REGARDING THE APOSTLE AND TREATMENT OF FORMER PASTORS:  

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Can you put into precise words exactly why the pastors/leaders over the last 10 years were each removed from pastoring their congregations? (Please don't use broad statements like "they weren't under authority" or "they got offended" or "they were in rebellion", or "they were in deception", be specific.) 

 

Think about what happened in each situation: in Columbus, Jamaica, Brazil, and Alabama (we won't include the "works" in England and India). Can you explain them or do you find yourself blindly following and saying, "I don't know all the details, but I trust the leadership."

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Ask yourself, was there out and out sin that rose to the level of removal? (Keep in mind that having a difference of opinion from the apostle is not the same as rebellion). 

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Based on the fact that most of the pastors have been removed since the zenith of the organization in the mid 1990's,  how would you consider the apostle's ability to choose well qualified and vetted leaders? (We know that the Lord does the calling, but out of the numerous people who received a call to pastor, the apostle chose to mentor and elevated these specific men to that office).

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Consider this scenario...Have you ever been in a situation where you knew someone who blamed their boss, their friend, their spouse, a family member for the current situation or conflict they are in? The first time this happens, you tend to believe them, right? But the more time you spend with them, it seems that every time there is a conflict, the person always blames the other people involved in the situation for the problem. You notice a pattern and begin to consider the possibility that the person that is always doing the blaming may in fact be the one with the actual issue. Have you ever considered that possibility with the apostle? 

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If you concede that possibility, then you should consider whether the resulting shunning that occurs with these former pastors, and indeed former members in general, is not based on a doctrinal mandate, but instead, is based on relationship issues of the founder.

 

Perhaps his desire to make every church into a cookie cutter replica of Lakeview proved to be to much for these men. He opted for uniformity, when unity should have sufficed in inter-church relationships. These men, each with different temperaments, gifts, callings, were unable to be "just as" when it came to the minutiae of requirements the came from Lakeview: policies, procedures, meeting times, meeting attire, school policies, dating policies, music policies, home meeting policies, the list goes on, and on and on...

 

Do you know what Jesus called His leaders to do? Love His sheep, tend His lambs. Paul admonished leaders to preach the Word and contend for the faith. Both Jesus and Paul also had contempt for those who added externals as requirements to a life of faith. Jesus called the Pharisees on the carpet for their practices; Paul lit into the Judaizers for theirs. The ANTM is a modern day mix of both of those groups.
 

Healthy leaders foster growth of new leaders and let them follow their own perceived call, never presuming that they know better than the person who received the calling. Damaging leaders control every aspect of those "under" them and create spiritual "bonsai" trees, ones that are meticulously shaped and cut, but never actually grow or bear fruit.

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Jesus, as the True Vine, prunes us, His true branches, that we bear more fruit, that we may be like the mustard seed that grows into a tree that provides shade for the birds of the air to nest in. Damaging leaders constrain, contort and consign their "leaders" into a facsimile of healthy growth. But those heavily manipulated trees are small and unable to be useful to anyone, except for the leader to look at and admire what he has done to it. You should read the wikipedia entry on bonsai trees, as a illustration of cult control, its quite telling.

 

Perhaps, some of these former leaders left because they felt they were in the pruning hands of a bonsai tree collector and not the True Vinedresser. Perhaps they were dismissed because they resisted conforming to needless methods that went beyond reasonable concessions in the interest of unity...something to think about. 

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Will you think for yourself and consider the possibility that you are actually a part of a high control religious organization that hurts people and limits most people's God given gifts and callings?

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