leadership?
Leadership is clearly defined by service. Jesus Christ once said, “He that would be the greatest among you must be the servant of all.” A leader then should be one who acts out of service for the needs of others around them. But the degeneration of leadership directly leads to a state of despotism based on a need for personal gain rather than a love for others. I have personally experienced this coercive and absolute form of leadership at LFF. A true leader that is a servant has the heart of love and care that God has for all people and incontestably demonstrates this – yet this love was never found.
But a leader does more than serve. A leader is a person of influence.
A leader must have the ability to energize and persuade those whom they lead. By this I do not mean that a leader is one who can efficiently propagandize those around them – creating puppets of their grand system -- but I am talking about someone whom people take a sharp notice to their words and actions, and follow the example before them. One who possesses this ability not only has the opportunity to choose how they will influence others but it is their responsibility to follow through according to Christ’s example. A good leader is someone who recognizes that they have influence, embraces that ability, and carefully chooses how they will lead others.
At LFF, such a leader is nowhere to be found. Of course this may come as a shock seeing as “leadership” and “oversight” are a dime a dozen these days. In fact, at one point there were over 20 people at LFF with the title “pastor” before their first name. 20 pastors for a church of 500 – that’s ludicrous!
Please discuss what went wrong here. Where did the oversight and leadership become so vile and wicked? When did LFF lose sight of its true purpose as an institution? And why did the people of LFF hand over so much power and control to their abusive “papa and baba?”
Please share your thoughts – I am all ears.
2 comments:
It is a process that begins with an immense gratefulness when you first “get saved” and then are showered with care and “love” from tons of people, until you feel an obligation to give back to others all that you have received. In the beginning, you believe that the pastors have your best interest in mind. You believe that they are people of integrity, and you want to support them and you believe you are supporting a godly church. It’s a process that is so complicated to explain, but by the time you get “in” enough, there is so much manipulation going on that the emotional cost is huge. There were times I wanted to walk away, but my husband wasn’t on the same page, he didn’t see it yet, and I toed the line to not “hinder the calling of God on his life.” It was hard to see the truth when you were at meetings 5 or 6 days of the week hearing what was called the heart of the pastors. I didn’t believe I was being brainwashed at the time. It took getting some distance from the church for me to see that that is exactly what was happening. They were so good at looking spiritual, and saying all the right things. When you heard it day in and day out, and with so much truth mixed in with the lies, you could miss it. You believed they were doing a good thing for God, and you wanted to help in any way you could. Including working for them at home and church for free, so that they could spend as much time as possible in ministry meetings and message prep, and re-cooping from all of the hard work we believed they were doing. I’m sure to an outsider it sounds like we were all idiots to be drawn into such a blatant abuse of power, but it is subtle, and they are masters at what they do. I’m just glad that so many of us are now free and building a better life outside of that life. And it is a better life.
It is a process that begins with an immense gratefulness when you first “get saved” and then are showered with care and “love” from tons of people, until you feel an obligation to give back to others all that you have received. In the beginning, you believe that the pastors have your best interest in mind. You believe that they are people of integrity, and you want to support them and you believe you are supporting a godly church. It’s a process that is so complicated to explain, but by the time you get “in” enough, there is so much manipulation going on that the emotional cost is huge. There were times I wanted to walk away, but my husband wasn’t on the same page, he didn’t see it yet, and I toed the line to not “hinder the calling of God on his life.” It was hard to see the truth when you were at meetings 5 or 6 days of the week hearing what was called the heart of the pastors. I didn’t believe I was being brainwashed at the time. It took getting some distance from the church for me to see that that is exactly what was happening. They were so good at looking spiritual, and saying all the right things. When you heard it day in and day out, and with so much truth mixed in with the lies, you could miss it. You believed they were doing a good thing for God, and you wanted to help in any way you could. Including working for them at home and church for free, so that they could spend as much time as possible in ministry meetings and message prep, and re-cooping from all of the hard work we believed they were doing. I’m sure to an outsider it sounds like we were all idiots to be drawn into such a blatant abuse of power, but it is subtle, and they are masters at what they do. I’m just glad that so many of us are now free and building a better life outside of that life. And it is a better life.
Post a Comment