On Abusive Pastors

For a variety of reasons, this topic has been on my mind lately, and I wanted to highlight a recent article by Cameron Buettel at Grace to You. 

"Throughout the history of the church, God has set aside men to faithfully preach the Word, care for spiritual needs, build up the Body of Christ, and protect it from the influence of false teachers and their heresies—in essence, God has called them to shepherd His sheep. But recent decades have seen the rise of church leaders who see themselves, not as servants and protectors of the flock, but as visionaries whose flocks exist to support them and their visions.

Whenever pride and self-will become confused with spiritual reasoning, you will have an abusive pastor, and recognizing such a pastor is important for the church today. Here are three main indicators by which 3rd John says you will recognize them (cf. comments regarding Diotrophes in 3 John):

1. They love to have the preeminence - You will discover that an abusive leader will expect allegiance to his own ideas and beliefs, and if you disagree, you will be put out and treated like an unbeliever. How a pastor handles challenges to his opinions and teaching is very telling as to whether they are abusive or not. If he is defensive and/or agressive, you know you have a problem.
2. They do not live in love - they retreat from others who might challenge them, and they live in such a way that they reveal their belief that they are entitled to obedience and loyalty. They mask this lack of love by calling their abusive treatment of others "tough love" while it is really just the venting of their prideful flesh.
3. They are divisive - The result of those first two tendencies is that they will not allow their followers to have contact with those who challenge their distorted doctrine. He achieves this by alienating and mocking the people who are "out" rather than patiently addressing any doctrinal error that they might have. He cannot sustain a doctrinal discussion to reveal biblical truth, but prefers empty rhetoric and broad denunciations that are actually devoid of doctrinal specifics.
        These activities will not usually be directed directly at the person who is perceived as the problem. Rather, they will be directed to others about that person. This serves to bring division between families, friends, and within the church. Often, this divisiveness isn't revealed for a while because the abusive pastor urges confidentiality to keep his "friends" in silence as to what they are saying about the others.

The cult of personality that rises up around these points is described well by an article on ChurchLeaders.com. In that article, Mary DeMuth writes that these churches...:

"Often have a charismatic leader at the helm who starts off well but slips into arrogance, protectionism, and pride. Where a leader might start off being personable and interested in others’ issues, he/she eventually withdraws to a small group of “yes people” and isolates from the needs of others. Harbors a cult of personality, meaning if the central figure of the ministry or church left, the entity would collapse, as it was entirely dependent on one person to hold the place together."

The rest of that article is also worth a read, by the way. One further resource on this point that will be helpful is this article and audio by John Piper.