You are fortunate if you have never had the need to think of this question. Christians who are blessed with a good pastor may even think it strange that such a question should ever be raised.

Other Christians have had to live with this question for years. Some have participated in the often painful process of asking a pastor to leave.

Reactions from laymen and ministers to this question of “firing a pastor” vary. Some object right off to the use of the word “fire”. Their reasoning is that if a pastor is not hired, then how can he be fired. Besides, it is too derogatory a term to use. Some feel that immorality should be grounds for dismissal. Others feel doctrinal error may be a legitimate reason. Still others feel that a pastor’s performance should be the criterion to judge if he should stay or not.

In this article, I would like to:

1. Show that a serious breach in a pastor’s belief and/or personal integrity should be sufficient grounds to confront a pastor and ask him to consider leaving.
2. Defend the position that a pastor’s performance is not a criterion to be used in dismissing him.

A Pastor’s Belief and Personal Integrity

A. A Pastor’s Belief

The main role of a pastor is to be a spokesman for God and he does this by careful interpretation of the Word of God and application of it to the contemporary scene.

A pastor is a believer. He believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior. He also believes the Bible as God’s written revelation to men. He is neither a philosopher nor a scholar in the sense he does not have to come up with independent and original ideas about God, who He is and what He does.

A pastor is an ambassador of God. He is God’s appointed representative. He does not have directives of his own. He only conveys God’s directives and carries out God’s instructions.

A pastor is a servant of God. He does what his Master wants him to do. He is a vessel and channel of God. He is a Computer in the hands of a Programmer.

Since a pastor is a spokesman, believer, ambassador and servant of God, his belief is of utmost importance. In fact, his worth lies in what he believes and his faithfulness in professing his beliefs. If his belief is wrong, his message

cannot be right. If his message is wrong, he cannot possibly be the spokesman for God. Therefore, if he is not a spokesman for God, he has no business being a pastor of the church of Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament time, the prophets were the spokesmen of God. “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him” (Deut. 18:18-19, NASB). Their worth lies in their faithfulness in conveying God’s message.

When a prophet failed to speak God’s message, his usefulness and even his life was terminated. “But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commended him to speak, or which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die” (Deut. 18:20).

In the New Testament time, believers are warned against false prophets. Our Lord warned that these false prophets would come in “sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Mt. 7: 15) and they would “mislead many” (Mt. 24:11). The Apostle John told us these false prophets were from within the churches (I Jn. 2:19) and they denied that “Jesus is the Christ” (I Jn. 2:22). Peter also warned us of practically the same thing, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, brining swift destruction upon themselves” (II Pet. 2:1).

There are strong evidences in both the Old and New Testaments that if a servant of God should deny the essentials of the faith or fail to be the spokesman for God, he has no place in the service of the Lord.

B. A Pastor’s Personal Integrity

A person’s integrity is as hard to define as it is rare in today’s society. “You don’t know whom to trust anymore” is a common complaint from the mouth of millions.

What is integrity? It is the impartiality one would expect from a judge, bravery from a soldier, honesty from a politician, reliability from a businessman, understanding from a teacher, love from a parent. Still, there is more, much more, to integrity. As applied to pastors, I think integrity should include the following:

• A sincere desire to follow Christ: To Peter, Andrew, John and James, Jesus invited, “Follow Me” (Mt. 4:19). And they followed Him. Today, those who are his servants must do no less regardless of the cost.

• Saying yes to mean yes: Our Lord teaches, “let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’ and anything beyond these is of evil” (Mt. 5:37). Paul was a man of his word when he told the Corinthians, “But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no” (II Cor. 1:18).

  A pastor who would change “yes” to “no” or vice versa depending on expediency or popularity on a consistent basis should examine his calling again. Maybe his initial “yes” to God was really meant to be “no” or “maybe”.

• Not for worldly gain: In his famous farewell speech to the elders from Ephesus, Paul confessed, “I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes” (Acts 20:33). Our Lord Himself sets the example during His earthly life. To the person who volunteered to follow Him, He replied, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Lk. 9:58).

• Be honest: I suspect that the most difficult thing in calling a spade a spade is that it sounds so plain. It is most difficult to be honest in a world where people try to out-impress one another to gain a psychological edge.

  Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold their property. They kept part of the money and gave the rest to the church but pretended that the amount they gave was all they got from the sale of the property. Their slight maneuvering by today’s standard was conceived as an outright “lie” in the eyes of Peter and for that, they were struck dead by God.

  God is Truth. He allows no lie among His servants.

• Lead a morally upright life: Fornication, adultery and homosexuality are so explicitly condemned in the Bible that space will not be taken to spell them out here. I Corinthians 6:13b sums it up neatly, “the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord.”

There is no question that the effectiveness and responsibility of a pastor go beyond his personal integrity. There are many verses which speak of the qualifications, qualities and responsibilities of a pastor but our focus here is on his personal integrity. I believe if any of the qualities which constitutes the integrity of a pastor is seriously and consistently violated, then such a pastor should be confronted according to the teaching of Matthew 18:15-17. If he is not willing to listen to reason and to make a serious effort to change, then he should be asked to leave.

A Pastor’s Performance

Like most Christians, I believe that being is more important than doing. For the purpose of our discussion, I include a pastor’s “belief and integrity” in his “being” and his “performance” in his “doing”.

A pastor’s performance includes the effectiveness with which he caries, or neglects to carry, his various responsibilities (teaching, preaching, counseling, evangelizing, shepherding, and organizing). It includes his skills, his training, his gifts, his abilities, his unique upbringing and cultural background, his temperament, his tastes, his judgment, his value system, his priorities and his own peculiar eccentricity.

A pastor’s performance includes also such things as whether the church is growing or declining (budget, membership, building, and missions), how well the various groups within the church are responding to his ministry, his relationship with the paid and voluntary staff of the church and…

There is no denying that the performance of a pastor is very important to the vitality of a church. I am also aware of the fact everybody loves a winner. But, in spite of all these, I would like to suggest a pastor’s performance should not be a criterion when considering his dismissal. My reasons are:

1. The performance of a pastor has much to do with his gifts. A pastor who is gifted as a speaker, who is aggressive and who has a good head would go a long way toward building a big church. His “success” sometimes has more to do with his gifts and abilities than his spiritual qualities. The coming judgment alone can separate the men from the boys (I Cor. 3:10-15; 4:5).

2. To a great extent, a man’s gifts and abilities are not within his control. His parents’ genes and their early influence upon him have much to do with what he will be.

The Bible recognizes that each one of us is endowed differently (Mt. 25:15). The one endowed with five talents gained five talents and the one with two talents gained two talents. From a human perspective, the former is obviously more worth than the latter. But God’s evaluation of them is the same, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things” (Mt. 25:21 and 23). Their rewards are the same because they are equally faithful in exercising the gifts God has given to them. The results of their efforts are different, five talents versus two talents, but their reward are identical.

3. How God chooses His servants is a secret He does not share with us. God chooses whom He wills. It is of interest to note that when God calls a prophet, his qualifications are never mentioned. The fact seems to suggest that no one is really qualified to be called by God and this feeling of unworthiness is reflected in the responses of the prophets:

• Moses: “Who am I” (Exo. 3:11).
• Isaiah: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).
• Jeremiah: “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth” (Jer. 1:6).
• Gideon: “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel. Behold, my family is the least in Manasse, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (Jud. 6;15).
• Amos: “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore gifts” (Amos 7:14).

Similarly in the New Testament, the 12 apostles were not chosen because of their unusual abilities. They were chosen because God wanted them.

Whatever the prophets and the apostles were able to do, it was because they were enabled by God. God picked them and gave them the abilities to perform the tasks He wanted them to do. To Moses, God promised, “I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say” (Exo. 4:12). To the apostles, our Lord’s promise was, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witness…” (Acts 1:8).

If both the calling and the endowment are from God, how then can we dismiss His servant, your pastor or mine, just because his performance does not measure up to our expectations?

4. The case of David and Saul should teach us to be extremely cautious when we make preparation to dispose of God’s chosen servant (I Sam. 24, 26; II Sa. 1:14)

David had every reason and justification to put away Saul. The Spirit of the Lord has departed from Saul and came “mightily upon David” (I Sam. 16:13-14). It was obvious that David was anointed to take the place of Saul. More, even the circumstances were such that David could have killed Saul easily on more than one occasion.

But David did not. His reason was simple, “who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be without guilt?” (I Sam. 26:9). David preferred to leave Saul in the hands of God, “As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish” (I Sam. 26:10).

5. The performances of Apollos and John Mark were not quite up to par when they first began to serve God. In the case of Apollos, he knew only the baptism of John the Baptist. It took the coaching of Priscilla and Aquilla to update his theology (Acts 18:25-26).

In the case of John Mark, he left Paul and Barnabas in the midst of their missionary journey at Perga in Pamphylia and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). Mark’s quitting left Paul with such a bad impression that he would not take him again for the second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-41). On the other hand, Barnabas gave Mark a second chance. He saw the potential, if not proper performance, in Mark.

Years later, Paul came around and acknowledged Mark as “useful to me for service” (II Tim. 4:11). The examples of Apollos and Mark should teach us to be more tolerant toward those whose performances do not quite meet our standard.

Conclusion

The criteria of dismissing a pastor should be confined only to his belief and his personal integrity. Whereas performance, though undisputably important, is not and should not be part of those criteria.

In a case whereas a pastor’s performance is unsatisfactory (who would dare to make such a judgment?), his lack should be supplemented by the gifts of others in the congregation. In one sense, his lack becomes another person’s opportunity of service.

The world will always be impressed with the Marthas who go about getting things done. But the church should pattern herself after our Lord’s value system and learn to appreciate the Marys who believe being is more important than doing.