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Tag Archives: church discipline

Gospel Ministry in a Less-than-awesome Environment

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by David L. Gill in Personal, Theology

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Tags

church discipline, experience, Gospel, leadership, prayer, relationships, repentance, Scripture, teaching, theology

In light of my previous post about an abusive church environment, at least one person has rightly pointed out that no one forced me to stay as long as I did. One of the reasons I stayed as long as I did was that there was work to do for the sake of the Gospel…and most of the work, I did alongside the very people who didn’t particularly want me there. But they, and I, wanted to see the Gospel go forth. They and I are creatures of inconsistency, and I have at least as many idols as most people–but probably more. Continue reading →

Abusive Churches and Pastors

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by David L. Gill in Personal, Theology

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

church discipline, experience, false teaching

I have had an extremely bad experience in the Church. I’ve discussed it previously here and here. In another article by Trevin Wax, a list is offered. I’d like to share it here.

How do you recognize abusive leadership? Paul requires two witnesses for a charge to be leveled against an elder (1 Tim. 5:19), probably because he knows that leaders will be charged with infelicities more than others, often unfairly. That said, abusive churches and Christian leaders characteristically

  1. Make dogmatic prescriptions in places where Scripture is silent.
  2. Rely on intelligence, humor, charm, guilt, emotions, or threats rather than on God’s Word and prayer (see Acts 6:4).
  3. Play favorites.
  4. Punish those who disagree.
  5. Employ extreme forms of communication (tempers, silent treatment).
  6. Recommend courses of action that always, somehow, improve the leader’s own situation, even at the expense of others.
  7. Speak often and quickly.
  8. Seldom do good deeds in secret.
  9. Seldom encourage.
  10. Seldom give the benefit of the doubt.
  11. Emphasize outward conformity, rather than repentance of heart.
  12. Preach, counsel, disciple, and oversee the church with lips that fail to ground everything in what Christ has done in the gospel and to give glory to God.

Continue reading →

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