7 REASONS MANY PASTORS ARE MAKING MISTAKES IN PREACHING

I don’t know whether you are aware of current developments in Nigeria and beyond regarding some prominent pastors and their inaccurate teachings. The question I will ask is, CAN A PASTOR MAKE A MISTAKE IN PREACHING IF HE DEPENDS ON GOD ALWAYS FOR HIS MESSAGES? This article is about showing you why many pastors are making a lot of errors in teaching or preaching.

All pastors are human beings which means they are not perfect. All human beings make mistakes which means your pastor too can. However, the question is not focusing on whether or not a pastor can make a mistake, but whether it is possible for him not to make a mistake if he relies on God to give Him the message.

God did not reveal everything about Himself: What we know about God are things that God wanted us to know. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV). We only know what we need to know about God not everything about Him. Any pastor who has taken the position of the “beginning and the end” in knowing God will certainly be exposed one day by his ignorance. This is one of the major reasons many pastors make a lot of mistakes. They don’t have the humility to acknowledge that there are things about God they don’t know. Maybe doing so may look like a demotion to the anointing they claim to have. The truth is that there are times when a pastor must answer a question with “I don’t know the answer. I am also searching and trusting God for the right understanding.”

We cannot always comprehend:  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9 NIV).

For instance, God has no beginning and end. Nobody created Him. Tell me, which human mind can fully comprehend these? There are many things we know about God, but we cannot fully comprehend. We know that God is omnipotent. We know about the Trinity. We know that Mary was pregnant without a man. We know how the Red Sea was divided for the Israelites to pass through. Do we fully understand them all? If a pastor tries to know and understand everything about God instead of accepting them by faith, then that will be the beginning of self-deception and beyond. Human beings are always trying to fill in the gaps.

Opinion: A pastor must be able to know and understand the difference between his opinion and revelation. Any pastor who is not able to establish the difference will deceive himself and others in teaching. He will often share his opinions as the revelation and authoritative Word of God. This is dangerous. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8 NIV).

Many years ago, I heard that my father asked a famous pastor (leading a mega-church denomination in Nigeria) about his former teachings and his present realities. He responded that there was a time when he was a baby in the Lord. Which is another way of saying that he was wrong. Pastors must be careful in sharing their opinions. Let them not take the position of the Sender. No matter how popular a pastor is, he or she must never forget that he or she is only, but a messenger.

You cannot master it: The Holy Bible is like a vast ocean. No human being can understand its species. It is wrong for a pastor to think that he or she has mastered the Bible. That is the point of a major decline. No pastor can master the Word of God fully. We are always students. We will remain students. That is the right philosophy that must guide any pastor. Thinking of mastering it is a major step to errors. Sometimes you may not take your time to pray and read it before teaching it. You will assume that you know everything and this is a point of pride and error. A student is always a learner. Learning leads to humility and humility leads to dependence on God for direction. A learner will always try to know before taking a position. “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7 NLT).

Methodology: The message may be right, but the methodology may be wrong and this too can affect the integrity of the message. God told Moses to speak to the rock and water will come out. That was the message, but Moses made a mistake in the use of a methodology. He hit the rock. The water came out, but he was punished for not getting the methodology right (Numbers 20: 6-12). God gave various measurements to Noah in building the ark. God would have been angry with him if he had missed a measurement. Pastors must be careful with the methodology of delivering the message of God.

Personal experience: It is true that our personal experiences also play important roles in ministry and our knowledge of God. However, it is dangerous to fully rely on them. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV).

A pastor can make many mistakes if he depends fully on his personal experiences as the authorized instructions from God. God has led people in different ways. It would have been wrong if Moses had built a doctrine around the burning bush experience and claimed that there must be a burning bush first before a person can claim being called by God. Or Abraham building a doctrine on barrenness as the only evidence of knowing God. Or Mary calling all the women who sleep with men to be pregnant as not following the will of God. Pastors must be careful in the use of personal experiences as authoritative sources from God. They are useful in our relationship with God, but they are not perfect examples of knowing the whole truth of the Word of God.

The Motive of the Pastor: There are many instances when people can easily make a pastor feel proud. They praise you and make you feel like a god. A pastor can easily be sidetracked if he focuses on telling people only what their itching ears want to hear outside the Word of God. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (Timothy 4:3 NIV).

He must preach exciting and trending messages that will not offend the people who support his ministry. The fear of losing support is there. It is not right for a pastor to behave like that. Those who must please others must make errors in teaching or preaching. The desire to maintain materialistic things can easily lead a pastor astray.

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12

NIV).  I hope you have found the article useful. I know that there are other reasons that I have not mentioned. I will be glad to receive your comments and your views. You can also mention other areas that have not been mentioned. Focus on God who has called you. Be faithful in ministry. Live meaningfully. Give glory to God by finishing the task He gave you. Learn from Jesus, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4 NIV).