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A lack of pastoral discernment
Pastors should not let their presumptions about their members spill over into their sermons. What they are perceiving to be a lack of interest or spiritual complacancy in a member might be something completely different. Sometimes people go through things and don't have the liberty to share with you because family members are always with them. Before you assume something is wrong with their spiritual condition, go to them in private. Aren’t you supposed to be a Shepard? The sheep might be afflicted and broken, feeling alone. Perhaps they have tried to convey to you the depth of their problem and you weren't listening, or gave them cliché phrases when they were seeking wisdom. Perhaps their circumstances make it impossible for them to be as involved as they'd like to be or as they once were. Perhaps they don't have the family support others do that make it possible to be freed up from kids for a couple of days a week so they can help you more. Perhaps their lack of giving comes from financial problems that you really can't grasp. Maybe during their lack of giving they've put off those drives to the park with their kids at times just to make sure they had enough gas to get to church on Sunday, while everyone else was eating out or going on vacation. Maybe for them that was their giving. The last thing they need to be told is that they are under Malachi's curse. And maybe, just maybe, they’ve been wondering when rejection from the ministry was finally going to manifest itself. They’ve picked up on that coldness/snub. They know what you’re thinking, and it only compounds the problem. Pastors, pray for sensitivity. Let yourself entertain the possibility that some of the things you were taught are “pillars of truth” are really man-made traditions not based on scripture.
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