Dominance of the pastor and preaching creates weak, dependent Christians
I’ve written before about how the New Testament picture of the church is of all believers actively using their gifts to benefit all, rather than what we see in most churches, which is one man and his preaching/teaching gift entirely dominating church meetings; and how unbiblical is the present church model of one supreme leader and a small handful of people making all decisions.
I’ve been thinking about another aspect of this I’ve noticed in the church I’m presently attending, something it unfortunately has in common with many other churches I’ve been a part of.
First a note; it may seem odd that I am still attending this church, while being so critical of it. My main reason is that my husband is not yet ready to move on, and I want to respect him in that.
This church is similar to many other small, unhealthy churches I’ve attended. There is one man, the pastor, who is the supreme spiritual leader and decision-maker for the entire church. He does basically all of the preaching, teaching, and leading of services except on the occasions there is a guest preacher. There may be token “elders” in order to be able to outwardly conform to the biblical requirement, but these people in reality have almost no voice or authority.
This is a totally unbiblical model in itself; we see in the New Testament that “elders” plural were to be appointed in each church to provide spiritual leadership and oversight. Nowhere do we see the model of one person as the actual leader with the others mostly present to rubberstamp his decisions and go along with his vision, in other words the “pastor and elders” model we see in most modern churches. (That’s a topic I plan to write about at some point as well).
An effect of the dominance of one man and one gift (preaching) has several unsalutary effects on the church. I have noticed it tends to attract and retain weak believers (or perhaps in reality unbelievers, or a mix) who have little spiritual knowledge and are looking for someone to lead them. These churches retain people who are content to remain passive spectators being spoon-fed whatever doctrine the pastor teaches, with little or no ability to discern for themselves whether it is biblical. They are happy to be taught, but are unable to teach themselves or others.
In this model, the pastor becomes almost an object of adulation and adoration. He is the head and centre of it all, the one everyone looks to. No one matures, no one moves on, no one becomes capable of themselves being a source of spiritual leadership or teaching. They remain weak and in an infant-like spiritual state of dependence.
A recent conversation I had with someone in this church highlighted this for me. This person has some unusual theological ideas, which as far as I can tell have remained intact despite his attendance at this church. He seems to rarely read the Bible for himself, though he says he’s currently reading Proverbs following an initiative the pastor created. He told me, “The pastor has studied and knows the Bible. Therefore, if we are in disagreement, he must always be right, and it’s me who is wrong.”
Another lady, who is the head of the children’s ministry, according to someone else who was in the conversation where she said this, admitted to rarely reading the Bible.
This type of church atmosphere stunts community. There is little or no freedom to minister among the body, because people are not encouraged to, nor are they taught how to, nor do they mature to the point where they are able to. Explicitly or implicitly, the message is that only certain qualified people are able to teach or to minister. The rest are there to receive and their interaction is limited to the kind of socialization that happens among any group of people, not necessarily Christians at all.
It doesn’t practically matter whether they are weak believers, or even believers at all.
These churches tend to stay very small. There are a few reasons for that, I believe.
One is that more mature, capable, gifted believers eventually realize there is little or no scope for them to use their gifts, and move on.
Or, these more mature believers may realize that what the pastor is teaching is unbiblical and inaccurate, and may perceive other issues with the church and its leadership as well.
Another is simple mathematics. One person can only do so much. Churches, just as any other organization, grow by delegating and multiplying leadership and responsibility. If the pastor is unwilling to let go of control and allow others to lead, without micromanaging them, the church remains small and limited because it is limited to the capacities of one person (or a very few people; in many of the churches that are like this, it’s only a few members of the pastor’s family who have any genuine leadership roles).
At its heart is a spirit of control, a dark, dominating thing which blocks and limits the work of the Holy Spirit because one person must be in control at all times. It blocks and limits the work of the Holy Spirit in and through other believers. And I believe it grieves God and means he cannot and does not work through that church.
Oh, sure, it will gather its little flock of devoted sheep. Any person can call himself a pastor and set up something he calls a church, and he will get followers. I have seen this over and over again.
I grew up in an extremely legalistic, dead “church” where my father was the “pastor”. He attracted and retained a little group of dedicated attendees who faithfully showed up every time there was a meeting. In the meantime, the private reality of our family was horrific abuse and a total lack of love. The “church” eventually imploded when this was found out, and the poor sheep scattered. But believe it or not, a few stuck with him and began going to his “church” again when he somehow started it up a few years later.
The point is, calling yourself a “pastor” does not mean you are qualified as such. Forming an organization you call a “church” doesn’t make it one. Attracting a group of devoted attendees who look up to you and adulate you as their “pastor” doesn’t even make it real. None of this means that you are doing God’s work. None of it means he is with you.
And without that, it’s just a dead religious society.