I serve as the pastor for the English-speaking members of a Korean Full Gospel church. One Sunday evening, my wife and I had dinner with two couples who attend that church. The wives were Korean, and their husbands were white Americans. Both wives spoke English fluently.
During our table conversations, one of the wives mentioned the fact that several of the local Korean churches in the area were struggling to survive. Others who were present joined in to share their feelings about the situation. I found it interesting to hear lay people share their perspective on the local Korean church pastors.
I agreed wholeheartedly with what they were saying in general. That’s because their observations are not limited to the local Korean pastors they were discussing. Here is a synopsis of our conversation:
Church Leaders take it personal when congregants leave.
Even if a church member who is leaving explains that he made his decision after praying and seeking the Lord, pastors tend to take it personal. They may even try to make the person feel guilty about leaving. But one of the wives at dinner said that pastors all the time leave one local church to serve another because they say God is calling them to another ministry. She said pastors tend to church hop in the name of the Lord with no care for the local congregations they abandon.
Such a perspective on church pastors is not good. First of all, we should not take it personal when congregants leave a local church where we serve. We are not in competition with other local churches. We are all one body. And no one local church is the right fit for everybody.
Secondly, as ministers of the gospel, we must assure that our motives are right for leaving one ministry location for another. We were not called to be hirelings but servants of the living God.
Church pastors tend to not want to work together.
This point was brought up because of the area’s struggling Korean churches mentioned above. A number of the churches were not able to fully pay their monthly bills. A couple of people at our dinner table touched on the idea of closing a couple of the churches and combining resources to survive. But so far, these pastors have not come together that way. The feeling was that each pastor would rather have his own ministry with a building with his name on it—even if the ministry could not be sustained.
I can relate to the members’ perspective on church pastors in this regard. I know of times when a local church has come up with a city wide outreach that required the support of other churches in order to succeed. Based on my observations, those don’t tend to get much support. Sad but true, sometimes, pastors are more concerned about which local church will get the credit and publicity than they are in coming together for the cause of Christ.
I enjoyed our conversation at dinner. We had gathered only to eat together and fellowship. But these church members gave me their unsolicited input on some church pastors. I am sure you have some thoughts on this topic as well. Please feel free to share one in the comment section. All I can say is thank God that He can and does use us in spite of our many flaws.
Copyright © 2023 by Frank King. All rights reserved.
