Church leaders versus worldly managers

Dear friends

How much worldly leadership will you allow in your church?

Or what is the difference for you between a worldly and a spiritual leader?

And how will you react when a church leader is approaching you in a manner you perceive as too worldly?

Will you be submissive?

Or will you push back?

Me, I cringed a few times in my church already – about the manner in which things are approached and handled there… a manner which I perceive as too worldly as you might have guessed.

The attitude towards the pandemic for instance.

Yes, I know, we all have different opinions about how we should deal with safety matters.

Me, I admire the churches that have stayed open all along, even during lockdown, even during the time when the restrictions would not have allowed for them to be open – I admire that!
Because for me, it is not just a matter of safety of the members of the congregation.
It is more a matter of faith and idolatry for me.

Yes, we are supposed to submit to our leadership – worldly and clerical – but in the end, GOD is our ultimate boss, isn’t HE?
And what if they are truly wanting to oppress us and make us more numb and make us give up our human rights because of a worldwide fear they have spread?
What if the masks do not truly protect us against anything (as many people claim), but only teach us to obey?

And what about GOD being the ruler of our fate?

I f we are supposed to die of a virus, will we not anyways, regardless if we stay at home all the time and wear a mask?

And if we aren’t, is HE not going to protect us wherever we go and if we have PPE or not and regardless of where we work and how much we protect ourselves?

And when we go to HIS house?

Isn’t that what we are supposed to do and where we are supposed to go?

Does the bible talk of pandemics?

Yes it does.

And does it advise we should stay at home and stop going to church?

No it does not.

Closing the churches is not biblical.

Even if we would adhere to government restrictions within the church, which many churches do, we could still open them, couldn’t we?

Well, my church does not.

They’ve opened for 1 service on Easter Sunday – and that’s the only one in over a year.

Me, I am disappointed by that.

The Senior Pastor keeps saying they care about our safety and health.

For me, it is a matter of faith…

This is not the only time I have been disappointed by the amount and degree of worldliness in my church.

The most recent event has been happening this week.

We were asked by our group leaders to book an appointment for an appraisal.

I was reminded of my job, of “Cesar” – not of JESUS!

And when my manager says so, I must do it – right?

Since I have only been in these church groups for a very short while and since I don’t like to be pressured to be appraised nor to give feedback, I did not respond.
Then one of the group leaders put in the group chat that she will remove everyone who will not have responded by the end of the day – from the chat and from the group – me, I did not respond.
She then sent me a message the following day that she wants to do the appraisal with me and I replied that I saw her announcement that she will remove everyone who won’t respond and that I didn’t respond, that I don’t feel led to do the appraisal and that I am happy to help out in the group – as I have – that I have only met 1 member of the group so far and only attended one activity so far and that I am not led to attend an appraisal currently, but that I am happy if she needs to remove me as she had announced.
I also replied that I had felt pressured in a worldly way…
Strangely enough, I am in 3 groups in this church and 2 of the 3, I am not sure about yet – and the one I really love, the leader there didn’t even mention an appraisal – not sure how or why he can not do them, but what I am sure about is that I like it. I like the way he leads the group and I feel I belong there. Not having this sense of belonging in the other groups – and there are some things I don’t really care about happening in this group.

So this is me not wanting to give men glory – and feedback / scores.
And also not wanting to lie if I am not sure about them yet.

And I am soooooooo far from wanting to be praised by them for any of my contributions – I don’t even want anything about me to be fed back to the higher leadership.

That’s not what I am doing these things for!

I am not doing anything I do for any man.

Not for the leader of my group, not for their leader, not for the Senior Pastor, whom I have not even met in person…. only online…..

All I am doing – inside and outside the church – is for HIM and HE is the only person who’s appraisal or approval I care about.

I am not striving for any grades or any leadership position – on the contrary, one of my group leaders tried to make me a project leader, which I hate, I even left one of my previous churches because they kept putting leadership tasks on me without me wanting them…

I want to serve GOD.

I want to please MY FATHER in heaven.

I don’t even care if the Pastors know my name or not.

And if I cannot serve GOD and glorify HIM in this church, I will go to another.

As I have so many times before.

I know they are all trying to make us feel guilty when we are changing churches – no pastor likes it.

Me, I don’t care about what they think – I want to serve GOD.

That’s the only reason I will be in a church and stay in a church – IF I can serve GOD there.

And I have seen a lot of really bad leadership in the churches I went to.

Not that I care – as long as I can still do what I came to do – glorify GOD.

And I hope I am not being misunderstood here – I am not on a mission to criticize my church – on the contrary – I am doing what I can to not be disturbed by the things they are doing which I find unbiblical or worldly – because I have seen them in every church I went to so far – and I mean EVERY single one.

Just like I fall.
And fall short of GOD’s glory.

SO do they.

ALL of them.

But isn’t it my duty to serve GOD as best as I can?

And to defend HIM, defend what I believe HE wants?

Against worldly endeavors coming from my own flesh, from my wicked heart OR / AND from anyone else inside or outside the church??

If I have to choose – between serving GOD and serving men – I will always leave.

And also, I feel like I must be real with you guys here – as this is one of the reasons I created this blog.
To come against lies.
The lies of the enemy mainly, but if we allow lies in us and in our churches, we give him a foothold that can grow into a stronghold, don’t we?

Not sure what this means.
Might be time for me to leave there now………

And go to a church where the leaders have enough faith to open the gates when the government has even decided that regular stores and gyms can reopen – shouldn’t churches be open long before these common / wordly places???

Am I the only one thinking that MY GOD can protect me from the virus, that I don’t even NEED a face mask or a vaccine?

And am I the only one thinking that appraisals and feedback and surveys and scores do not belong in a church, but in a wordly place?

I even did some research and all I could find was the scripture that the world does not understand spiritually appraised things, I did no find anything which demanded that there should be appraisals in the church… perhaps it’s only me…?

1 Corinthians 2:14
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

What would you have done, my friend?

Me, I cringed – and I simply could not do their appraisals.
And when this happens, although I truly want to belong to a church and find a church home and stay there – but when this happens, I know that it is not me, but THE HOLY SPIRIT that cringes… and then I have no choice but to push back.
What happens next normally is some sort of drama and then I normally (have to) leave.

This is not my first drama in this church – you may have read about the previous one…?

Although I would like to stay and be at peace in this church, it may not be the church assigned to me – and we all know that we cannot have peace and be at rest when we are not in the place where GOD wants us to be…

However, I stood my ground in this church up to now – other than in other churches, where I just left.

Let me have a look online which church is open for worship tomorrow……. didn’t really find anything… this is so dissatisfying…

I know there is no such thing as the perfect church, but why can’t I not just be at peace and at rest somewhere – with their flaws – ?

I guess it’s up to only one person:

GOD. THE HOLY SPIRIT.

We will see what happens.

Until further notice, there will be no appraisals though.

Unless GOD tells me so.

What is your take, my friend?
How do you define servant leadership?
What differentiates a worldly from a spiritual leader in your opinion?

I hope and pray that this will inspire, bless, encourage and heal you.
And that THE LORD will bless you abundantly in all areas of your life, that HE will keep you and shine HIS face upon you and bring you peace. In JESUS’ name I pray. AMEN.