Hi ~

Years ago, Tim and I were charter members at an Independent Baptist church where we learned many years later the pastor was a predator (allegedly, for any lawyers out there).

Back in the days in my late 20s and early 30s, those days of my naiveté, there was something about the pastor that bothered me.

It wasn’t a sense of his being inappropriate with anyone (I was so clueless), but I didn’t like the way he ended his sermons.

“Live like you’ve been here this week,” he would say at the end.

Every week. I hated it.

Sometimes on the way home I would rant about it to Tim (long-suffering soul that he is).

“Does he think our lives during the week are dependent on hearing his sermon?” I would say.

“That sitting under him for an hour is supposed to change our day-to-day lives? That’s not what it’s about!”

“It’s about our actual relationship with the Lord! Why doesn’t he admonish us to spend time in the Word this week and get to know God? Is his sermon supposed to be the pinnacle of our week? I mean, obviously so, since he talks that way, but that’s just not right!”

Ahem.

It seemed like dereliction of duty to me. Not encouraging the people of God to develop and deepen their own relationship with the Lord.

I’ve thought about it a good bit through the years.

As I studied and learned about abuse and control, I came to understand something.

Having a congregation of mature believers who know the Lord deeply and thus care about the souls around them in sacrificial ways can be a threat to a pastor (or any leader) who wants to maintain power and control.

It is much more advantageous to him to keep them at the infantile level. If they look to him for their next spoonful of spiritual pablum, that’s the way he likes it.

I know some of my readers have to make hard decisions about whether to speak out about abuse in their church or former church.

That’s what Untwisting Scriptures #3 addresses. The first half anyway, the part about “Your Words.” When to stay silent and when to speak.

It’s not necessarily easy to sort out. It takes maturity and a close walk with the Lord.

The very thing those manipulative, controlling, and abusive pastors don’t want you to have.

But God does want you to. He wants you to grow up in Him. It’s exciting to me to see all the Christians who have made the hard choice to adult in the Kingdom of God.

With you for spiritual adulting,

Rebecca

Untwisting Scriptures at heresthejoy.com

See my Untwisting Scriptures series

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