As I stated on last week that with all of this election stuff being over and our country being ready to move on towards hopefully better days, I want to deal with on Fridays, with some of the issues that deal directly to the heart and minds of Pastors/preachers as we attempt to advance the Kingdom of God here on earth.
Today I want to deal with an issue that many if not all of us can relate to; how do we handle when Deacons, Trustees and other church leaders refuse to follow Pastoral Leadership and attempt to lead Pastors? Why have many of them made it up in their minds that the church needs them more than they need Pastors? Why are many of them so hung up on keeping Pastors in our places?
Well, I can only offer my own personal experiences with this issue as an open window into what I am referring to. My preaching ministry and Pastoral training ground was formulated at The New Hope Baptist Church under the direction of the late Dr. C.E. Thomas and Rev. Joe A. Carter. If there was one thing I knew about the ministry of the New Hope Church was that the servant leadership of the church FOLLOWED the vision and direction of the Pastors without any glimpse of disunity and disruption, and any leader that showed any of those traits were reprimanded not by the Pastors, but by the other servant leaders. They understood what it means to follow Pastoral Leadership. So you can imagine my surprise when I began my first pastorate at the Friendship Baptist Church, Asbury Park, NJ and found out that every church is not the same.
My time at Friendship was filled with argument after argument with my leaders. As a matter of fact, I never had one leadership or church meeting for that fact, that ended any other way but with an argument. The chairman of trustees said to my face during one Mother's Day with guests at our church that the trustees don't follow the Pastor at that church, the chairman of the deacon's board was their pastor. It went so far as they refused to pay my salary for 8 consecutive weeks because I discovered that they were misappropriating church funds and exposed them to the congregation who subsequently did nothing about it. As you can expect, I got my wife and family out of that place quick, fast and in a hurry.
When I got to my present assignment at First Mount Zion, I thought they would be different being as though my immediate predecessor had an earned doctorate degree and was a past moderator, but to my surprise, he allowed the chairman of the deacon's board to run roughshod over his entire tenure there. This same deacon thought that he could do the same to me, and he even had the audacity to tell me that the Lord told him that God sent me to the church so that he could teach me how to be a Pastor. He fought me tooth and nail on every spiritual decision even the vision that God gave me to give to the church. What he didn't realize was that I am as bullheaded as they come, and he left long before I. This entire situation has caused some difficult moments at our church with those who were ready for him to leave against those who were loyal to him because he kept them in power. But I will say this, the Lord has removed virtually every opposition to his vision for this church.
So again, blogging family, let me pose this interrogative, why does this occur and how do we handle this when we are faced with this great dilemma.
4 comments:
Pastor Mann, You always come up with great posts, especially this new thing that you started for fridays. I was always taught that the pastor is the leader that God has put in that position and that you follow his vision. I believe the problem here is that alot of people have either forgotten or not been taught to submit. If you can not submit to the man that God has put in charge I guarantee you, that you have a problem submitting to the authority of God.
I believe that we need to teach more on submitting and the benefits of submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Be Blessed my friend as always great post
This is an age old question with several possible answers.
My thoughts echo the sentiments of Rev. Brad Hurley
One reason many pastor's face this challenge in ministry is because of "mindsets" (strongholds)previously set up in the hearts of people. These strongholds usually block out the knowledge of Christ.
The only way to rid a congregation of this cancer is to pray, preach(teach) and pastor the people based on the teachings of scripture, trusting in God's providence.
I hope this can serve as a beginning to a fruitful dialogue.
Mann, you're in my backseat! When I first got to First Goodwill, I had leaders (deacons and BOD) who felt that they were the church and the members were privileged to be a part of their church. I wanted to talk to each leader to find out where their heart was they would not be honest in meetings but loved to have side bar meetings after our meetings. One of them told me that I can't talk to them because I'm not the president of the board. I need to go through the president and then the president would talk to them.
Needless to say, this mindset trouble me so much that I stepped away from being a BOD member.
So I fixed that, I talked to the church about everything. Instead of calling a BOD meeting, I called a church meeting. Where I was able to share my hearts desire about ministry (the same sharing I was trying to share with the leaders of the church).
The members started seeing where my heart was and I gained the trust of members to the point that now, we have freedom to do ministry without obstacles.
Don't get me wrong, we still a few that try to rage wars to no avail.
The only suggestion(s) I have is (1) stay true to preaching the word (2) stay prayerful at all times (3) surround yourself with people who see the vision and want progress (4) don't become a pushover, stand your ground at all cost.
And as far as you're project is concerned, let me encourage my brother, keep at the task. Right now seems pressing but your focus on the finished product for tomorrow will be better than your today. Stress doesn't last always. I have you in my prayer closet.
Post a Comment