I wish and pray all evangelicals pick these lessons from Mars Hill Church implosion


1. Every lead pastor needs both internal and external accountability.
2. Church elders need an apostolic overseer to appeal to in case of an impasse
3. Satellite churches need their own pastor/preacher.
4. The "one man brand" of the church leaves the church vulnerable.
5. The essence of the church needs to be based upon the centrality of Christ.
6. Every lead pastor needs an equally competent understudy who can step in.
7. The congregation has to be more committed to their corporate vision than to the lead pastor and/or to their social networks.
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/the-pulse/45880-7-significant-lessons-churches-can-learn-from-the-mars-hill-mark-driscoll-implosion

Sad but funny

bryhudso • 20 days ago

Lesson #8: If you mess up, and then apologize and repent, a lot of Christians still won't forgive you.

More Interesting comment.
Can a there be a church without the pastor as the brand?


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Juan Carlos • 19 days ago

I don't think there is a way to have a pastor and not have him as a brand. The pastor is inevitably the brand, whether people want to admit it or not. The pastor will be up there preaching most of the time. The pastor will be up there leading the church vision and mission. All the ministries will adhere to that vision and mission. It doesn't matter how much you try to keep the face of the pastor out of public view, as the leader of the family, his mind, his personality, his experiences, and his knowledge will determine a lot of what that local church will end up being. Failure to make peace with this issue is to set yourself up for avoidable and unnecessary frustrations.

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Randy Alan Donahue Juan Carlos • 16 days ago

I respectfully disagree. Jesus is the brand. Consider the words of John the Baptist, "I must decrease so he can increase." John could have had his own brand - he had a good thing going and loyal disciples. He chose to promote Jesus though. The pastor must constantly point people to Jesus, shine the spotlight on the Savior and take it off of himself. That is the big failure we are reaping the whirlwind from today.
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Juan Carlos Randy Alan Donahue • 16 days ago

sure. pastors are to point people to Jesus. my point is that the "how" pastors point to Jesus varies from pastot to pastor, from church to church. some use more humor, others are more serious. some like to "sound" more theological, others don't want to sound that theological, others simply do not want to sound theological at all. some scream more than others. some preach for 45 mins, others preach for 60 mins, others preach for 25. and so on.... pastors end up being a brand not because they want to be an actual brand but because they're the ones who are leading and their leadership will inevitably reflect their personalities, experiences, their dreams, etc. an african american pastor do not preach like an argentinian pastor. a 70 year old pastor won't do it like a 30 year old pastor. wether we wanna admit it or not, churches do have some kind of a "brand" in their pastor.
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CEO_Talkbridge Juan Carlos • 15 days ago

There is no way any pastor should be a church brand. We are all given the great commission, however, some will be called into the fivefold offices. This is not for showmanship but to edify the body of Christ and to perfect the saints. We will continue to get this wrong if we don't return to the biblical standard of leadership.
Churches of today raise superstars and gods, not glorifying God. Mo wonder the presence of the Lord is not in 'His' temple any more.
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Sadly most of our Nigerian Charismatic churches believe and actively promote the church to be focused on their pastor or "G.O". The most glaring tell tale sign is when churches put the image of their pastors on posters and bill boards. They are inadvertently pointing people to the pastor instead of Christ.

PastorKun,
Do you have a practical suggestion for leaders/ministers maintaining accountability?

PastorKun:
Sadly most of our Nigerian Charismatic churches believe and actively promote the church to be focused on their pastor or "G.O". The most glaring tell tale sign is when churches put the image of their pastors on posters and bill boards. They are inadvertently pointing people to the pastor instead of Christ.

vooks:
PastorKun,
Do you have a practical suggestion for leaders/ministers maintaining accountability?

The best we can do is to continue to point people to truth using social media and any other channel available to us. Hopefully we would get to a point were we have a critical mass of people walking the knowledge of truth and false self seeking teachers would be openly challenged. At this point self seeking preachers would think twice about it before dishing out their heretic doctrines.

Thank you sir,
I meant as a minister, what structure can possibly be put in place to bring more accountability?

PastorKun:


The best we can do is to continue to point people to truth using social media and any other channel available to us. Hopefully we would get to a point were we have a critical mass of people walking the knowledge of truth and false self seeking teachers would be openly challenged. At this point self seeking preachers would think twice about it before dishing out their heretic doctrines.