22/11/2025
7 WAYS TO LOSE YOUR RESPECT AS A PASTOR
You are young, but don’t let anyone treat you as if you are not important...
1 Timothy 4:12 ERV
A call to ministry is a call to honour.
Apostle Paul told Pastor Timothy not to allow anyone to disrespect him as the leader of the church, even though he was young in age.
As a pastor, don't give people the opportunity to disrespect you.
As a pastor, people will not respect you because of your age, they will respect you due to your carriage.
The following are the ways to lose your respect as a pastor:
1. BEGGING .. Do not carry a beggar's bag...
As a pastor, if you are a beggar, you will lose your honour, especially if you beg from members.
2. INCESSANT BORROWING
While one of the prophets was working, his ax head fell off and dropped into the water. "Oh!" he shouted. "Sir, I borrowed this ax."
2 Kings 6:5 CEV
Incessant borrowing, especially if you cannot pay back as and when due, will attract disrespect and dishonour to you.
Stop borrowing money from loan apps.
Stop borrowing money and items from your church members incessantly.
3. CARELESS SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS, ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR MEMBERS
Treat the older women as mothers, and the girls as your sisters, thinking only pure thoughts about them.
1 Timothy 5:2 TLB
Apostle Paul told Pastor Timothy to treat the younger women in Church with purity.
As a pastor, if sexual immorality is the sin that easily besets you, don't commit it with your members. It is one way to lose one's respect and destroy one's ministry.
4. VISITING MEMBERS' HOUSES TOO OFTEN
Do not visit your neighbour's house too often. He may see you too much and he will start to hate you.
Proverbs 25:17 EASY
Stop loitering in your members' houses. Avoid appearing as a hungry pastor who goes to members' houses to eat.
You can visit for serious reasons and on special occasions, not on a regular and social basis.
5. BEGGING OR PESTERING PEOPLE TO HOST YOU
One way to lose respect very quickly is to beg or pester people to host you in their churches or programs.
If someone invites you, he is likely to treat you well but if you invite yourself, you are likely to be treated with contempt, disdain, ignominy and levity.
Maintain your dignity in ministry, you are a minister and not a hustler.
6. MOVING FROM PLACE TO PLACE TO MINISTER WITHOUT HAVING A PHYSICAL LOCATION THAT YOU OPERATE FROM
Deborah was a Prophetess and a Judge. She had a physical location where people met her for her prophetic ministry.
Her location was under the palm tree of Deborah in Mount Ephraim.
No matter what you do in ministry, if you don't have a physical location where people can locate you, they will not respect you.
Even if you are an itinerant minister, you must have a physical office.
If you have a big social media presence but people later discover that you don't have a physical location, they will start undermining you.
7. FORCING PEOPLE TO SUBMIT TO YOU OR CLAIMING PEOPLE AS YOUR SPIRITUAL SONS
Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith...
2 Timothy 1:2
If you lobby for people to submit to you, you will be insulted and disrespected in the long run.
It is offensive to call someone your spiritual son, when you have not invested in him spiritually and even otherwise.
If you did not raise someone, don't claim him.
Conclusively, ministry is a high calling, don't disrespect the call through ignorance and carelessness and make people to disrespect you
