In the last half of 2014 the deacon and his power-hungry cronies in our Baptist church successfully drove the pastor out of office and of the church by making his life and ministry untenable in his then present situation. He had no practical option but to resign; if he hadn’t the whole congregation would have been traumatised and damaged more seriously.
The congregation was shocked with the unexpected resignation and with a great sense of loss because they loved the pastor; he had faithfully preached to them during his time there, and there were many tears shed following his announced resignation. Many pleaded with him to reconsider but the die was cast and he couldn’t turn back. As he said, if he hadn’t resigned then, he would have been sacked further down the track as the schismatic wolves gained more traction; so, by his resigning now he was at least able to decide when it happened, rather than them.
And, because of the now openly hostile attitude towards him from the conspirators, he knew they would give the Baptist Union of NSW a bad report of him if he applied for another pastorate; so he went back into the secular workforce. And another Baptist pastor’s life and career was in shambles.
Two years before this, the church called this man to be their pastor. Prior to his arrival, they had just been brought through a crisis by an experienced and seasoned Baptist pastor who had been sent to “shepherd” the congregation in the period between the previous pastor and the incoming one. This interim pastor had a difficult job on his hands because the last three pastors had been forced to resign by the wolves and there was still strife amongst the members. He had agreed to minister for a period of eighteen months to try and bring healing and unity to the congregation, and to hand it over, healthy and whole, to the new pastor who duly arrived to take up his ministry.
Wolves move in for the kill
However, unknown to the rest of the congregation, the wolves were already resisting him because they couldn’t control him. They had their agenda and knew what they wanted the pastor to do, but he had his own plan and direction for the church, as well he should, and he wouldn’t be pressured. So almost from Day One the pastor had a real problem on his hands and he was never able to get anything achieved.
About 18 months later at a “church family” meeting the sheepskins came off and the pastor was openly attacked and humiliated. It was a planned operation and the pack leader was clinical and ruthless as he publicly attacked and humiliated the pastor. The move had already been heralded at a previous church “family” meeting when the only deacon in the church ambushed the pastor and Management Committee with a deceptive ruse, and he was able to implement a major part of his agenda by bypassing the church leadership. Using the church’s constitution to gain his end, this time the pastor was attacked from all sides of the floor as the wolf-pack bayed for his blood.
There were others in the congregation, lone wolves (Matt 7:15), spiteful and malicious troublemakers but not allied with the larger pack, and they also took opportunity to cause havoc. They were like a pack of dogs which, having smelled blood, move in for the kill. The meeting degenerated shamefully and the pastor had to close it in order to stop further damage. The Management Committee members (installed unbiblically in place of elders and deacons by the interim pastor) were also attacked and vilified.
The so-called “church family” meetings that we had been to in this church had always been unpleasant and we came away from them feeling miserable, frustrated, and soiled; but so far both the interim and the present pastor during the hiatus had been able to maintain control. But this meeting was something else, and the naked hostility was palpable and sickening.
The flock scattered
A few days before the next meeting, one of the lone wolves, an arrogant, ignorant, and self-important man who loved conflict and who hijacked and disrupted every meeting, sent an email to everybody in the congregation in which he criticised the pastor and the Management Committee, and outlined what he was going to discuss at the meeting.
Soon after this, another of the lone wolves threatened two of the Management Team with “blood on the floor” (her words) at the next meeting, and that the previous meeting would be tame compared to what was to come.
It was these overt threats combined with the already demonstrated and ever-present menace from the main wolf pack who wanted control of the church, which persuaded the pastor that the only thing he could do to spare the congregation further trauma was to resign. The Management Committee also resigned in support of him and in protest against what the schismatics and wolves were doing. And those in the congregation who supported the pastor (more than half the small congregation) also left the church. Every capable and talented person who took any part in the running of the church had now simply walked out.
The ungodly agenda frustrated
This mass exodus took the wolf pack by surprise; they thought that all they had to do was get rid of the pastor, and the church would continue as usual, and then they would employ a pastor whom they could control. But now the majority of the small group which remains are in their 70’s to 90’s age group, mainly women, and who can’t do anything except attend services and put their meagre financial offerings in the collection bag. This is wonderfully ironic because prior to when the pack leader ambushed the congregational meeting to get his agenda implemented, he said he didn’t want any old people involved in the plans he had for the church.
The wolves now have the control they wanted but it is a hollow victory; there are no musicians, no bible study home group leaders, no pastoral visitation team, no income, and the architects and movers of the take-over have to do everything themselves. And the church has gained such a stinking reputation among church circles in New South Wales that no pastor would take on the pastoral role there, even if the church could afford one.
The sickening thing is that, oozing false piety from every pore, the wolves are carrying on with “faith” and determination”, “serving the Lord”, as they like to describe their attitude. They need to bring in preachers from outside when they can get them, otherwise one of the leading wolves and architects of the coup, a retired member of the NSW Baptist Union, has been called on to be the preacher, (something which he never envisaged); they have recorded music for their “worship”; and they have condensed the seating by removing chairs and bringing the rest to the front of the hall so that the place doesn’t look so empty.
A penalty-free zone
As if all this was not bad enough, a delegation of church leaders from the Baptist Union who were trying to resolve the ongoing problems here were simply sweeping everything under the carpet. The wolf pack wants to “move forward”, as they put it, and there is talk of having some kind of “healing” service. Nobody will need to give account and there will be no recriminations, no discipline, no-one will be held responsible. It was declared by the interim pastor at the last meeting when they were trying to rally and keep what they had left, that the letters of resignation will not be read to the congregation, and there will be no reckoning, as this would be negative and “legalistic”, and “the church needs to move past all that”. And every single one of those involved in hounding the pastor out of the church deny any responsibility or wrongdoing whatsoever; indeed, they have put the entire blame on the pastor’s shoulders.
I’d like to be able to say that this is not a common occurrence, but I can’t. It’s a sad fact that being a Baptist pastor is one of the most thankless and insecure jobs in the country, and many good men have been all but destroyed by their congregations, so burned that they have left the pastoral ministry altogether and gone back to a secular occupation. Unfortunately, some of these good men have difficulty finding a job due to their being out of the secular workforce for such a long time.
Necessity of administering church discipline
The interim pastor said that to discipline anyone involved in the church split would be legalistic, and he just wanted the church to move forward. In doing so he ensured the destruction of the church and lost an opportunity to bring healing to a church which had been sick and in bondage to wolves for decades. Had he instituted proceedings for discipline and brought the perpetrators of the schism to repentance or justice, he would at one stroke have brought healing to the church by removing the problem (i.e. the troublemakers), and most of those who had departed would have returned.
He has also done a huge disservice to the perpetrators; their bad behaviour has been swept under the carpet; consequently, they will continue in their bad behaviour. A pastor I once knew was fond of quoting “soft surgeons make stinking wounds”.
Update 2018
Since the above events occurred, this Baptist church has “run out of town” another two men consecutively who were asked to be pastor. In an ironic twist, one of these pastors had been instrumental in conspiring and working to remove the pastor who is the subject of this article. He is now feeling very sorry for himself, saying that he was very hurt by the way he has been treated (boo-hoo), and is looking for another church to attend. How pathetic and disgusting!
This man and his wife came to our country town from Sydney to retire, but got caught up in the politics and personal animosity of the coup as soon as they arrived; subsequently, he was the only person in the now-reduced congregation who had any kind of preaching ability; and now he, too, was savaged by his co-conspirators in the church, and he was squeezed out of the pastorate he didn’t want. Like a pack of dogs, they turned against he whom they had deceived into siding with them, and betrayed him. This is poetic justice.