3 Signs You’ve Made Your Pastor An Idol

Bullying is a hot topic these days. While lamentably, we expect it at the schoolyard and office, we increasingly see it from the church pulpit -- where some leaders wrongly wield their position over congregants.

In a recent Christian Post article, Baptist preacher and author John Piper says that pastors like this abuse their authority and should be rebuked. While Piper describes bullying pastors as domineering leaders, bad shepherds who don’t love the flock, the article also adds that, “Not all bullying complaints are legit. Some people, he said, have an oversensitivity to healthy pastoring.”

How far, one wonders, does “healthy pastoring” extend into the personal and private lives of the people in a church body?Apparently pretty far, and if you wonder if you are giving your pastor more control than a man deserves, here are three symptoms of over-submission to look out for.

Worshiping Leadership

Leadership, authority, hierarchy, accountability, and submission are heavily promoted in Christian, especially evangelical, circles, and while the modern interpretation of the paid pastoral position isn't in the Bible, those who love power quote Hebrews 13:17 as a means of keeping church members (the sheep) in line:

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy.”

Interestingly, this verb "obey," cross-referenced in Strong's Concordance, is in other verses translated as "trust in," or "have confidence in," a strong distinction from "obey." Even if one chooses the latter action, it is best not to do so until the former two options have been achieved. For all Christians, the primary Shepherd is Jesus, who “lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11-12). We worship -- and obey -- Him alone.

Putting Our Pastor's Voice Over God's

There are many good teachers who study God's word with a sincere desire to grasp truth from it, passing it on to their fellow believers -- with whom they are equal in Christ. These men and women mirror the humility that Jesus showed when He washed His disciples' feet, and are little rewarded (materially) for their pains.

There are others, however, who do not "enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climb in by some other way." (John 10:1)

Thieves and robbers, they demand our respect, time, money, and obedience, which should raise alarm flags.

Before we listen too seriously, too well, and too passively to another person's voice, we should ask ourselves why we're doing this, as well as remind ourselves that, in a church situation, choosing to attend any particular congregation is a completely voluntary process, unlike the submission demanded by government, employers, rulers, and kings.

Abdicating Our Freedoms

These latter entities are imposed upon us. If we derive nothing more from the controversial Romans 13:1-7 ("Everyone must submit himself to the authorities"), it's that we placate Caesar, hoping he lets us alone. We don't have to fawn all over him.

This, however, is what we are expected to do in the church hierarchical system. That there is even an issue of bullying leadership is a symptom of the sheep listening to the wrong voices. As Piper says in the article, "These bad shepherds may abuse their positions because of an ego trip, a need for control, a love of financial gain or a desire to inflict harm on others."

Wise and discerning sheep take seriously 1 Peter 2:9:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God,”

and do not put human religious kings over the hearts, minds, spirits and souls that belong, solely, to God.

Question. Authority.