Leadership

---

I knew a pastoral couple who approached me for counsel about what would have seemed like an ideal situation to many. Their “problem” was that they didn’t know how to shake a particular family who were faithfully attending their church and supporting its activities. This attending family seemed key to the existence of the church because without them there would have been next to no attendance, save the pastor’s own family and a handful of sporadic attendees. Perhaps the pastor and his wife were simply weary of the ministry and wanted to leave it, but would have felt guilty about leaving it as long as any beside themselves were faithfully attending.  (I only entitle this short article "Faithful to a Fault" with a sense of irony and tongue in cheek because to be faithful and at fault because of that faithfulness is a contradiction in terms.)
Not long after that conversation a member of another congregation that shared the same building confronted (rather crudely I think) said pastor’s wife about an issue involving her children. That was it, apparently. Within weeks of that confrontation they had vacated their ministry position, perhaps searching for any excuse to do so, and this one proved sufficient. The faithfully attending couple, thankfully, has relocated in another local congregation and appears to be content there. As for the former pastor and his wife, they have wandered into some very questionable territory doctrinally and were not returning phone calls.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE AS A MEMBER OR VISITOR