We affirm the former, but most often practice the latter. We are more apt to clone preachers than to allow valid ministry consistent with the minister's personality. Lack of spiritual focus . In my experience, preacher interviews seldom ask about personal spiritual health and growth. Without spiritual focus, spiritual famine will eventually come.
Genuine ministry is fraught with frailty, frustration, and even failure.
The greatest failure, however, may be the failure to find the power for ministry in the spiritual rather than the physical realm. Misguided evaluation . Consider two opposite extremes. On the one hand, worldly standards of success too often replace spiritual evaluation. Some churches fail to appreciate effective ministry in their demands for numerical results.