Things ministers teach that are more false than true …

If ministers don’t teach the truth, trusting them with anything they teach becomes difficult (at best). That’s likely one of the reasons why the Apostle Paul wrote the following:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth,” 2 Timothy 2:15.

A problem in the 21st century is that it has become too common for what many ministers teach to include some things that just are not true, and these things often don’t even come from scripture. These tidbits may have a sliver of truth in them, but a sliver of truth in a full slice of falsehood is really teaching something that is not reliable.

Here are a half dozen examples of some popular things ministers teach that are more false than true:

We learn more from failure than success. This is heavily parroted in church leadership circles, and I think most ministers who include it in their teaching do so without serious consideration of its validity, they’re just saying what some “guru” has claimed. It is true that for some people, experiencing failure can be one way of eventually learning how to be successful. But it is also true that MANY people are devastated by failure and don’t quickly bounce back and learn a lesson needed to then move on to “success.” For some, failure is so devastating it wipes out both their resources and any confidence in moving forward. For others, the failure is so deep and painful they don’t want to ever take risks again. Ministers can talk about and treat failure too lightheartedly. A better statement: It is possible to learn from failures and still move forward to success.

Fifty percent of all marriages fail. Ministers routinely quote this as fact, but it isn’t true. In fact, it has never been true in America! Continuing to quote it paints a dark picture of marriage for both those who are married and to all those single people who begin to question if they should even consider marriage if it’s that bad! To my fellow ministers, PLEASE do yourself a favor and BUY and READ Shaunti Feldhahn’s book, “The Good News About Marriage.” Shaunti is a devout Christian who is a Harvard-trained researcher and, in this book, clearly details her research revealing this claim regarding the divorce rate to be F A L S E. That’s GOOD NEWS you need to know about. You can find my original review of the book by clicking here. A better statement: In spite of what you often hear, not only do a large majority of marriages succeed, a strong majority of people say they are happy in their marriage.

Marriage is hard work. It can be. It sometimes is for most everyone. But it isn’t always or even most of the time. In fact for MANY people it’s not actually “hard work.” In fact, you might be surprised that for many people, it’s reasonably easy. When a husband is consistently yielding his life to the lordship of Christ and loves the Lord first, and a wife is doing the same, marriage can be more consistently a joy than it is “hard work.” Of course, we mess up on being that kind of husband and wife, and when we do, we can make marriage harder, and more work, than it has to be. However, MINISTERS, to persistently insist that marriage is hard, hard, hard, you contribute greatly to a negative image of marriage. Again, I’m not saying that marriage is easy for everyone, or that it doesn’t take some work by everyone, but is it MOSTLY hard work? It isn’t supposed to be, and it doesn’t have to be. So don’t be the reason why so many people think it is. A better statement: Every marriage requires consistent nurturing.

It’s all about leadership. Church is not all about leadership. Ministry is not all about leadership. Living the Christian life certainly isn’t all about leadership. And being a minister isn’t all about leadership. It’s all about Jesus, and our followership of Him. The quality of your leadership will never surpass the quality of your followership. A better statement: The quality of your leadership will impact the church you lead.

Everybody hates change. So many ministers state this so often it almost makes people think of “change” as being a dirty word. The fact is M A N Y people pray for change. They yearn for change. Change is one of their greatest desires. Yes, there’s some truth that some people do hate change and will resist it at almost any cost, but so many long for it. Don’t approach change with a broad brush, resulting in painting a false picture of what so many really think about change. A better statement: Some people don’t like and resist change, others flourish in it.

Change is always hard. Change is sometimes hard for some people. But for others, it’s easy. In fact, for some it’s an adventure, a delight, freeing, a joy, a growing experience, even a blessing. Again, don’t broad brush the experience of change. A better statement: Depending on the person and the kind of change undertaken, the experience of change can be hard, easy, or something in-between.

One good thing about the above examples is that they are extra-biblical facts. In other words, teaching these things isn’t the same as incorrectly teaching the Word. The problem, though, is if you try to pair rightly handling the Word with other information that is false, you’re still misleading the people you’re teaching.

Last year in America, we saw the rise of the “fact checker” as part of a very divisive election year. People even argued over the accuracy of fact checkers! But checking the facts of even your extra-biblical claims before including them in what you teach is a wise (even necessary) way of making sure all that you’re teaching is true.

Scotty