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"Our problem is Authoritarianism and Not Legalism" (L)

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **1/25/17 8:44 am**

Wade Burleson has come out with a new book (which I haven't read yet) called Fraudulent Authority: Pastors Who Seek to Rule Over Others. This blog post from several years ago summarizes some of the concerns the book addresses.
http://www.wadeburleson.org/2012/01/our-problem-is-authoritarianism-and-not.html

A commenter posting under the initials DLF said the following:

I agree wholeheartedly with this post. Where in the New Testament is there an office of "Senior Pastor"? This approach is taught by all of the church growth/megachurch gurus. If you want your church to grow, you have to have a consistent message and "vision". The Senior Pastor is the "vision caster". Everything must serve the vision or it is not acceptable. Only thing is this is drawn from marketing and branding in the advertising business, not the Bible. I worked in the business world for many years. This is taught to managers in every major company all around the world. Unfortunately, it works because of human nature, but Jesus came to teach us a better way. The problem is that people are so immature as Christians that they don't even realize what is going on. I dare say that many pastors don't even understand what is going on. The quality of teaching in most churches is so poor that people are on their own if they want to learn about the Bible and the Christian faith. Most folks are not that interested, unfortunately.

I read Wade's comments about legalism

Acts-celerater Posts: 935 **1/25/17 10:03 am**

vs authoritarianism. He makes a valid point but I for one do not sense a vast number of abuse of authority issues in the church today, whereas legalism STILL is an abhorrent doctrine that harms many people today.

I lived in the Cleveland, Ohio area and pastored there for many years. In the late 70's and early eighties. It was a hotbed of the charismatic movement in those days as the FGBMFI was a major force taking the Holy Spirit into the Catholic, Episcopal, Luthern, and many other denominational churches and thousands were birthed into the Kingdom there. I was in the leadership of that movement at the time even though I eventually joined the AG and got my credentials thru them. I was one of those birthed and called. The problem then was that so many of these people that were coming into the Kingdom were from backgrounds of authoritarian, hierarchal type churches that they wanted their leaders to fill that void for them. They needed to be discipled and they wanted people to tell them what to do. Ern Baxter, Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, and Don Basham filled that void with the "Shepherding Movement" or as they preferred to call it, the "Discipleship" movement. Don Basham was from Cleveland and one of his disciples, Larry Tomszack lived in my town. He and a friend started a church near me and it grew quickly. THe people in that church and in the churches overseen by the leadership of the Ft Lauderdale 5 as they became to be known, were told what jobs to take, who to marry, where to live and nearly every aspect of their lives was dictated by the leadership of their church. This was NOT the original aim of the leaders but it evolved into it and the people wanted it that way. I dealt with the destructive problems this doctrine caused in so many people over the next 15 years it was unbelievable. Beyond that, it stemmed the tide of growth and left a bad reputation for other Pentecostal or Charismatic churches. Then we had the issues of the scandals of Swaggert and Baker to deal with in the mid 80's as well but I digress.

Eventually the movement collapsed of it's own weight and bad teaching and Bob Mumford wrote major article for Charisma in which he apologized for their mistakes. I have not seen much of an issue with abuse of authority from leadership since. Oh sure, there are individual cases but I don't see it as widespread. Is the model of "Senior Pastor" taught in church growth seminars, well it was. But, "Lead Pastor" is the preferred term and a new paradigm is taught. Servant Leadership is the correct model and the one I see most of the time. There is a problem however. Where Wade sees a lack of accountability and inability to question leadership, I see the opposite. It seems to some that leadership is not to be trusted and should be questioned at every opportunity - from doctrine to how the church is managed. Respect for the office much less the leader is often lacking.

I chalk this up to the problem of our elected officials lack of integrity, etc. When people feel their lives are ruled by people who can't be trusted to do the right thing, it will naturally seep over into their relationship with the church leadership. It also comes from the mistrust and resentment that the working class has for the management class - blue collar vs white collar. And, the Pastor is seen by much of his congregation as Management, ergo mistrust is called for.

On the other hand, legalism will kill you, Legalism is still taught, practiced and encouraged in way too many churches and not just in America. And in an insidious way, legalism has the effect of squashing freedom and imposing the authority of the leaders upon the people. So, I would have to disagree with Wade's statements.

Just a rambling, sorry for the length.

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **1/25/17 11:08 am**

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **1/25/17 11:19 am**

Re: "Our problem is Authoritarianism and Not Legalism" (L)

Acts-dicted Posts: 8065 **1/25/17 11:21 am**