HOW AN AUTHORITARIAN GROUP COULD TAKE OVER YOUR CHURCH OR MINISTRY

24 June 2011

HOW AN AUTHORITARIAN GROUP COULD TAKE OVER YOUR CHURCH OR MINISTRY

Every few months, I hear reports that another reputable Christian church or ministry has been taken over by a group operating in an authority-abusing manner. No denomination or area of service seems immune. It happens among Charismatics, Catholics and Baptists. It happens to mega-churches, TV ministries, small churches, mission communities and student groups. Young denominations and old ones. Liberals and conservative (outwardly Biblical) Christians. Every time it causes massive pain to those involved. The institution they trust the most abuses their trust. It has little to do with formal doctrine - and most such groups are outwardly orthdox and subscribe to Biblical statements of faith.

It is not that the everyone in the group becomes cult-like, but that the levers of power come under the control of an elite who hide scandalous information from the rest; and intimidate and bully anyone who asks probing questions they don't wish to answer. Most of the members are ordinary people like you and me who continue faithfully tithing, attending, obeying, listening and trusting their leaders. They have been helped by the organisation, see its public good work and don't want to believe anything negative about it.

The cult-like authoritarian group is parasitic on the healthy organisation. They take its money, volunteer time and power relationships with which they have been entrusted and abuse them.

Almost always, the core structure includes a strong manipulative senior leader with two key men behind him. His right hand man is a bully who intimidates and threatens anyone who vaguely disagrees with the senior leader. His left hand man is a smooth, cool public relations man who smooths over any offence caused and helps maintain the reputation and relationships of the ministry leader. Thus any bullying or half-truths can't be traced clearly back to the manipulative senior leader, as he can always disclaim responsibility for whatever they do or say on his behalf.

Around this core are gradually added loyal close supporters who are told half-truths about what is going on in the ministry. Around them are numerous others who unknowingly serve the unhealthy core group. Anyone who disagrees with the core group or cooperate with its secrecy and bullying is gradually pushed out of the leadership structure - using any excuse possible. Over time independent thinking people and those who wish to govern it in an ethical, biblical, lawful, constitutional manner are pushed out and replaced with 'yes-men'. Eventually, a blindly loyal authority abusing group controls the church or ministry and it is very very hard to get back to healthy governance. Those who disagree are attacked with false allegations - often embellished half-truths - and threatened with discipline or if they are employees, they are fired. Slander is spread among the leadership against those who disagree with the new authoritarian direction without proper biblical investigation. They are treated as guilty until proven innocent and if they do prove themselves innocent, then new slander will be manufactured.

Such groups are extremely difficult to deal with using normal church discipline (Matthew 18 and 1 Timothy 5:20) methods since they continually abuse such processes to reverse them by counter-attacking the prosecution/whistleblowers, intimidating witnesses by threats of lawsuit or verbal attack etc. See more strategies at: http://voiceofreform.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-abusive-ministries-defend.html When challenged, they become utterly ruthless.

Nevertheless, superficially, the ministry appears to be doing good work and have the blessing of God. Members don't want to believe evil about the organisation, since they rely on their leaders to test what is true versus what is false. The organisation becomes like a family to them. They have a lot to lose by leaving the organisation and realise that if they oppose the leadership, they will probably have to leave, so they don't believe or even want to examine evidence that is costly to believe.

Now if you think this applies just to fringe wacco, doctrinally heretical organisations - sorry no. This dynamic happens to good churches and ministries very quickly and quietly. They can be taken over by such groups in a few years. It could be happening under your nose to your own church or organisation. Further, the fact that you still have a leader you trusted for a long time is no guarantee, because the pattern is often that a good leader falls secretly into sin, for example he has an affair or embezzles money. Then he tries to keep up the appearance of good preaching and leadership while trying to turn the loyalty of key leaders from Christ to himself personally. People get promoted on the basis of personally loyalty to the leader rather than their true spiritual maturity.

If the group does became doctrinally heretical, then usually only the inner circle are told the new doctrinal teaching initially and it is not preached publicly. Eventually when the inner cultic group has seized complete control, they may go public with their new doctrine. But usually such groups, when they are in error don't actually care about the eroneous doctrine for its own sake. They care because they want to be 'more right' than everyone else by having their own special doctrinal distinctive. Acts 20:29 "I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.". Most commonly, errors are designed to give more power to the inner group - such as a teaching that the leader and his inner circle are the only ones who can really hear from God, are the only ones anointed by God and everyone else should blindly submit to them.

The fact that someone has been hurt by a particular group is not evidence of cultic authoritarian behaviour. People are hurt by every church and ministry. Sometimes leaders make mistakes and one has to hurt people to enforce biblical church discipline. Sometimes for example unrepentant homosexuals will accuse a ministry of cultic behaviour, but actually they need to repent. What is a feature is that the discipline does not follow biblical due process, but rather follows 'kangaroo court' bullying. They are usually soft on those in gross moral sin and very hard on innocent people who ask difficult questions. Such groups usually do not respect their own constitutions except in public situations where everyone is watching and it is put on as a show.

While such problems occur in every denomination and ministry type, they are hardest to rectify in the new popular Charismatic leader type of ministry since it usually has few checks and balances to hold them accountable when they become a problem http://voiceofreform.blogspot.com/2011/06/is-your-church-or-ministry-ferrari-with.html

What makes dealing with such problems doubly difficult is that there are not many church authorities you can go to in order to complain about such behaviour. Many senior church authorities are themselves compromised in either participating in religious mafia-style bullying tactics against their own members or turn a blind eye to their own leaders who they know are ethically compromised. Thus, just as Herod and Pontius Pilate were enemies before the trial of Jesus, they became friends afterwards (Luke 23:12). So in many cases, sadly compromised pragmatic church leaders will support eachother against accountability - because they also don't want to be held accountable. The favour mafia-style elitist church and ministry governance as a matter of principle. They will happily preach 'servant-leadership' from the pulpit, but don't practice it themselves. In the criminal world, mafia bosses in one area will support and work with those in another, but another time fight eachother. The same with the religious mafia in the church. They may disagree doctrinally, but they all like authoritarian elistism and will support eachother to defend their power. In Africa, we see democratically elected leaders defending neighbouring ruthless dictators against public pressure.

Such dynamics are not new. They occurred in New Testament times and will continue to occur in future. John writes in 3 John 1:9 "I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. 10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church." The apostle Paul warned 2CO 11:13-20 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light... In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face."

In many cases, organisations which have gone unhealthy in the manner described above eventually slowly lumber back to a more healthy form of governance. It can happen. It does happen. We should patiently work for such reform and not write off every ministry that has been afflicted with ungodly leadership.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

* Pray for protection for your ministry and for God to raise up righteous leaders and remove unrighteous ones.
* Do your part to speak up and promote biblical, ethical, constitutional godly governance.
* If you hear allegations against someone, investigate them carefully before repeating them - else you could be participating in slander.
* Make distance from leaders you know operate in a bullying and secretive manner.
* Be prepared to suffer - taking a stand for righteousness will be costly.
* Focus your efforts on your objectives. Since there is so much corruption and ungodliness in churches and ministries today, there is a risk it can be overwhelming.
* If you are affected by such an unhealthy group, form a counter-group for those opposing the cultic behaviour and learn from other organisations that are fighting similar battles.