THE CHURCH PASTOR AND CHALLENGES OF MORAL UPBRINGING OF HIS FAMILY
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Abstract
This study looked at the church minister and the issues of moral upbringing for his family, utilizing the Assemblies of God Church Ikwerre West District as a case study. Recently, the bad attitudes of church ministers’ children have had a negative impact on the repentance of the majority of unbelievers in Nigeria. The primary goal of the study is to look into the issues of raising children in minister’s homes and how they affect the spread of the gospel of Christ. The study used primary data from research questionnaires distributed to members of the specified denominations. The research design used in this study is a cross-sectional survey and descriptive analysis of a randomly selected sample of members from Assemblies of God Church Ikwerre West District. The study included the total church population. A sample of 40 respondents was considered for the study. It was revealed that church pastors’ families face unique obstacles, notably in maintaining boundaries between their personal lives and the distinct needs of each member of their family, as well as a church minister’s public pastoral responsibilities. Also, in today’s church most of the minister’s children misbehavior have been overlooked, with the view of not trying to touch an anointed vessel’s property. Few recommendations were made based on the findings and conclusion of this study to eradicate the challenges pastors face while raising their children in ministry.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Most Christians fail to realize that a minister’s family is subject to the same problems and challenges that other families face. The fact is that a minister faces more challenges at home than an ordinary church member does, challenges ranging from how his wife will cope with his various psychological challenges and the society’s expectations of a holy lifestyle from members the minister’s family. Definitely, every preacher has a family. Sometimes the congregation forgets, sometimes even the pastor seems to forget that they are flesh and blood. So as each member of our individual family has needs to be met and potentials to be developed, so also the Preacher’s family does. Pastoral ministry today has become demanding with more added responsibilities, which includes not only preaching, evangelism, administration, and missions, but also counselling, social ministry, nurture and fund raising Godly children, among other responsibilities.
The church has never been so concern about how ministers responds to family and ministry challenges as they are now. Since the 21st century church is going through serious challenges of corruption, secularism, immorality and character issues from the members and minister’s family. The young generation today especially “minister’s children” has decline from following their father’s footsteps of spreading the gospel and settled for worldly life styles to suit into the contemporary society. But for the gospel to be passed down from generation to generation in order to grow the body of Christ, the issues of negatives attitudes of church ministers children needs to be given urgent attention. Biblical history reveals few smooth generational transfers of faith. The tragic words of Judges 2:10 suggest a pattern repeated throughout the biblical narrative: “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel”.
Children are the heritage of the LORD” as clearly stated in (Psalm 127:3a). The Bible teaches Christian parents to “train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6) and specifically says to fathers: “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4). The raising of minister’s children takes place in the family, the church and in schools, but what happens in the minister’s family is primary and most important. Studies from a research group found out that averagely, 1 in 3 young people growing up in a Christian home walk away from their inherent Christian values by age 18.1 Despite spiritual value systems a Christian home provides, teaching the Christian faith does not guarantee the children’s salvation. Minister’s family members in every generation must wrestle with the faith handed down from their fathers, grappling with the written words, presence, and mission of God until their own story joins the stream of His story.
The church minister’s family lifestyle is one of the keys to success in pastoral ministry of the church. Capable and skillful ministers often create an atmosphere of excitement, give directions to move forward and develop his family to grow into spiritual maturity. But it is only when ministers understand family leadership in the light of God’s calling on their lives will they be able to combine their ministry and family effectively. Sometimes, a pastor’s family members may feel that church members are the pastor’s family. This is because they seem to consume more of the pastor’s time and this impact negatively on the pastor’s family. Whenever they call and whatever they want, the pastor seems to be ready to counsel, teach, preach and visit. This is because pastor cares about what they do. It is often difficult for them to turn people away who crowd into family time.2
However, pastors are scheduling regular time away from their pastoral duties for their families and in addition to time for themselves. Frankly speaking, there are great rewards in the pastor’s home. One of such is that Pastor’s children have access to their parents at times while some are not privileged to reach theirs. They understand what their parent, who is a pastor, does more clearly than children whose parents “go to the office”. But there may be a sense of intrusion especially when the pastor’s family lives in a Parsonage. Therefore, this research investigate the church minister and challenges of moral upbringing of his family.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Church Ministers are expected to carry out the moral-religious education of children by praying together as a family, taking children to the Church to receive sacraments of Christian initiation, allowing them also to attend Sunday schools/ Services and also allowing them to join church movements and others. Church ministers who are accountable to a church congregation along with their children assume a difficult task that non-pastoral parents will never experience. The ability for ministers to escape from stressors of church and family life are challenging because both are encompassed in the pastoral lifestyle. For evangelical clergy, leading people to faith in Jesus Christ is the capstone of their pastoral duties. When children choose to walk away from the Christian faith, it can project a sense of personal failure in preaching the gospel to those who are closest to home. The minister’s ability to escape these feelings can become overwhelming, even damaging to the minister’s soul. Similar to mainstream statistics for young adults raised in Christian homes, 3 out of 4 pastors claim their child fifteen and older has experienced significant doubts of faith.3 Minister’s children enjoy many unique advantages, but also struggle with a set of painful challenges that can drive them away from God and the church. Minister’s children grow up with preacher parents in families influenced to an unusual degree by the members of the local church community, who are also collectively their parents’ employers. Minister’s children often feel that church people watch their every move, unfairly criticize them, and expect them to be perfect. When perfection proves impossible and criticism mounts, because of this some Minister’s children may choose open rebellion, which drains energy from the pastoral family and produces confusion among church members. Minister’s families are often expected to model Christian family life for the church and community, and the apparent failure of Christianity in the pastors’ family can prove deeply troubling to the whole church and preaching the gospel to unbelievers. This research is vital because it aims at filling the above gap by examining the church minister and challenges of moral upbringing of his family in Assemblies of God Church Ikwerre West District.
READ ALSO: THE CHURCH MINISTER AND CHALLENGES OF MORAL UPBRINGING OF HIS FAMILY
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The major purpose of this study is to examine the church minister and challenges of moral upbringing of his family in Assemblies of God Church. The specific objectives are:
- To examine the rights and duties of ministers regarding religious and moral upbringing of their families In Assemblies of God Church Ikwerre West District.
- To examine the relationship between the church minister and his family leadership in Assemblies of God Church Ikwerre West District.
- To find out the challenges faced by church ministers in the religious moral upbringing of family and how they can be solved.
- To check out for possible solution and a way out of the problem faced by the ministers and his family.
1.4 Research Questions
The following questions were formulated to guide the study;
- Does church ministers have rights and duties regarding the religious and moral upbringing of their families?
- Is there any significant relationship between the church minister and his family leadership in Assemblies of God Church Ikwerre West District?
- Are there major challenges faced by church ministers in the religious moral upbringing of family and how they can be solved?
- Are there possible solutions and a way out of the problem faced by the ministers and his family?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The greatest challenge facing the church minister is that of managing the ministry and his family. Therefore, this study is set to give insight into the various expectations of the role of the pastor that are present in twentieth century parishes, both urban and rural. It is also significant in helping those that are accepting calls to either urban or rural agrarian parishes to understand, before beginning ministry, some of the role expectations with which they may have to contend. Moral upbringing of a family is not a simple task and it is erected by a complex set of factors, not all of which can be controlled by the church. This research work seeks to study church minister and the challenges of moral upbringing of his family. Though pastors’ do concentrate on the ministry work more than their families, there is need for them to manage their work well so as to have time for their families.
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