Tag: oversight
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High Pastor Turnover Breaks Down Trust and Hurts the Church
Frequent leadership turnover exhausts congregations and makes them wary to trust the next pastor. Some churchgoers suspect it will won’t be long before he leaves just like the previous ones. That’s one of the reasons a church should rely on a plurality of elders and never be overly dependent on a single pastor. God calls… Read more
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In a Class by Themselves: The Clergy-Laity Divide
Many other problems stem from the class division within the church between the clergy and laity (i.e., between the ordained leaders and the non-ordained members). As a missionary myself, I am not opposed to paid, full-time ministry positions. Scripture contains ample support for vocational ministry. Israel’s priests fed themselves from the offerings and sacrifices of… Read more
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Out-of-Touch Oversight: Who Holds the Pastor Accountable?
The current institutional oversight in many denominations is too far removed from the goings-on in local congregations to provide proper accountability to the churches. I recently learned that, in the United Methodist denomination, the people to whom the pastor is accountable are the district superintendent and the bishop above him. There is a Staff/Pastor-Parish Relations… Read more