HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

What is the danger of gossiping

about your pastor and his family?

Don’t hold your pastor to unrealistic standards

Pastors are easy targets for gossip because congregation members don’t usually think about them as people who struggle through sin and trials. Instead, pastors and their families are put in a separate category, one that often holds them to standards that are near perfection. In reality, pastors and their families are subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as everyone else. Their lives are subject to pressures, stresses, and spiritual attacks that many people outside the ministry don’t face. Pastors are not only expected to be there for their own families, but also for the rest of the congregation. For example, when someone in the church ends up in the hospital or has a family crisis, the pastor is often there no matter the time of day. This puts pressure on the pastor’s wife and children who have to be okay with their husband or father leaving to meet other people’s needs rather than be with his own family. With this in mind, congregation members should focus on lifting up their pastor and his family in prayer and encouragement. Rather than gossip about your pastor and his family, seek to genuinely support him. You might even ask him what specific things you can do that would be helpful to him and his family. Prayer is certainly a great place to start (I exhort, therefore, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 1 Timothy 2:1).