DJJ, I think your post #57 missed my point. Yes, on the whole ministers are careful to adhere to denominational dogma, but implying that they do so to preserve a lifestyle seems to me ludicrous. Most of these people are making financial sacrifices to do what they do, and I believe they are doing it for the right reasons (if not with proper reasoning).
Partially true Autumn, the lower level pastors do make sacrifices in the West, whereas the majority of western missionaries live like kings from their home church support and do very very little in most cases, not all cases.
Let me give you the stats.... as how the church system destroys idealistic pastors within years... Ha and I might as well throw in my introduction from our newsgroup.... as we should try and win these lost pastors back to the Lord...
The system worldly church totally discourages the GREAT MAJORITY of
ne pastors from their idealism, even though the Lord's voice should
have been telling them this throughout their church years and
training in cemeteries... and I do mean cemeteries in most cases...
So brethren, to these lost and discouraged pastors and their wives
(and their children) should be another one of our focuses in winning
the lost. Not just to the outsiders who have never known the Lord and
just believe in love, but also to the church people and even thier
lost and discouraged pastors. They have so much to relearn about what
the Lord really taught and lived, and yet there is hope if we give
them true love and are liberated in the LORD.
For below are the statistics of what happens to these possible
brethren of ours after they leave the church cemeteries, and head out
into the pastoral fields. It's so sad, but some of them can be
reached before their lives for the Lord are completely wasted.
They may not know where it IS, but some of them can truly testify
that they know where it 'AIN'T at, and that's in the worldly church.
Let's win'em with love. Amen ?
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Regarding Pastors....
Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral
failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.
Four thousand new churches begin each year, but over seven thousand
churches close.
Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses
feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the
ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the
ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years. Ninety
percent of pastors said their seminary or Bible school training did
only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry.
Eighty-five percent of pastors said their greatest problem is they
are sick and tired of dealing with problem people, such as
disgruntled elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board
members, and associate pastors. Ninety percent said the hardest thing
about ministry is dealing with uncooperative people.
Seventy percent of pastors feel grossly underpaid.
Ninety percent said the ministry was completely different to what
they thought it would be before they entered the ministry.
Seventy percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before
their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only fifty
percent still felt called.
Regarding Pastors' Wives....
Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
Eighty percent of pastor' wives feel left out and unappreciated by
the church members.
Eighty percent of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose
another profession.
Eighty percent of pastors' wives feel pressured to do things and be
something in the church that they are really not.
The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most
destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was
the day they entered the ministry.
Regarding Pastors' Marriages....
Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital
affair since beginning their ministry.
Regarding Pastors' Children....
Eighty percent of adult children of pastors surveyed have had to seek
professional help for depression.
What's wrong with this picture? (End of excerpt)
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