The biggest take away for me from this article is the truth of number 6. I’ve spoken with a lot of pastors and this is the common thread of church hurt for us. We feel deeply betrayed by congregational silence.
So it’s one… two… three… strikes your out at the ol’ church game!
https://www.christianpost.com/voices/six-common-patterns-in-toxic-churches-that-fire-pastors.html
A sad story that we all know too well. In a way, I am glad that I never had the faith to tie my family's finances and my calling together. Bivocational ministers feel like a fraud a lot of the time, but I say what I want, when I want to who I want. I have tremendous respect for any man who can speak hard truths from a pulpit knowing it might have a high cost to his family because I know that in that situation I am weak.
There is something about the whole dynamic between pastor and congregation in the modern American church(probably others as well but that is the church that I know) that is not at all conducive to spiritual growth or community growth or really anything good. The thought has been nagging me a lot lately that maybe the condition of our churches is due to persecution but that we don't realise it because we are being persecuted deceptively, you know like maybe we should expect the Deceiver to do. If our neighbors, or brothers or shepherds, are being the way that they are because they are under deceptive attack then I guess we all need to give a little more grace.