s honor or people’s needs, we will quickly become bitter, and our self-seeking will soon become evident.

John Eliot, 17th-century missionary to Native Americans, is said to have “become so nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that the grandeurs of this world were unto him just what they would be to a dying man.” His counsel to ministers who made too much of themselves was, “Study mortification, brother; study mortification.”[2]

Self-denial is also needed in our use of time. To “give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4) will require denying many other pursuits and pleasures. People’s needs will impinge on our personal plans, and the demands of study will take priority over hobbies and recreation.

However, in a day where pastoral burnout and fallout are all too common, with 1,500 pastors leaving the ministry each month and 50% of pastors’ marriages ending in divorce,[3] it is important to stress the need for balance. Pastors do need to maintain margins in their schedule for regular seasons of personal renewal, family time, and genuine recreation.

We must continually, with the help of others, assess our priorities and motives. Self-seeking ambition and a desire to secure others’ approval can easily masquerade as self-denial, resulting in the neglect of one’s family, loss of spiritual vitality, and even loss of physical health. Pastors should not continually run on fumes.

Motivation is the key. Are we driven to please God and love others or to please ourselves?

5.   Covetous

Covetousness among pastors is almost proverbial.

Judas and Demas were among the first to forsake faithfulness to Christ for the love of money and this present world. Since we are all vulnerable to the lure of riches, Paul told Timothy to flee the love of money (1 Tim. 6:10-11) and urged that qualified church leaders must not be “greedy for gain” (Tit. 1:7).

Greedy pastors are not shepherds, but wolves living to fleece God’s flock. Our mandate is to feed the sheep, not devour them; therefore we must eagerly serve with a willing heart, not for shameful gain (1 Pet. 5:2).

Although a covetous heart can easily be cloaked, God knows it and can help us know ourselves. When we close our hearts and hands to the needy, when we are overly excited with the prospect of gain and greatly distressed by material loss, when we subtly hint to others that we have financial “needs,” or when we always expect our deacons to pick up the lunch tab, we should look deep within for the root of covetousness.

The best defense against covetousness is treasuring Jesus and eternal riches above the wealth of this present age. If we are convinced that God really knows our needs before we ask, and that treasure in heaven is worth more than treasure on earth, we will seek first His kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:19-33).

Finally, when we’re overly concerned to fund IRAs and secure a raise, people will know it (so will God), and divine blessing on our ministry will be diminished. Do not be greedy to gain, concerned to keep, or troubled to lose worldly wealth. God is our treasure!

6.   Neglectful of personal fellowship with God

“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while,” Jesus said to His disciples (Mark 6:31).

If Jesus needed unhurried spiritual and physical restoration, how much more do we? Constant busyness suffocates prayer and meditation, and if we neglect personal communion with God, our souls and our ministries will be impoverished.

Too often pastors feel that they don’t have time for unhurried prayer and meditation. But “waiting on the Lord” will never hinder effectiveness. Just the opposite is true. Without personal communion with God, we are of little use to God’s people.

We sow, but God gives no increase. We preach, but our words ring hollow in people’s ears. We lead worship, but our hearts are far from God.

Fellowship with God is half our ministry; it gives to the other half all of its power and success. It both strengthens our devotion to the work and increases our capacities for it.

The great missionary Henry Martyn lamented that “want of private devotional reading and shortness of prayer, through incessant sermon-making, had produced much strangeness between God and his own soul.”[4] Is God a stranger to your soul?

End Notes

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[4] Bridges, 150.