When Pastoral Authority Fades Away

17 05 2012

This is what the Lord says:

“As for the prophets
    who lead my people astray, 
they proclaim ‘peace’ 
    if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
    who refuses to feed them.
Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
    and darkness, without divination. 
The sun will set for the prophets, 
    and the day will go dark for them. 
The seers will be ashamed 
    and the diviners disgraced. 
They will all cover their faces 
    because there is no answer from God. ”  Micah 3:5-7

You can call me a homer if you like, but I honestly think Josh Hamilton has maybe the sweetest swing in baseball.  His season thus far certainly supports that opinion.  Last week, his four-home-run performance against the Orioles became just another illustration (just to put that in perspective, that has only been done 16 times in all of MLB history…that makes it even more rare than pitching a perfect game).  But let’s be clear about those home-runs.  They do not happen because of Hamilton’s amazing backstory, and they do not happen because of his title or his position as a major league player, and they do not happen because he has somehow earned the respect of his team mates or of opposing players.  Those home-runs happen because of many long hours of perfecting a swing and then repeating that swing perfectly under the circumstances.  It is about sticking radically to that perfection and not wavering from it even a little bit.  When Hamilton does that, when he sticks exactly with that perfect groove, not adding anything to the well-rehearsed swing and not leaving anything out…when he does it exactly the way the swing was given to him, the power follows.

It should not surprise you that, in my work with conflicted congregations, the topic of “pastoral authority” comes up pretty often.  The pastor, after all, eventually gets thrust into the middle of pretty much every congregational conflict.  Finding himself (or herself) there, he/she then must begin to form some conclusions about the issues.  As soon as that happens, there are some who disagree with the pastor, and that almost always will eventually bring to the table the discussion about pastoral authority.  What does it mean, when does it “trump” all else, and is it the end of the conversation?

I would like to answer those questions by first asking and answering a different question: under what circumstances does pastoral authority fade away?

First of all, it seems to me that “pastoral authority” (whatever it means) is meaningless except as it is attached to decisions.  In other words, it is what a pastor says or does (or chooses not to say or not to do) which is either filled with authority or not.  The power of Josh Hamilton’s swing is only “in play” when he is actually swinging a bat.  It is pointless to talk about pastoral authority separate and apart from the specific decisions in question.

Secondly, then, pastoral authority becomes less a question about office or title and much more a question about the presence and power of God in a specific word or course of action.  The more careful a pastor is to speak exactly what God has given him/her to speak, the more authority those words carry.  But as a pastor gets away from the precision of God’s message or direction, the authority begins to fade.  Like Hamilton’s swing, it is not likely to be perfect every time…but when it is, the power (the authority) is there.

The scary thing, then, about pastoral authority is that (like the sweetness of a baseball swing) it is neither guaranteed nor permanent.  Any pastor worth his or her salt can testify to this.  It takes hard work and discipline and study and prayer to find the precision of God’s message in each lesson taught.  And when we get it right, it is so very right.  But when that hard work and discipline and study and prayer wane, so does the authority.

For a true shepherd, a genuine leader among God’s people, that understanding comes with great fear and trembling.  Just ask Micah…he will tell you.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com




Discipline for the Disciplinarians

3 05 2012

“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
in whose hand is the club of my wrath!”  
Isaiah 10:5

I know I have joked (kind of) in previous posts about how theology watchdogs in the blogosphere (and in the church) are annoying in the same way as that teacher in high school who constantly corrected your grammar while you were trying to talk.  But I also do recognize that God has given us brothers and sisters whose giftedness and very calling is to help us keep our doctrine pure…they are the doctrine disciplinarians, if you will.  You know the ones I mean.  They blog about your favorite pastor, who made a horrendous, unbelievable, heretical, probably-not-saved-if-you-say-this theological error in his sermon last week.  They call him out by name, and the venom with which they attack him is, well, pretty ungodly.  Or they review the most recent book by one of your favorite authors and basically question his very humanity, not to mention his spirituality, because of the position he seems to have taken on this theological issue or on that social issue…again, with uncommon rancor.

[And, as an aside, you know what is one of my pet peeves?  That blogger almost never makes any attempt at all to actually contact that pastor/teacher/author in order to practice this "discipline" or "accountability" Biblically, which pretty quickly gets me wondering whether they are really loving this brother or rather are just a little envious of his acclaim.  But I digress.]

I know that God disciplines us.  And I know that he often uses others to do it.  I am really OK with that.  In fact, it seems like a good plan to me.  I think scripture gives us plenty of examples of God using people to discipline his children.  Sometimes, he even used a pagan, non-believing people (like the Assyrians) to do it.

But scripture seems equally clear to me that to be used by God in this fashion comes with a heavy responsibility.  God’s discipline is to be carried out God’s way and with God’s honor and God’s love in our hearts and our minds.  When God’s “tool of discipline” forgets this or forsakes it, the consequences are dire.  When God punishes the punisher, it is ugly and horrifying, filled with His wrath.  Again, the Assyrians come to mind.

So, fellow bloggers and church leaders…before your fingers hit the keyboard to release your discipline on that weak-minded pastor or that hopelessly lost author or that wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing so deserving of your harsh rebuke, will you make sure your knees hit the ground and your heart turns toward God?  We need your passion.  God’s kingdom needs your giftedness.  The church needs your laser focus on helping us keep our doctrine straight.  And we love you too much to allow you to throw it all away because of a wrong attitude or a bad motive.  Fulfill your calling…by checking your heart!

And stop correcting my grammar.  Seriously.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com




Your Calling to Do Hard Things

26 04 2012

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

 And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’  Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.  Isaiah 6:8-10

Believe me when I tell you there are parts of my work as an attorney which I do not like.  Likewise, there are parts of my work as a church mediator which are hard and not very rewarding.  Likewise, there are parts of my various assignments as a church leader which I would definitely rather not do…things I definitely do not feel “gifted” to do, but which my leadership requires nonetheless.

Isaiah’s calling was almost certainly not to do something he enjoyed doing.  It was a calling to do a very hard thing…for over forty years…with practically no visible return whatsoever.

So, I hope my pastor friends will understand when I tend to look with some skepticism at their desire to just do the part of pastoring which they enjoy doing.  Some would like to just focus on the preaching and teaching without having to bother with the “pastoral care” parts.  Others would like to focus on the administrative aspects without having to do so much preaching and teaching.  Still others could be content just doing hospital visits all day long and never having to attend another insufferable committee meeting.

Shepherding God’s people includes all of those things.  You don’t have to be good at all of them…but you do have to do all of them.  If you don’t feel called to visit sick people and to counsel grieving people…you probably are not called to be a pastor.  If you don’t feel called to research, prepare and deliver God-honoring sermons, then you are probably not called to shepherd God’s people.  If your calling does not include a modicum of “interminable committee meetings”, then you are probably not called to lead in the church.  If relationships are just not what God called you to do, then you are definitely not called to be an influencer of God’s people.

If Isaiah teaches us anything at all, he gives us a glimpse of one central eternal truth about leadership among God’s people: it is a calling to do hard things.  The old saying is never any truer than it is with regard to leadership…”If it were easy, everybody would be doing it!”

Do the hard things.  They are not incidental to your calling…they are at its very heart.

© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee.  Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com







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