In the last half of 2014 the deacon and his power-hungry cronies in our Baptist church successfully drove the pastor out of office and of the church by making his life and ministry untenable in his then present situation. He had no practical option but to resign; if he hadn’t the whole congregation would have been traumatised and damaged more seriously. 

The congregation was shocked with the unexpected resignation and with a great sense of loss because they loved the pastor; he had faithfully preached the word and the gospel, and there were many tears shed following his announced resignation.  Many pleaded with him to reconsider but the die was cast and he couldn’t turn back.  As he said, if he hadn’t resigned then, he would have been sacked further down the track as the schismatic wolves gained more traction; so, by his resigning now he was at least able to decide when it happened, rather than them.  And, because of the now openly hostile attitude towards him from the conspirators, he knew they would give the Baptist Union of NSW a bad report of him if he applied for another pastorate; so he went back into the secular workforce.  And another Baptist pastor’s life and career was in shambles. 

Two years before this we, as a church, called this man to be our pastor.  Prior to his arrival, we had just been brought through a crisis by an experienced and seasoned Baptist pastor who had been sent to shepherd the congregation in the period between the previous pastor and the incoming one.  This interim pastor had a difficult job on his hands because the last three pastors had been forced to resign and there was still strife amongst the members.  He had agreed to minister for a period of eighteen months to try and bring healing and unity to the congregation, and to hand it over, healthy and whole,  to  the new pastor who duly arrived to take up his ministry.

Wolves move in for the kill

However, unknown to us and the rest of the congregation, the wolves were already resisting him because they found they couldn’t control him.  They had their agenda and knew what they wanted the pastor to do, but he had his own plan and direction for the church, as well he should, and he wouldn’t be pressured.  So almost from Day One the pastor had a real problem on his hands and he was never able to get anything achieved. 

About 18 months later at a “church family” meeting the sheepskins came off and the pastor was openly attacked and humiliated.  It was a planned operation and the pack leader was clinical and ruthless as he publicly attacked and humiliated the pastor.  The move had already been heralded at a previous church “family” meeting when the only deacon in the church ambushed the pastor and Management Committee with a deceptive ruse, and he was able to implement a major part of his agenda by bypassing the church leadership.  Using the church’s constitution to gain his end, this time the pastor was attacked from all sides of the floor as the wolf-pack bayed for his blood.

There were others in the congregation, lone wolves (Matt 7:15), spiteful and malicious troublemakers but not allied with the larger pack, and they also took opportunity to cause havoc.  They were like a pack of dogs which, having smelt blood, move in for the kill.  The meeting degenerated disgracefully and shamefully and the pastor had to close it in order to stop further damage.  The Management Committee members (installed unbiblically in place of elders and deacons by the interim pastor) were also attacked and vilified.  The so-called “church family” meetings that we had been to in this church had always been unpleasant and we came away from them feeling miserable, frustrated, and soiled; but so far both the interim and the present pastor during the hiatus had been able to maintain control.  But this meeting was something else, and the naked hostility was palpable and sickening.

The flock scattered

The impact on the congregation was devastating.  People were horrified and traumatised by what they had witnessed and many of the older people said they couldn’t take any more church meetings as it was too stressful, and they were concerned about the serious consequences for their health.  We all dreaded the next meeting because the wolves hadn’t finished yet, and we knew that worse was to come.  And indeed, a few days before the next meeting, one of the lone wolves, a man who loved conflict and who hijacked and disrupted every meeting, sent an email to everybody in the congregation in which he criticised the pastor and the Management Committee, and outlined what he was going to discuss at the meeting.

Soon after this, another of the lone wolves threatened two of the Management Team with “blood on the floor” (her words) at the next meeting, and that the previous meeting would be tame compared to what was to come. 

It was these overt threats combined with the already demonstrated and ever-present menace from the main wolf pack who wanted control of the church, which persuaded the pastor that the only thing he could do to spare the congregation further trauma was to resign.  As a result of his resignation the Management Committee also resigned in support of him and in protest against what the schismatics and wolves were doing.  And those in the congregation who supported the pastor (more than half the small congregation) also left the church.  Every capable and talented person who took any part in the running of the church had now simply walked out. 

The fleshly agenda frustrated

This mass exodus took the wolf pack by surprise; they thought that all they had to do was get rid of the pastor, and the church would continue as usual, and then they would employ a pastor whom they could control.  But now the majority of the small group which remains are in their 70’s to 90’s age group, mainly women, and who can’t do anything except attend services and put their meagre financial offerings in the collection bag.  This is wonderfully ironic because prior to when the pack leader ambushed the congregational meeting to get his agenda implemented, he said he didn’t want any old people involved in the plans he had for the church.

And now, some of the lone wolves have joined with the main pack and have moved into all the positions of leadership and responsibility.  They now have the control they wanted but it is a hollow victory; there are no musicians, no bible study home group leaders, no pastoral visitation team, no income, and the architects and movers of the take-over have to do everything themselves. The church now has such a stinking reputation in New South Wales that no pastor would take on the pastoral role there, even if the church could afford a pastor. 

The sickening thing is that, oozing false piety from every pore, the wolves are carrying on with “faith” and determination”, “serving the Lord”, as they like to describe their attitude.  They need to bring in preachers from outside when they can get them, otherwise one of the leading wolves and architects of the coup, a retired member of the NSW Baptist Union, has been called on to be the preacher, something which he never envisaged); they have recorded music for their “worship”; and they have condensed the seating by removing chairs and bringing the rest to the front of the hall so that the place doesn’t look so empty.

A penalty-free zone: noisy gongs and clanging cymbals

As if all this was not bad enough, a delegation of church leaders from the Baptist Union who were trying to resolve the ongoing problems here were simply sweeping everything under the carpet.  The wolf pack wants to “move forward”, as they put it, and there is talk of having some kind of “healing” service.  Nobody will need to give account and there will be no recriminations, no discipline, no-one will be held responsible.  It was declared by the interim pastor at the last meeting when they were trying to rally and keep what they had left, that the letters of resignation will not be read to the congregation, and there will be no reckoning, as this would be negative and “legalistic”, and the church needs to move past all that.  And every single one of those involved in hounding the pastor out of the church deny any responsibility or wrongdoing whatsoever; indeed, they have put the entire blame on the pastor’s shoulders.

I’d like to be able to say that this is not a common occurrence, but I can’t.  It’s a sad fact that being a Baptist pastor is one of the most thankless and insecure jobs in the country, and many good men have been all but destroyed by their congregations, so burned that they have left the pastoral ministry altogether and gone back to a secular occupation.  Unfortunately, some of these good men have difficulty finding a job due to their being out of the secular workforce for such a long time.

Some lessons I’ve learned

The role of pastor in the church

The first thing that should be said is that pastors are one of Jesus’ gifts to the church (Eph 4:11-12).  This is a high and holy calling, but the deacons in Baptist churches regard him merely as an employee, hired to do their bidding.  In this church, he has less respect and dignity than an employee in a secular business, and they think they can cast him off as and when they please without reference to legal requirements for employers set in place by the government, or consideration for his needs or his dignity.  This is the evil fruit of unbiblical Baptist church polity, a system which sees the church as a democracy.

But Christ does not see the pastor or any other people who take a leadership role in his body in this way.  Rather, he protects him and requires those under the pastor’s leadership to submit to him (Heb 13:7, 17).

The RESPONSIBILITY of the Christian in the church

If there has been a successful coup within the congregation and there is no likelihood of regaining control, the members need to leave that church.  If an unsuccessful attempt has been made, the perpetrators need to be disciplined and either brought to repentance or excommunicated from the body.  This sin cannot be swept under the carpet, as it was in the Baptist church under consideration here (Rom 16:17-18).

Furthermore, Christians are urged to deal with one another in love.  If the schismatics in the church had been governed by the scriptures instead of using the church constitution to gain their ends, and the church meetings as a platform to vent their spleen, the church would still be whole, the pastor would still be there, the wolves would have peacefully gotten what they wanted anyway, and the church would have a mission.  As it is however, I fear that Christ has removed his lamp stand from them (Rev 2:5).

Elders – GOVERNMENT and OVERSIGHT in the body of Christ

When the apostle Paul wrote the Pastoral Epistles, he established certain rules for the churches.  Concerning how they were to be ruled, he said that it was to be by elders, or presbyters.  Elders were already in these positions of leadership as we can see in Acts (15:2, 6); and Peter himself was an elder (1 Pet 5:1-3).  As there are no longer apostles in the Church, the elders now have sole authority to rule.

So when Paul wrote to Titus, he instructed him to ordain elders in every church (Titus 1:5).  Following that instruction, he outlined the qualities and characteristics essential for those in such a role.  These qualifications are also found in his pastoral letter to Timothy with some extra information e.g. elders have a ruling role (3:4-5 cf 5:17). 

The mystery of Baptist church polity 

I am always mystified at Baptist church polity as to why they have deacons as rulers in the church when scripture so clearly says that the elders are to rule. The whole Baptist system, i.e. church democracy, is wrong, and is no defence for the church, but I never thought about it much.  However, the shocking way the schismatics ruthlessly stole our church opened my eyes and I received a rude awakening.  We neglect right doctrine at our peril.  If the church had had a correct theology of elders and deacons, and if they’d had elders who ruled the church, (the interim pastor had stood down elders and deacons and replaced them with a Management Committee) we might not have gone down so easily. 

Although, on reflection, I even doubt that because the wolves were intent on achieving their two goals, which were to set up their “evangelistic” programme and to get rid of the pastor; and they showed nothing but contempt for the Management Committee and would allow nothing to stand in their way.  And, if they could cast aside biblical principles so easily, the God-given authority of elders would mean nothing to them.

But unruly church members should not dictate to the church and intimidate them from obeying scripture by installing elders.  This situation demonstrates that elders need to be strong men, in character, in faith, and in single-mindedly serving Christ and his people faithfully.

During the death throes of our church, we heard several reports of other Baptist pastors who had suffered the loss of their ministry in the same way, and they had all gone back to secular work.  This is a tragedy and a disgrace!  But what can we expect when we do things our way instead of Jesus’ way?  There are a lot of lovely Christians in Baptist churches who love the Lord and serve him to the best of their ability; but their church polity carries the seeds of destruction within itself and, in my experience of Baptist churches, almost always leads to the division of the congregation. 

Necessity of administering church discipline

The interim pastor said that to discipline anyone involved in the church split would be legalistic, and he just wanted the church to move forward.  In doing so he ensured the destruction of the church and lost a wonderful opportunity to bring healing to a church which had been sick and in bondage to wolves for decades.  Had he instituted proceedings for discipline and brought the perpetrators of the schism to repentance or justice, he would at one stroke have brought healing to the church by removing the problem (i.e. the troublemakers), and most of those who had departed would have returned. 

He has also done a huge disservice to the perpetrators; their sin has been swept under the carpet, consequently they will continue in their sin unaware of their great danger, and must face God’s judgment.  A pastor I once knew was fond of quoting “soft surgeons make stinking wounds”.

The aim of discipline is twofold:

• That the church be purged of sin and maintain a godly life and witness (1 Cor 5:6-7). If sin remains, the church is finished; if the church doesn’t destroy itself, Christ will remove his lamp stand from it anyway and the end will be the same.
• The recovery of the sinner (1 Cor 5:5).  As with all godly discipline, it is discipline, it is punishment (2 Cor 2:6); and see Heb 12:5-11.  It is also redemption (1 Cor 5:5).

The man in the Corinthian church referred to in the above verses later repented and was restored, just as the discipline was intended to do.  In fact, Paul had to urge the church not to make him suffer longer than necessary (2 Cor 2:6-8).

Sadly, the few remaining souls in this Baptist church don’t understand church discipline, so they have misplaced loyalties.  They don’t want to abandon the church in its need, and they don’t want the Baptist witness in the community to be extinguished.  Thus, they abandon Christ instead, though they don’t realise it, by working with the wolves and helping them “rebuild” the church.  The Christian’s loyalty is always to Christ first; no other loyalty can come anywhere near this.  And if being loyal and faithful to him means difficulty for us, then so be it; he is no man’s debtor and he will defend us and provide for us. 

What good is a church which has long-standing sin, not repented of and ignored by leaders, and in disobedience to Christ?  Does He need such a church?  Is it so hard to find followers that He’ll make do with even such a church as this?  Doesn’t He rather want and use faithful Christians in faithful churches?  Therefore, instead of withdrawing their support and letting the whole thing come down around the ears of the schismatics, these dear but misguided people are propping up a rotten carcass.

Update 2018

Since the above events occurred, this Baptist church has “run out of town” another two men consecutively who were asked to be pastor.  In an ironic twist, one of these pastors had been instrumental in conspiring and working to remove the pastor who is the subject of this article.  He is now feeling very sorry for himself, saying that he was very hurt by the way he has been treated (boo-hoo), and is looking for another church to attend.  How pathetic and disgusting!  This man and his wife came to our country town from Sydney to retire, but got caught up in the politics and personal animosity of the coup as soon as they arrived; subsequently, he was the only person in the now-reduced congregation who had any kind of preaching ability; and now he, too, was savaged by his co-conspirators in the church, and he was squeezed out of the pastorate he didn’t want.  “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num 32:23).