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Our senior pastor is in trouble... and its gettin' messy.
So, what do YOU think?
keith drury
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14 comments:
You almost caught me there coach! I was getting real sympathetic to the senior pastor until I started seeing strange parallels and then I read the URL.
funny! LOL
chad
Of course, all of the problems the church is currently experiencing can be blamed on the former pastor. How dare he hand the new pastor such a mess? Surely the congregation didn't expect the new pastor to so quickly fix the church's problems! :)
Nice thinly veiled allegory Coach. ;)
Although I think you forgot the violent rhetoric of the "church folk" opposed to the "senior pastor," and how any constructive ideas they presented were dwarfed by soaring statements about how the pastor is "destroying the church" is "a Catholic," or perhaps worse, "a secret Muslim posing as a Christian leader."
Of course, many of the "church folk's" ideas are just as costly or not practical. And the "board members" opposed to the pastor have done a fantastic job of stymieing conversation by whipping up fear and distrust and then capitalizing on them in order to secure their place on the board and to kick out the "pastor" in due time; not really, when it comes down to it, due to his "ideas," but mainly because he wears blue shirts. And they refuse to negotiate with anyone who doesn't prefer red.
Yes, the "pastor" is in trouble. Though it has far more to do with "church politicking" than policy.
I took your bait: hook, line and sinker. But I was just as appalled by the actions of the story's senior pastor as I have been by the actions of the nation's current president. Fortunately, most church organizations are not as cavalier about budget restraints as are our robber baron politicians.
There is a difference in the mission of the church and the mission of the government; the government that governs best does govern least, but the church must minister, because Christ has called her to do so.
In a governmental republic (or democracy), the people are supposed to voice their opinions, even if the people disagree with the leader. In the church, the members are supposed to be Christians who are led by the Holy Spirit. While this doesn't mean that all church members or leaders will agree on all things (or how to do all things), the Biblical principle is NOT for church members to go "underground" to withhold their tithes and talk about the pastor. Talking about the pastor behind his/her back is considered gossip (but ironically it seems that church members don't consider it such when they are getting together to complain about a pastor).
While there are indeed some parallels between the described "church" situation and what is going on in our government, I would contend that while it is indeed part of the church's mission to help the poor (with the main part of the church's mission being to promote and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ), I don't necessarily believe that it should be a major role of government to help the poor. In fact, it can be argued that the more the government has taxed people and the more the government has taken it upon itself to help the poor, the more it has caused the church to be in less of a position to be able to do so.
Clarification--
After my previous reply posted, I noticed an error in what I meant to say. Where I said "but ironically it seems that church members don't consider it such when they are getting together to complain about a pastor," that should have said, "...seems that OFTEN TIMES church members don't consider..."
The point is that the situation described should not be understood to be universal.
What this column did for me is describe an approach to leadership. I admit that sometimes pastors lead like Presidents and make the same mistakes as outlined above. While I agree with what was said above about the church being different than government, there are similarities in leadership mistakes and "political parties" in the church, which probably is exactly what you were pointing out.
The biggest one I see is one-party-rule, where EITHER the younger folk, OR older people's party rules marginalizing the other "party."
The election of this President is and was a commentary on post-modernism in our country. I would assert he is the first post-modern President (or emergent church leader) of our generation.
His oratory left people dazzled, stunned with a "tingling sensation up their leg" (Chris Matthews). We the people desperately wanted someone to deliver us from the embarassment of the former pastor--to re-instate the legacy of the glories of past church victories. So, we ignored the fact that he was extremely inexperienced, that he went to a seminary that rejected propositional truth, we looked the other way when we followed up on his references only to discover that his core beliefs didn't match ours.
We wrote these discoveries off as well...this is a new generation, or he is such a dynamic speaker--we really need a visionary, not a plodding practioner.
We shrugged off antiquated notions of generations past; "you do what you believe", "bad company corrupts good morals", "guilty by association", "only spend what you earn."
He made me feel good and gave me hope for tomorrow that is what mattered. Unfortunately I'm left with the hangover of his ideas (however well intended). I don't blame President Obama--its "we the people" that fell in love with his idealsim--much like that ficticious congregation who unanimously approved the senior pastor without doing their homework.
If this young preacher only had the power to print massive amounts of money, then his problems would be solved. Everyone would get what they desired and hoped for and future generations would get stuck with the bill.
Ah, yes. The Parallels are many.
Well done pointing some out.
-dd
interesting...
so what you're saying is that any change that the church goes through is going to be pretty trublent [much like the Reformation]...
Good, I'm glad to hear there are others who aren't paying their taxes. Whew!
What is the purpose of the church? What is the purpose of the government? My sons have a vastly different vision of those questions than I do. I believe the public schools have had a huge impact on their views. Intersting discussions in our home these days!
Pastor or politician...all must face the consequences of their choices.
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