AVERAGE USER RATING
Recently On Home
Featured Sponsors
A Conversation with an Unhappy Sheep
Joe McKeever
"You don't like your pastor. What else is new?"
"You say that like there's a lot of it going around."
"It's like a plague. I've been thinking of going back and reading Exodus where God sent the plagues on Egypt to see if this was one of them. Frogs in the street, blood in the Nile, unhappiness in the pews."
"Are you dismissing the subject? You're so pro-pastor that you can't see sometimes a church has genuine issues with a preacher and he needs to leave?"
"Not at all. I'm just voicing my unhappiness with the whole business. It hurts to see pastors and congregations at odds with one another."
"Do you want to hear my side of this matter? Do you have time?"
"I can make the time. This is important."
We sat there in my office quietly for a moment, then I said, "But first, would you let me tell you something on my heart? This is not about you or your church, but about the whole issue of the relationships of pastors and congregations."
"I'm a good listener," he said. "Shoot."
"One of the primary reasons for so much unhappiness in the pews with the preachers is faulty understanding of what God intends. I've come up with four half-truths which most church members believe. When we believe wrong, as you know, we do wrong and no good comes of it."
He was listening well, so I went on.
"Let me name all four. One, the church hires a pastor. Two, the church can vote him in and can vote him out. Three, his job is to serve the people. And four, if the congregation is not happy with him, he has failed and needs to leave. Does this sound familiar?"
He sat up. "That's pretty well how we do it. And you're calling these half-truths?"
"The best way to explain why they are faulty is to turn it around and list the truth, the way God actually meant things to be."
"Four truths to answer the four half-truths?" he smiled.
I said, "Well, five, actually: One, the church belongs to Christ. Not to the congregation or the denomination. Definitely not to the pastor and most definitely not to the deacons or elders."
"Okay," he said. "No problem there."
Most Recent User Comments
Report this post
DeknMike
10/8/2007 8:18 PM
Actually, points one & two are full truths, and the 2nd half of point four. God selects the pastor, and the pastor works for Christ, but the church, the gathering of believers at a particular location, pays the bill. He works for them by studying scripture and devotion to prayer, and by reporting what God says "to make the church healthy." But if they had not voted him in, he can attend, can minister, can be a prophet of God to that flock, but that congregation will not pay him to do so, and the head shepherd (Christ) will need to find another way to compensate him. If the pastor no longer speaks truth, or speaks it in a way the congregation is not ready to hear, then he has failed them by not confronting their sin in way they can accept, and will not last as their paid leader. The deacons, the sheepdogs, protect the flock from predators & careless shepherds, and may ask that pastor to leave, for the good of the congregation. That pastor should "shake the dust" and move on.
pursuingholiness
9/17/2007 7:55 PM
I agree with the majority of his article. There are just a couple points I'd like to suggest:
- when the congregation is looking for a pastor they should be ensuring that he meets the criteria of Scripture, such as in Titus, for a leader in the church
- Biblically there are to be plural shepherds of a church, not just a pastor and deacons. If churches would follow the Biblical model it would spare them a long list of problems, from members putting the pastor on a pedestal, to pastors assuming and abusing too much authority.
- when the congregation is looking for a pastor they should be ensuring that he meets the criteria of Scripture, such as in Titus, for a leader in the church
- Biblically there are to be plural shepherds of a church, not just a pastor and deacons. If churches would follow the Biblical model it would spare them a long list of problems, from members putting the pastor on a pedestal, to pastors assuming and abusing too much authority.
- Read more feedback
- Give us your feedback on this article - (login required to comment)
This is what is happening at my church.