{"id":1057,"date":"2014-08-27T19:14:29","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T19:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2015-12-02T12:48:33","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T20:48:33","slug":"when-mighty-church-leaders-fall-do-they-crush-the-people-underneath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/08\/when-mighty-church-leaders-fall-do-they-crush-the-people-underneath.html","title":{"rendered":"When Mighty Church Leaders Fall, Do They Crush the People Underneath?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our younger years, my husband the Norwegian Artist<\/a> and I bicycled through small-town America, and for housing, we often asked a\u00a0local church if we could camp in their basement. Encountering\u00a0everything from open-armed hospitality to outright hostility, we ultimately found ourselves attending a lot of\u00a0church services.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
There’s really no reason why we can’t all climb to the top of the hill and be surrounded by God’s majesty. The only thing stopping us is our willingness to walk the path that gets us there. The Land of Chief Joseph, original oil painting by Steve Henderson.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One that made permanent memories\u00a0was a revival meeting, in a tent, complete with wood shavings (the woman in front of us jumped up with an “OH!” as if she had been stuck with a pin) in which the speaker discussed the Cedars of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

According to the speaker, these huge trees, towering over all other life in the forest, were the pastors God ordained to lead the sheep, and when the trees\u00a0fell — he didn’t particularly mention why — then dreadful things happened, because everything under the massive trunks was crushed under its weight.<\/p>\n

Get to High Ground<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now in my mind, the lesson of the day is that you don’t set up your sheep herd under a bunch of huge trees that are prone to topple, but the speaker didn’t address this. He just\u00a0emphasized\u00a0the importance of the mighty trees, and how firm and straight they grow, and\u00a0how they\u00a0protected the sheep by encircling them and keeping them confined.<\/p>\n

Personally, I did not like being consigned to the bottom of the forest, at risk of being whacked over the head and summarily flattened, and it hurts my neck to tip back so far\u00a0in order to\u00a0see the tops of the trees. Radical that I was, I wondered — why aren’t ALL of God’s saints considered trees of Lebanon? Isn’t it important for all of God’s children to be straight, strong, firm, and immovable?<\/p>\n

Not so, according to the speaker. Most people are sheep, and they need the trees.<\/p>\n

We Worship Human Beings<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sadly, in modern-day establishment Christianity America, this appears to be so, and too many people flock — literally — to a pastor of power and words and magnetism, to teach them. Oddly, however, despite however many years they spend with this man (for he frequently is a man — many denominations finding all sorts of verses to discount the voice of women), the sheep don’t necessarily\u00a0grow or learn as they\u00a0properly\u00a0should, in accordance with Ephesians 4:11-12:<\/p>\n

\"Cadence<\/a>
In our walk with Christ, the goals is that we can do it using our own two feet, and not having to ride on the back of another. Cadence, original oil painting by Steve Henderson; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas, iCanvasART, and Framed Canvas Art.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I thought of this today when someone on Facebook posted a link about\u00a0Mark Driscoll<\/a>, the pastor of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church who is in the news, according to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article by Joel Connelly, because 21 former pastors of the church have lodged formal charges against him. Reading through this article and related posts,\u00a0\u00a0I couldn’t help but wonder,<\/p>\n

Follow the Leader<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“How do churches get so big? And what compels people to follow, so intimately, one human being?”<\/p>\n

And, in following such a leader, any leader, are the congregants built up, knowledgeable, and mature? Logic tells one that, when we learn, we begin as children, starting with the basics. We soon outgrow those basics, adding to them until, at some point, we reach, or supersede, our teacher, and are ready to move on to teach others ourselves.<\/p>\n

Is this what happens in churches — small or mega — or do the Cedars of Lebanon tower so tall that they keep sunlight from hitting the ground below?<\/p>\n

Christians:\u00a0we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.<\/em>\u00a0(1 Peter 2:9)<\/p>\n

At what point will we start taking seriously our individual responsibility to interact with God, to read His word, to pray — one on one — to Him and seek His guidance, His leadership, and His teaching? Or will we always be content, eating tufts of grass in the shade and shadow of the trees?<\/p>\n

Thank You<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for joining me at Commonsense Christianity, where my consistent message to Christians is to stop following the (human) leader and focus on following Christ. You can do this — you really can — and when you take teaching from another human being, don’t toss your soul, heart, brain, and mind in front of his feet as well.<\/p>\n

Learn from\u00a0others. But don’t worship them.<\/p>\n

Posts similar to this one are<\/p>\n

Christian Leadership and Ordinary People<\/a><\/p>\n

Are You Qualified to Study the Bible?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Misfit Christian<\/a>\u00a0(my book for truth seekers who feel nudged out of the group, and are tired of being called “difficult.” Have you ever thought, instead, that perhaps you are perceptive?)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our younger years, my husband the Norwegian Artist and I bicycled through small-town America, and for housing, we often asked a\u00a0local church if we could camp in their basement. Encountering\u00a0everything from open-armed hospitality to outright hostility, we ultimately found ourselves attending a lot of\u00a0church services. One that made permanent memories\u00a0was a revival meeting, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,88,5,1026,13,2,10,11,58,3,15,124,7,4,8,6],"tags":[1194,34,19,72,305,26,62,110,1192,1193,107,259,105,76],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-bible","category-christianity","category-church-2","category-encouragement","category-faith","category-family","category-home","category-hope-2","category-inspiration","category-lifestyle","category-news","category-personal-growth","category-prayer","category-spiritual-growth","category-spirituality","tag-cedars-of-lebanon","tag-christ","tag-christian","tag-church","tag-commonsense","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-leader","tag-mark-driscoll","tag-mars-hill","tag-pastor","tag-revival","tag-sheep","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Mighty Church Leaders Fall, Do They Crush the People Underneath? - Commonsense Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Faiths\/Articles\/When-Mighty-Church-Leaders-Fall-Do-They-Crush-the-People-Underneath.aspx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Mighty Church Leaders Fall, Do They Crush the People Underneath? - Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In our younger years, my husband the Norwegian Artist and I bicycled through small-town America, and for housing, we often asked a\u00a0local church if we could camp in their basement. 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