Beware of pastors who hinder Christians and the church from progressing.
There are at least three types of pastors every Christian needs to avoid.
Josh Buice, the senior pastor of Pray's Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia, identified these kinds of preachers in his DeliveredByGrace blog, The Christian Post reports.
According to the Baptist pastor and founder of the G3 Conference, they are "the entertainer", the "lover of this world" and "unbalanced" teachers.
The Entertainer
This kind of pastor is described as one who is "a hindrance to the local church's sanctification and growth in grace."
Pastor Buice says, "The entertainer is really a pragmatist at heart. Whatever the people want, they will get it under the leadership of an entertainer. Today it's not at all uncommon to have pastors dressing up in costumes to "perform" their sermon rather than preaching the text. This approach to ministry will often be very successful, but it's not spiritually profitable."
This group of pastors are bad for the church as they are unable to improve the spiritual lives of his congregation.
"In most cases, the entertainer is paralyzed by the need to be liked by his congregation, and sadly he places more emphasis on pleasing people rather than pleasing God. Paul warned Timothy that his people would soon leave him for such preachers who would tickle the ears of the immature causing them to wander off into myths (2 Tim. 4:3–4)," he explained.
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Lovers of the World
This second category can also be referred to as prosperity preachers. Like the name implies, this kind of pastors all about money and materialism.
In Pastor Buice's words, "The pastor who loves this present world is not qualified to lead a local church - or God's Word for that matter. Pastors should love people in the world and point them to their hope and joy in Christ, but the preacher who loves the world demonstrates that his heart is mastered by money and materialism rather than by Christ."
Unfortunately, the Baptist preacher notes that too many preachers fall into this group. He says, "Far too many leaders fit this category. They preach a message of health, wealth, and prosperity - demanding that people have enough faith in God and he will provide them with riches and material possessions. The lover of this world is self-condemned and self-deceived."
He adds, "The god of this world has blinded their minds so that they cannot see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). The lover of this world spends most of their time emphasizing how it's possible to have your best life now - rather than focusing on the eternal reward (Heb. 11:10)."
Unbalanced Teachers
This last group of pastors "camp out in one theme." According to the Baptist pastor, these kinds of teachers "often camp on eschatology, the doctrines of grace, evangelism, or whatever he is passionate or knowledgeable about while there is much remaining in God's Word that needs to be expounded."
"Such a teacher is often consumed with a specific topic such as eschatology. In such cases, the unbalanced teacher finds a way to get to eschatology from the strangest texts in the Bible - or he never leaves Daniel or Revelation in fear that he will focus on something other than end times prophecy," he explained.
Pastor Buice urges Christians to stay away from these three groups of pastors who will prevent the church from growing.