The Casual Christian

The dangers in consolidating too much power in one person’s hands are many. First, the leader does not benefit from other perspectives when he makes decisions. All of us have blind spots and it takes additional pairs of eyes to see the many facets of God’s will.

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Prv 15:22).

Second, the leader will eventually build a little world suited primarily or even entirely to his own needs. Like the pastor who used his administrative assistant as a gatekeeper, he will take liberties with others, employing them to his own ends.

Third, as the leader becomes more isolated, he will lose touch with the needs and aspirations of those to whom he ministers, like that same pastor who devoted himself exclusively to preaching and sermon preparation in his suite of offices. The church will become cold and distant and visitors will not feel welcome.

Fourth, the perceptions of the leadership will become distorted, leading them to make ministry decisions based on a false reality rather than an accurate assessment of facts on the ground, like the leaders who took a position against the associate pastor and the parents who supported him.

Fifth, unless accountability is enforced at some point, the members may rebel by defecting in large numbers or forcing the ouster of the leadership. Following the incident involving the departure of the associate pastor there was a large exodus from this church.

Transparentchurch.org has some very good recommendations on ways to avoid concentrating too much power in too few hands. The writers suggest, “No one person should be the final authority on someone’s dismissal in a church.  The reason is simple. If the church hired them …the church should dismiss them, too.  All staff and employee dismissals, even voluntary resignations, should be brought before, discussed, and voted on by the congregation to ensure transparency and integrity in the process.” Unfortunately, this is often not the case, as was evident in the firing of the associate pastor. 

Church members have a natural tendency to build a little bubble around their pastors. They put them up on a pedestal. I recently met for mediation with two leaders from the mission of the man who molested my son.  I mentioned the fact that I once met with their superintendent in Japan. One of the men then launched into a glowing tribute to this man who could walk into a room and command everyone’s attention because of his impressive stature. This was the very same man who was responsible for the supervision of the missionary who molested my son. This tendency to idolize leadership interferes with the free flow of information, especially information that is not favorable to the leaders. Consequently, pastors often have a skewed perception of the spiritual condition of their flock.

One way religious leaders can build rapport with church members and open themselves up for honest dialogue is to shed the spiritual veneer that many of them have so assiduously cultivated. The pious pontifications of a Sunday sermon and reluctance to confess sins openly only serve to wrap religious leaders in an impervious mantle of spiritual superiority. It discourages people from sharing their own failures and shortcomings and insulates their leader from honest and open criticism.        

 From The Casual Christian pp. 69-70