My friend, Alan, over at The Assembling of the Church has written a post that I would commend to you titled Are pastors good for nothing? While I may not agree with every point he's ever made on his blog, the following quote absolutely summed up what is missing in churches so often today--even "elder led" churches which are touted as being the be all/end all of faithful biblical ecclesiology:
But, if the group - church - as a whole has recognized several people who generally make wise decisions and generally live life in a way that honors God and helps others - elders/pastors - then the church has a resource to help make these kinds of decisions. If we respect these leaders then we will choose to follow them and their opinions instead of following our own ideas and opinions. (Of course, if the elders/pastors care about people, then they will also listen to the ideas and opinions of others. And, also, elders/pastors will tend to listen to other elders/pastors as well.)
Notice, Alan writes about the idea of the church as a whole recognizing elders, not just one person picks folks that are generally compliant and will do what he wants. Further, notice the church respecting these elders and wanting to follow them not being compelled to accept their decisions because, well, they have no choice.
Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing to see in our churches today?
5 comments:
"Joe"..Alan wrote "if the elders/pastors care about people, then they will also listen to the ideas and opinions of others"...This is the problem at FBC Jax;;Single authoritarian leadership with no dissent or disagreement with Pastor allowed..."Joe I live here in Jax and have many friends at FBC Jax and I'm telling you from my on observation we'll before I knew of WD's blog that Brunson is/was out of control!!!
IIW
I probably have not made that clear in comments on Wade's blog, but I don't have a doubt that Brunson has issues with wanting to be in control. I have no doubt that Brunson doesn't want to hear critics or be accountable to people. Further, if dude had anything to do with making false accusations of criminal activity to get an IP address or pulled some "strings" I hope he spends a few years in a cell with some big ol' guy named bubba who says things like "You sure are pretty, Mac".
Ol' Mac-B was cool as fan here at FBC Dallas! The dude done fell off. I used to visit there every once in awhile.
Lionel
I really have nothing but 2nd hand info on the dude. Honestly, I really don't know enough about what's going on first hand to form much beyond and ignorant opinion.
"Joe" not only did Mac illegally obtain Dr.Dog's and Tiffany's IP's they may have gotten other IP's including mine!!!.When a Church or a Pastor stoop to this kind of foundationless accusations and actions to stop a blogger,what else or they capable of doing!!!.And "Joe" this is happening all over the country!!!..I believe we are in the Great Apostasy!!!
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