Some Animals Eat Their Young - Some Churches Eat their Pastors
I am very thankful to serve a parish where my every word and movement is not scrutinized and judged. Basically my parish knows that I am a wacko and they love me any way.
I know of many churches that tend to believe that they are the boss of the pastor and need to keep him in line (really). It's funny 'cause every other word out of there mouth is "pastor "yet they don't let the pastor be their shepherd. The tradition that I serve in is very different so it's hard for me to understand how wonderfully biblical living folks treat their pastors like hirelings. I know that pastors aren't little gods and shouldn't be allowed to rule churches with tyranny but when a congregation feels they should govern the shepherd it makes me sad.
I know of Pastors that don't preach on certain things because they were given a list of no preach zones when they were hired. I know of a pastor that was told by an elder the first Sunday he preached " I had the last guy removed you know - Let's see how you do".
Something is wrong here! While I agree that pastors are human and make mistakes ,the hireling mentality is hurtful to everyone.
Now before I give the idea that I'm taking a superior position let me assure you that I am aware of the flaws in all forms of church governance including the one adhered to in my communion. But the hireling mentality is one where pastors rarely have the fortitude to stay in those churches more than a few years. Why? Because the laity has not been trained to submit to those who are in authority , in fact we have allowed them to be the authority. There is no biblical model for this. We use secular models to run our churches - probably not a good idea.We try to run our churches with American democracy when the God we serve IS NOT AN AMERICAN! Biblical based governance is tough 'cause it requires us to come to consensus rather than a majority. There are no committees -no lobbying for certain agendas. What! No committees?
It can be done.
Let's try!
I know of many churches that tend to believe that they are the boss of the pastor and need to keep him in line (really). It's funny 'cause every other word out of there mouth is "pastor "yet they don't let the pastor be their shepherd. The tradition that I serve in is very different so it's hard for me to understand how wonderfully biblical living folks treat their pastors like hirelings. I know that pastors aren't little gods and shouldn't be allowed to rule churches with tyranny but when a congregation feels they should govern the shepherd it makes me sad.
I know of Pastors that don't preach on certain things because they were given a list of no preach zones when they were hired. I know of a pastor that was told by an elder the first Sunday he preached " I had the last guy removed you know - Let's see how you do".
Something is wrong here! While I agree that pastors are human and make mistakes ,the hireling mentality is hurtful to everyone.
Now before I give the idea that I'm taking a superior position let me assure you that I am aware of the flaws in all forms of church governance including the one adhered to in my communion. But the hireling mentality is one where pastors rarely have the fortitude to stay in those churches more than a few years. Why? Because the laity has not been trained to submit to those who are in authority , in fact we have allowed them to be the authority. There is no biblical model for this. We use secular models to run our churches - probably not a good idea.We try to run our churches with American democracy when the God we serve IS NOT AN AMERICAN! Biblical based governance is tough 'cause it requires us to come to consensus rather than a majority. There are no committees -no lobbying for certain agendas. What! No committees?
It can be done.
Let's try!
posted by Father Rich at 8:29 AM
6 Comments:
It can be done.
Let's try!
It has already been done several times in history. Most recently:
1. Jim Jones
2. Sun Myung Moon
3. The Children of God
4. David Kouresh
5. The Waiting for Zion group
6. Father Divine
7. The Bagwan Rajneesh
In earlier history:
1. Tomas De Tourqemada
2. Joseph Smith
3. And of course, Stalin, Hitler
and Idi Amin.
What an ugly comment posted above by recovering4sqr. Using the horrific deaths of innocent people as fodder for a smart mouth remark. So dismissive of the reality of those horrendous events, all for the sake of what? A gotcha? How sad and pathetic. And ugly. So ugly.
ouch.
i didn't get the feeling anyone was advocating for blind obedience and the increased consumption of koolaid.
and no committees is ALWAYS a good idea, i must say.
I want to tell you this post is beautiful. I am a pastor's wife in Canada who reads your lovely wife's blog- and I wholeheartedly agree with you! our church is being VERY hard on my husband just like you describe in this post.
Anyway, just wanted to say PREACH IT brother!
And please don't take to heart the extremely hurtful comment above.
Wonderful post! I think that what you had to say was amazing.
Even if some insignificant people dont.
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