Thought I forgot this one didn’t you?
Thought I got fired up about pounding on the one, ‘bad egg’ lay leader while forgetting the all too common, ‘pastor run amok,’ didn’t you?
It’s ok, maybe you don’t know me that well yet. If you did then you’d realize I try my best to be an equal opportunity offender . So you would have known part 2 would get here eventually!
By the way, we are running 2 series concurrently on this blog and I hope you haven’t missed part 1 of Clayton King’s guest blog. If you have, click here to catch up. Oh, and part 2 is already out as well (come on, man! Chop. Chop. This stuff is coming quicker than you can shake a stick!) just scroll down to read it.
Lower.
No, lower.
I mean as in 2 posts ago!
There it is!
Ok? Now don’t read it now. You’d break the flow. Finish this one first.
Now, on with the lynching, oops, I mean, discussion you’ve all been waiting for!
Obviously, there can’t simply be a one sided phenomena of lay leaders (i.e. deacons, power brokers, elders, lay management team…call them whatever you want) wreaking havoc on churches where there are anointed, 100% innocent, visionary pastors burned at the stake each time. Sometimes it’s the pastors gathering the kindling, pouring on the lighter fluid and flicking their BIC’s (you have to be over 30 to remember that one)!
That’s right, and I do hate to admit it, but sometimes it’s the pastors who are the problem. And these 2 wrong thinking, selfish, polarizing groups (pastors and control freak lay leaders) are equal opportunity church demolition experts.
This is why unity and harmony within the church body is such a ginormous theme throughout the New Testament. God is fiercely protective of His bride (the Church). Even so, some pastors seem to think the best way to lead the church is by channeling, Tony Soprano. And I’m not referring to a prepubesant choir boy here.
They force their (not God’s) vision at all costs.
They hold everyone else to a standard they wouldn’t consider themselves for 5 seconds.
They have to have their name on everything!
They compete for territory rather than celebrating the spiritual victories of others.
They try to be edgy while disregarding reverence.
I could go on, but I don’t think I need to. We’ve all seen it and many of us have been tempted by all these things whether lay leader or pastor. The difference is that the God focused leader will always recognize it and fall on His knees before God to realign his heart.
I know I’ve had to do this more times than I can count.
I’m not proud of it.
You shouldn’t be either.
Were you just judging?
Careful. 
I did a sermon this past week called, “Gut Check.†Before an individual (or church) can do great things for God, there needs to be one—a gut check that is.
Who are you trying to please?
Who or what are you running this race for?
How big is your audience?
If you live for an audience any bigger than
And that
There’s only one way, John 14:6, read it.
Then we’ll talk.