Yesterday I wrote about what pastors are called to do. What are they supposed to be spending their time doing and what should you mainly be looking for in a pastor? You can read that post here.

Another sad reality is that pastors must come to terms with the fact that they will not be universally loved or liked. This, of course, isn’t unique to pastors. Most people have to come to terms with that reality sooner or later. But pastors will often hear it in no uncertain terms. Somebody once said the pastorate is one of few jobs in the world where people who don’t like you very much get annoyed that you don’t spend enough time with them. This is sadly and strangely true.

Pastors simply won’t be loved by everybody. If they are, it is probably because they are failing in some aspect of their role – most likely the harder and more awkward parts that have a tendency to strain relationships. Of course, if everybody hates the pastor without exception, that is a similarly worrying sign of its own. Good pastors are unlikely to be universally loved or universally loathed. This is something every pastor must come to terms with eventually.

Sometimes, we will be called to preach sermons that people don’t welcome. The prophets, Apostles and Jesus himself all faced the same. Sometimes we will be called to say things to people that we know they don’t want to hear. That may be in our preaching, but it may just be in the ordinary course of calling people to faithfulness. Sometimes we will have to begin the process of church discipline and whilst sometimes that will lead a wandering soul back to the fold, some of the time it will cause them to harden in their unrepentant sin and particularly to lash out and hate on anyone who dares point it out and suggest this is a departure from the way of Christ. Sometimes we will look to take the church in a particular direction and some won’t like it. Other times we will end up falling foul of people’s deeply held, but nevertheless not particularly biblical, preferences. Sometimes people just won’t like our personalities, whatever they may be. All things that lead to tension and all things that cause some to simply dislike their pastor.

But pastors cannot be swayed by the jury of popular opinion. They are called to lead in accordance with the scriptures and to lead their churches through the scriptures, by godly example, right teaching and sound biblical counsel. The temptation to people-please is never far away. The desire for an easier life and to just go along with whatever people want to hear from us, whether in the pulpit, bible study or in our personal interactions with them is ever present. But when we start to lead in ways we know people will wear because it is what they prefer, even though we are convinced the scriptures say otherwise, we are neither helping those folks to grow up in maturity in Christ according to the scriptures nor being faithful to our calling.

Some people of course will love the pastor. But they will love their pastor for all the wrong reasons. Whilst every pastor is glad to hear nice things about themselves every week – just as everybody likes to hear nice things about themselves – such people can stir up all the wrong responses in their pastors. They can also encourage their pastors to preach, teach, counsel and lead so they will continue to hear all those nice things. Pastors aren’t immune from having their own ears tickled from time to time. They can end up favouring the views and opinions of those who have their ear because they know they’ll get the feel-goods when they do so. They can end up failing to counsel such people biblically or meaningfully because they don’t want to lose their support. Though it is obviously much nicer to have people who think we’re wonderful than people who just don’t like us at all, we aren’t being true to our calling when we allow these sorts of things to happen either.

Of course, so far as it is possible, pastors shouldn’t be hated because of how they behave towards people. Though some will inevitably say it is so, pastors shouldn’t be disliked because they are obnoxious, unpleasant and ultimately happy to sin continually against the sheep. Acting in these ways is failing to be true to our calling too. Such pastors are not acting as godly examples for the sheep nor helping them grow up to maturity in Christ.

But godly pastors will preach the Word, whether it is welcomed or not. They will tell counsel people according to what the scriptures say, whether they want to hear it or not. They will not show partiality, whether people seem set against them or people seem to love them. They will, as far as it depends on them, seek to be a godly example to the sheep and continue to preach the Word straight, leaving how it is received entirely up to the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, they will be looking not for the affirmation from people or to avoid awkward situations where they are necessary, but will be looking to for affirmation only from Jesus and seeking to be faithful to him as they do the work he has given them to do.