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The Victims of Church Abuse

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I have watched friends be eviscerated by church leadership. I have counseled them as to the love of Christ in all situations, especially when man fails us. I have watched local leadership force members into unbiblical covenant agreements to try and coerce tithing. Others have had their memberships stolen, willfully and in some cases based upon fabrications, so as to bully and intimidate the sheep to wander off. Just leave the pen door open and count it as a blessed subtraction. I have watched leaders steal ministries from people or lord the ministries over them by demanding admission of guilt on matters where there was no culpability. Then these charlatans go to the pulpit on Sunday and raise their hands to a God they may not want to be meeting anytime soon.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. - James 3: 1 (ESV)

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all,for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. - Acts 20: 26-27 (ESV)

Leadership in the church will be judged with greater strictness because the blood of those who listen to them is upon their heads. The Bible differentiates between hirelings who will not care about the flock and shepherds who will. The sad truth is the purpose driven, seeker friendly approach has created a generation of hirelings. We talk about matters such as church abuse so often from this detached, aloof perspective. I can think of dear friends of mine though who sit apart from the church today because of the direct abuse of men who were charged with tending to them. People who may never come back. People who may be taken from us before they can. A physical injury can heal and be seen healing but a spiritual wound often gets buried. It is often marginalized by other Christians. We place a scripture band-aid here or there but it needs a biblical tourniquet. So we come to our key verses today from the Apostle Peter. These are instructions from God to those who would dare to take up the mantle of leadership in His church. Let us not forget that it is His church and people like Kerri Ferguson are His sheep. The first charge may disappoint Mr. Stanley but leaders are to shepherd the flock of God. That is the primary function. Not horizontal growth schemes and piles of disagreeing dead bodies but shepherding. To draw a circle for this, Jesus reminds them in the same set of verses that He is the Chief Shepherd! The leaders are the under-shepherds who have been entrusted with His sheep!

The next instruction is they are to exercise oversight. Just in case some terrific human wisdom sounding, seeker friendly philosophies would try and come along and muddy the waters; Jesus makes sure we understand what a shepherd does. He exercises oversight of the sheep. He watches over them! He cares about them and for them! Then we are given a short list of how this is to be carried out:

1) Willingly; not under compulsion - this is a calling not a job! The Phil Pringles and Brian Houstons of the world are performing a job. So are many of the local leaders I see. When Kerri Ferguson approached "Pastor" Dench he saw her as a threat to his work instead of a sheep under his care. Same thing when Brian Houston agreed to meet with her and then showed up with his legal counsel. Protect the brand, not the sheep.

2) As God would have you - this may seem easy and logical but the truth is that most who lead by these schemes follow the teachings of man and not the Bible itself. To lead as God would have you lead means simply to follow the Biblical instruction laid out for us by God, including but not limited to these key verses. If you can find Jesus or the Bible in the linked interview than you are better than me because His counsel was not followed.

3) Not for shameful gain, but eagerly - it is interesting that God puts these two together. Our eagerness to lead the sheep of the Lord cannot come from a desire to gain from it. The Apostle Paul once declared "woe is me if I do not preach this Gospel!" While he taught that there is nothing wrong with making a living from preaching, the issue here is one of motivation. We should eagerly want to do it because God has trusted us with it and there is nothing more important than the eternal destination of the souls of men. When you look at the leadership I speak to however, we are talking about ulterior motives. These motives are for shameful gain and that does not just mean money beloved. It could be fame and notoriety. It could be power and prestige. It could be a desire to look better than one knows thyself to be. If we choose to lead the sheep of the Lord for any other reason than Him, that is the definition of shameful gain.

4) Not domineering over the sheep - the amount of bullying and intimidation I have seen locally alone is what this is speaking to. Then you get into the larger cases of Ms. Ferguson and you realize God knew full well that problems we would see. To blame abuse on the victim, partial blame for the molestation on the child, and never own up to any of it, is exactly what God means here. The victims are very real beloved. Decades removed from church because of the hurts of men who were supposed to love them, not be domineering over them.

5) Be examples to the flock - what do the sheep learn from the shepherd? Kelli Ferguson's kids are apart from God to this day and who can blame them really? What did they learn? I have friends separated from the church who learned nothing but hypocrisy from the very people who were supposed to show them the opposite. When you are more worried about your brand than your sheep what example are you setting? What value are you saying the sheep have? When you think nothing of referring to them as a pile of dead bodies or being blessedly subtracted, what value are you saying the sheep have? When you show up at a sentencing hearing to testify for the abuser, what example are you setting. When you openly mock those who might simply disagree in your church, what example are you setting? The truth is when you operate within the CEO mentality, it doesn't matter to you. People are replaceable. People are expendable. The art of leadership becomes more important than actually leading people.

I watch every year as people who clearly could not care less about the actual sheep go to great lengths to craft, form or attend leadership conference after leadership conference. It is the new normal in the evangelical church. The new obsession. But in the end it is comical because the end game is not actually becoming a better leader but how to better grow your building. The result is not in how to improve the lives of those entrusted to you or how to better evangelize the lost but rather how to go from 2000-4000 in weekly attendance. As if that matters. Heaven does not rejoice when another 2000 goats go to a steepled building on Sunday but when one of them actually repents!

Lastly from the key verses is the promise God has for those who would strive to lead correctly. There is an unfading crown of glory awaiting them. One of the few places in the Bible that goes into any detail about the levels of rewards in heaven. That is how serious this matter is to God. The problem is that many who follow the purpose driven mantras have already traded in their unfading crown of glory for an earthly crown of dust. A crown of worldly pleasures and successes. A crown of carnal greed and avarice. A secular crown of shameful gain and power. Beloved, our charge today is to realize that the victims of abuse are real. Whether they be Kerri Ferguson a world away or our friend who we know should have been treated better locally. Our charge is to support them, love them and give them the hope that may have been stolen from them. As to those who leave the pen door open and boast about blessed subtraction? To those who would support evil over good? Those who have tossed aside the promise of an unfading crown of glory for the trinkets of this world? I will keep pointing them out because the Kelli Ferguson's of the world deserve better from the church of Jesus Christ. We all do.

Reverend Anthony Wade - November 14, 2015

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Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to (more...)
 
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