Loving the Pastor

Michael Spencer has written a post that I wish every single church member everywhere would read. My wife and I are both pastor's kids (and yes, we turned out fine, thank you very much), so we've seen far more of this from the perspective of a family than any single family should ever see. My pastor's son saw so much of this that he won't come back to the church. Spencer's point is important. It's happening to thousands of pastors across the US right now. RIGHT NOW!! The only reason a few people are allowed to run a church is because the rest of the church won't stop them. It's not that the don't want to see them stopped. It's not that they don't love their pastor. They just don't know what to do. And neither do most pastors.

I remember when my father ran up against a man who'd been church chairman for over 15 years. He didn't like my dad. At one point he even asked him to step outside and settle things like a man. Fortunately for him, he didn't follow my dad outside! My dad is a big man, and although he was a pastor, he also put in 25 years as a Teamster. He's not a fighter, but he's also not one to mess with. It reached a point where he turned in his resignation from the membership at the church. It seemed that whenever he didn't get his way, he'd do that and people would cave in in order to keep him there. My dad immediately called everyone in the church and asked them to accept his resignation. They did. There were a lot of other problems at that church, but my father dealt with a huge one in a way that most churches are afraid to. Scripture gives us plenty of room to get rid of people who cause trouble. That is NOT unBiblical.

Thanks, Michael, for one of the most important posts I've read in a long time.

Thanks to Messy Christian for the link!