5. Overly Competitive: You consider the church down the street your competition.
A new family moves into the neighborhood, and as a good neighbor would, this pastor invites them to church. They try it out, but end up joining the one down the street. So the pastor writes off the neighbors and holds a grudge against the other church for stealing prospects.
Not every church is a good fit for every person. If the church down the street is reaching people and yours is not, it’s likely not the other church’s fault. I realize some will claim this is a result of watered-down theology at times, and that does happen. But more often than not, the reason other churches are reaching people in your community and your church is not is because you are not engaging your context — while others are.
Those are my five signs of an arrogant pastor. I know there are probably more, but we (including me) can work to avoid all of these.
