HOW IS THE PASTOR TO LEAD THE CHURCH

I often hear how the pastor controls the life of the church.

SELF DESTRUCT IN THE CHURCH BODY

Part One

How sad how some preachers believe they control the life and ministries of the church. They believe they control the temperature of the auditorium, to the type of coffee they serve at a Sunday dinner. They believe you need their permission to sing a special, and to teach a Sunday School lesson. They believe they control the spending of the money, and who drives the church bus. I am amazed how pastors believe they can control people's opinion and work and spiritual gifts. They believe they control the kind of food that is going to be served at a Sunday Night fellowship, to the way the tables are set up.

PREACHERS LIKE CONTROL, AS WELL AS THEIR WIVES. Wives are not co pastors. Really.

Of course I was trained that as Pastor I was the in control of church life, I was in total control of every phase of the church life. That was hard work. I believed I should "run" the ministries of the church.

Far too many misunderstood their roll in the church. I misunderstood Leadership verses Control. Giving direction is one idea but to demand control is not the right idea.

Of course there are churches where the Deacons believe they are in control, some believe the church membership is in control, and then others there are committees who are in control. And in some churches a group of people believe they control the direction of the church.

When you are in a large church such as Thomas Road Baptist, or even First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind, where Jack Hyles was the pastor, 20,000 people do not control the church.

THERE IS A BIBLICAL GUIDELINE TO CHURCH LEADERSHIP

• Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28; cf. Mark 10:42-45 and Luke 22:25-27)

Leadership, Servanthood, and Submission

How and why churches self destruct

and its not all the pastor's fault

• "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."2 Timothy 3:2-5

Here are some excerpts from Francis A. Schaeffer lectures and conversations:

• …As a people who follow Christ, we are in and a relationship to the One who is here and to others who are here. Our right ecclesiastical position is important, but only as a starting point to go on into loving and living relationships, these things we do are not as ends in themselves, they are to know and grow in Him. He becomes more, we become less, then we become more in our relations and opportunities to be personally transformed, renewed and be impacting to one another to our culture and societies at large. It starts in our hearts and must follow us to here in these halls…


• …Because of the Fall we all became abnormal and dysfunctional. It is not just that us as individuals are separated from God by our true moral guilt, but each of us is not what God intended to make or us to be, what He wanted us to be more of Him and less of ourselves. Beyond each of us as individuals, human relationships is sin and pride, desires that feed upon ours and others sin and desires, all of which is not what God meant us to be or behave as His Fruitful Bride. In our interpersonal dealings we have to be aware of our sin nature, we are abnormal, our wholeality, our cause and effect is from sin and the choices we make, even the entirety of history shows us this as significant, as we are now abnormal. To say it another way: there is much more which we should be and not be as a Fruitful Bride of Christ… How do you display this?
  
• …In saying that God is there, here with us now, saying we are saying God exists, but are we showing that God exists in our being and not just talking about the Word God, or the idea God, but exercising His Word in our being so it shows in our dealings with one another. Have any of you read any of the “one another” passages, love one another… a glimpse in a Bible reference or concordance may give you convection or at the very least awareness, insights into this sin and how to become His Fruitful Bride. You say God is here not by mere mouths and words written down but by continual actions said and done. This is what transforms a church and influences a society, our reality in Christ acted upon into others…

• …In order to understand the problems of our church or our families or our societal breakdowns, we should be very wise to sin so to be alive to His distinction. Arguments may make up the heart of your church world, but it does not have to be. Through the Christian call and life of true spirituality one can rise above to such things, as forgiveness, by accepting Christ's precepts, study, not just as a philosophy, rather as a life to be well lived in the here and now, in this very room and up the steps I see outside that go to the worship place, the alter, that beautiful display of wood and cross of crucifixion, as we rise to go to Him. There is no reason why this cannot happen in us and through us, less we take in more sin or ignore Him. Should we not be glad for the concept that kind words reflects our kind Savior, we need to be defined in Jesus Christ as Lord before we can be used in communication and connection. As Christians, we must understand that we have a call, we have a responsibility, we have a mission, we have a Lord a God who is there as in He is here. Here we are called in this church “All Saints,” do these word's mean meaningless? …Live your lives to know this and reflect this. We have no meaningless "god,”? How do you live? How should you live? How will you live? In this place and through this place?

• …Consequently, let us not be confused. There is much "spirituality" about us today that is needed to be built upon, we need to relate our Christian life to the word of God or not just the idea of a god; but this is not what we are talking about. Biblical truth and spirituality is not a relationship to the Word God, it is a forceps to His Way and true Truth that we must know and reflect in our relationships, especially here, in this hall, on these grounds, if not, how can you now live? The idea we have of God will pave the way of our relationship to the One who is here, then to one another's as God's Word declares us to do so...

• …This is our calling. This is part of our richness to be in Christ. the reality of what true spirituality is about, the Christian life in action, in relation to my brethren not my separation from my fellowmen, including those fellow men who are my perceived enemies or distracters, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, in the church as a whole and in the this precious local congregation as in any other Christian group. Our efforts are not to be practiced in sin or in pride or by a dull, ugly way; to be a Fruitful Bride is to be a thing of true beauty, practiced by those within, and observed by those outside. This is an important part in preaching the gospel to the all of humanity who are still in revolution against God; but if we are in revolution to one another what does this say of Christ? More on this in my work, “True Spirituality.” Our confessions in action is the only thing that is right on the basis of the existence of the personal God exhibited in us and on the basis of what Christ did for us in history, on the cross…

…And having come this far, true spirituality is the Christian life that flows on into the total culture from our investment in Christ first and foremost…