Winston Churchill is one of my few heroes.
When Time named their Person of the Century in 1999, they gave the award to Albert Einstein, truly a great man in a century dominated by scientists.
But without Churchill, we might be living under a Nazi flag.
I’ve had the privilege of visiting some Churchill sites, including Blenheim Palace (his birthplace and boyhood home) in England, the nearby churchyard in Bladon (his final resting place), and the underground Cabinet War Rooms in London, from where he coordinated the British fight against Hitler’s Germany.
Right now, I’m reading William Manchester’s second volume on Churchill entitled The Last Lion: Alone 1932-1940, and I’m continually drawing parallels between the way Sir Winston viewed the Nazis and the way churches deal with antagonists.
The First World War was horrendous, resulting in 885,138 combat deaths for England and 2,050,897 deaths for Germany – not counting wounded soldiers. When the Allied Powers drew up the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, they threw the book at Germany, demanding financial reparations totaling $442 billion in today’s currency (Germany made their last payment on October 4, 2010), forcing them to disarm, and making them take full responsibility for the war.
While the German leaders at the time tried to cooperate, Hitler and his cronies began their slow rise to power. Hitler telegraphed much of what he did – through his autobiography Mein Kampf, his speeches, and various interviews.
After he became Chancellor of the Reich in 1933, Hitler charmed diplomats from countries like England, assuring them that he was rebuilding the German military only for defensive purposes. Still gun-shy 15 years after the end of World War 1, the nations of Europe – and their leaders – chose to believe him.
All the while, Hitler was training young men to be soldiers, cranking out munitions at a non-stop pace, and putting together a top-flight air force, the Luftwaffe.
There were British citizens inside Germany who knew exactly what Hitler was doing. But when they sent their data to the Foreign Office in London, they chose to ignore the facts, convincing themselves that Hitler’s military buildup had no relevance for England.
But Churchill knew better.
While still a member of the House of Commons, Churchill had been banished from any top leadership posts in His Majesty’s Government. Whenever he rose to speak in the House, his views were ridiculed because he was relegated to being a Backbencher.
But Churchill had a friend who lived near his Chartwell home who consistently delivered hard data about the Fuhrer’s real intentions. Churchill had to be careful with the information because if he shared too much in public, politicians and journalists would demand to know where he obtained it.
Let me share with you four parallels between how England viewed Hitler and how many churches view conflict:
First, most people are conflict-avoiders. The British did not wish to fight any country so soon after the Great War, a conflict that the United States entered late in the game. And even when Hitler conquered Poland and bombed London, our country publicly remained isolationist. (We didn’t officially enter World War 2 until Pearl Harbor.)
Most of us act the same way. If there is a conflict in our family, we avoid it as long as we can. If there is a shouting match between politicians on television, we turn the channel. And if there is conflict at church, we look the other way or deny that it’s happening. After all, we reason, it’s not my fight.
The truth is, even if it is our fight, we’ll do almost anything not to fight – and that emboldens certain people.
Second, there are usually signs that conflict is brewing. The increasing number of German soldiers and munitions – along with the expelling of Jews – was a clear indication that something ominous was about to occur on the Continent. Conflict almost never erupts without warning. Those whose eyes are open can usually connect the dots.
During the message time at our church yesterday, we saw a video interview of a father and mother. Their son had been acting strangely but they had no idea what was wrong. As it turned out, he was on drugs, eventually taking both ecstasy and heroin. The signs of drug usage were there, but this couple – who prided themselves on having a harmonious, loving family – refused to admit that their son could be involved with any mind-altering substances.
Denial in the face of evil can lead to destruction, not life.
Something similar happens in church life. We don’t want to believe that the pastor is immersed with pride, or the youth pastor is getting too close to that Jr. High girl, or that board member has destructive intentions. While the warning signs are there, we don’t act on them.
If the problem is within your authority, deal with it as soon as possible, using Matthew 18:15-20 as a guide. If the problem lies within someone else’s purview, inform them quickly. If you see something that concerns you, speak up and take action! Delay leads to defeat, not victory.
Third, call evil for what it is. The first time I heard about Adolph Hitler was when I was five years old. (Hitler had committed suicide only fifteen years earlier.) The atrocities he committed were still fresh on everyone’s mind, bolstered by The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by journalist William L. Shirer in 1959 (the longest book I’ve ever read besides The Bible).
When I entered fourth grade, our class saw a lot of newsreels of Hitler. We saw him making speeches. We saw the torchlight parades in Nuremberg. We saw the Nazis burning books (at what is now a peaceful little park in East Berlin, shown in the photo below) and the Jews being fed into ovens. We saw images of evil that never left my innocent little brain.
And much to the credit of my teachers, we learned how Hitler came to power, fooled his own people, and disguised his true intentions to the world.
In other words, we learned how to detect evil before it openly surfaced.
Please hear me: evil isn’t confined to dictators. You will find evil in churches, too. And not just evil actions; people can be evil.
How can you tell who they are?
They never admit they do anything wrong. They blame all problems on other people. They disguise their real intentions and lie about others – especially leaders.
Their ultimate goal? The destruction of church leaders so THEY can be in control and call the shots.
Scott Peck wrote about such people in his book People of the Lie. It’s a chilling read. Lloyd Rediger has also written about such people in his book Clergy Killers.
Hitler was evil. Sadly, a handful of church people are evil, too. I hope no one like that is in your church, but evil people have been known to infiltrate churches.
I’ve met a few. Have you?
Finally, Christians have to be willing to fight evil. Whenever Hitler bombed London, businessmen and families headed for shelter, especially in the depths of the British subway system known as the Tube. They ran from evil.
But the British war planes couldn’t hide in the Tube. It was their job to take on evil – and they did so nobly. We might not be living in a free country if the British hadn’t confronted Nazi evil in their own backyard.
No Christian should go looking for evil in a church. Churches have enough hyper-critics. But when evil rears its ugly head, and it’s obvious there are people bent on destroying the pastor or other leaders, evil must be resisted – and defeated.
Evil cannot be appeased.
A few weeks ago, I caught The Two Towers – the second film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy – on television. At the end of the film, as Frodo is nearly possessed by the ring’s evil, he says, “I can’t do this, Sam.” In what is probably my favorite speech in any movie, Sam replies:
“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”
Frodo asked wearily, “What are we holding onto, Sam?”
Sam replied, “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo … and it’s worth fighting for.”
Churchill would be proud.
______________
Although I wrote this post several years ago, I thought I’d repeat it and add to it because there is so much evil in the world today. Thank you for reading!
Restoring Kingdom Builders 
Seven Reasons Why Church Bullies Attack Their Pastors
Posted in Conflict with Church Antagonists, Conflict with Church Board, Conflict with Church Staff, Conflict with the Pastor, Pastoral Termination, Please Comment!, tagged attacking a pastor, church bullies, clergy killers, pastoral termination on November 4, 2015| 2 Comments »
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are individuals scattered throughout Christian churches all over the world who fit Solomon’s description in Proverbs 6:16-19 perfectly.
Some people call them clergy killers. For my purposes, let’s call them church bullies.
Church bullies attend churches where they become so angry with their pastor that they use any and every method possible to destroy their pastor’s reputation so they can force him to resign and leave their church forever.
When I was writing my doctoral project for Fuller Seminary on antagonism in the local church, my editor found it hard to believe that such Christians really do exist.
To this day, I find it hard to believe they do as well.
But they do, and at a time of their choosing, they spring into action and attempt to run their pastor out of the church … and even out of the community.
Because this kind of behavior makes no sense to most of us, we cannot fathom why a professing Christian – usually a church leader – would engage in this kind of reckless pursuit … but it happens all the time in the Christian community.
What motivates these church bullies? Why are they so bent on destroying their pastor?
From all my research … from hearing scores of stories from other pastors … and from my own experience … let me suggest seven reasons why church bullies attack their pastor … in no particular order:
First, the church bully wants nonstop access to the pastor but isn’t granted it.
There are persons in every church who want to run the church through the pastor. They want to become “the power behind the throne.”
So they try and become the pastor’s friend. They invite him out to lunch … invite him and his wife over for dinner … and even suggest that the pastoral couple vacation with him and his wife. (I’m going to use the terms “he” and “him” throughout this article even though a woman can also be a church bully.)
Sometimes these individuals will even give the pastor a special monetary gift or advocate that the pastor should receive a larger salary. By doing this, they’re telling the pastor, “I’m your man. You can always count on me.”
But if the pastor resists the bully’s machinations … or stops becoming his best friend … or the pastor starts investing himself into someone else … the bully will feel rejected … and may begin to plot against the pastor.
But when the pastor inevitably cuts off the attention – and especially the access – the bully will go berserk, not only because he senses he’s not as close to the pastor as he once was, but because he’s lost his ability to influence the church’s direction.
Second, the church bully believes he knows how to run the church better than the pastor.
According to Proverbs 6:16, this person has “haughty eyes,” meaning they are extremely proud.
Many years ago, I came to a church and met a board member who was full of hostility toward me.
He didn’t even know me, but at my first board meeting, he jumped down my throat over a trivial issue.
Several weeks later, he wanted to meet with me one-on-one. We sat down together – I still remember the time and place – and he asked me all kinds of questions about the direction I wanted to take the church.
He shared his approach for growing the ministry, but I wasn’t comfortable with it. His approach was 100% business-oriented. For example, he wanted to advertise on television and believed that we’d pack the place out if we did.
Over the next few months, this gentleman came after me with a vengeance. He misrepresented things I said behind my back and tried to turn others against me.
I was a threat to his plans for the church.
When he demanded to speak to me one day, and I delayed phoning him back, he angrily resigned from a volunteer position and left the church.
I was relieved.
God didn’t appoint that gentleman as the church’s leader. Wisely or unwisely, God had appointed me.
I wasn’t about to be So-and-So’s man. I wanted to be God’s man.
Third, the church bully senses he is losing control of his life.
Most church bullies don’t have their act together in their personal life:
*Maybe their marriage is falling apart.
*Maybe one of their kids is flunking out of school or is on drugs.
*Maybe they’ve been fired from a job or their career has stalled.
*Maybe they’re heavily in debt and have stopped paying certain accounts.
*Maybe their adult children don’t want to see them.
Whatever the issue, the bully hasn’t been able to control life events, so he feels that he can at least control events somewhere: at church.
Usually unconsciously, the bully says to himself: “I am losing significance at home … my career is going south … and I can’t seem to do anything about it. But there is one place I can still make a difference: my church family.”
So the bully surveys the congregation and says to himself, “I can make a difference by making this proposal … supporting that idea … or stopping the pastor’s future plans.”
Even though God hasn’t called him to run the church, that’s exactly what the bully wants to do, because if he can control the church, maybe life won’t hurt so bad.
But to control the church, the bully needs to control, neutralize, or destroy the pastor … because the pastor is the one person who can thwart the bully’s plans.
I once spoke to a church consultant about some problems I was having with the church board. He asked me how they were doing in their personal and vocational lives. When I told him that two of the men were having major struggles at work, he said, “They’re angry.”
In other words, no matter how placid they looked when they came onto the church campus, they came to church perpetually ticked off … and it didn’t take much for that anger to surface.
Fourth, the church bully is fearful that the pastor will discover secrets in his life.
That same church consultant I just mentioned told me something I’ve never forgotten.
He told me that when a church board gangs up on their pastor to remove him from office, at least one board member is often discovered to be having an affair.
I haven’t heard this observation anywhere else, but his statement was based upon his experience in consulting with many churches.
The bully’s thinking may go like this:
“I have this problem in my life that nobody knows about. If anybody discovers it, I could lose everything, and I can’t let that happen. More than anyone I know, the pastor seems to have spiritual discernment, and I wonder if he knows what I’m doing. So before he ever finds out … maybe from my wife, or my kids, or from friends … I’m going to get him instead. That way, he’ll never be able to expose me.”
Whenever I did counseling, I was privy to secrets in people’s lives. While I kept those sessions confidential, there are times when a pastor is preaching and he’ll mention an issue that was touched on in a counseling session … even years before. The pastor may have forgotten who he counseled and what their problem was, but if the ex-counselee is sitting in church that Sunday, he may very well think the pastor is preaching about him – maybe even trying to change his behavior – and decide to go after the pastor for exposing his secret.
Yes, that’s paranoid behavior, but it happens more than any of us know.
Fifth, the church bully refuses to forgive his pastor for offending him.
Bullies are, by their very nature, notoriously sensitive individuals. They see offenses where they don’t exist.
And this is especially true when it comes to pastors, because they represent God to many people.
If a bully offends a pastor, he expects to be forgiven. That’s what pastors do: forgive.
But if the pastor offends the bully, the bully may never forgive him. He may hold a grudge – sometimes for years – and not let anyone know how much it bothers him.
He probably won’t tell the pastor, either. Instead, the bully will bide his time and later use that offense to run the pastor out of the church.
Only the bully won’t mention the offense to his friends – or the church board – because the issue that upsets him will look petty in the eyes of others.
Instead, the bully will begin to make official charges against the pastor: “He’s not working enough hours … he’s mismanaging funds … he’s been neglecting the seniors … he seems too absorbed with the office manager” … and so on.
Those aren’t the real issues. The real issue is that the pastor offended the bully at some time in the past. The bully hasn’t talked to the pastor about it, and he probably never will.
So what are personal charges end up morphing into official charges.
Proverbs 6:16-19 mentions “feet that are quick to rush into evil.” I’ve seen those feet before, and they’re silently running toward mischief … and away from God.
Sixth, the church bully has collected grievances from others.
In the words of Proverbs 6:16-19, this person is “a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”
The second church I pastored was a nightmare in many ways … mostly because of the worst church bully I’ve ever encountered.
His wife was upset with me, and quit coming to church, so he quit coming, too.
But a year later, he returned to lead a rebellion against me, and we lost 20% of our people overnight.
One of his tactics was to call people who had left the church to dig up some dirt on me. Then he compiled a list of my supposed offenses, making it as long as possible. Then he presented the list to the church board, which defended and supported me to the hilt.
His tactic didn’t work, but I saw what he was doing … and it was evil.
If a church bully wants to get rid of his pastor, and the pastor is guilty of heresy, sexual immorality, or criminal behavior – the Big Three – then the pastor has dug his own grave … although church leaders should aim for his restoration, not his destruction.
But if the pastor isn’t guilty of any impeachable offense, but the bully wants him to leave, then he may do one of three things:
*He will manufacture serious charges. This is what the Jewish leaders did with Jesus.
*He will solicit charges from others – hoping there’s a major offense in there somewhere – and pass it around the church as if to say, “Do we want someone so flawed and imperfect as our pastor?” But this is nothing more than carrying the offenses of others rather than encouraging people to see the pastor personally to make things right.
*He will make a litany of false accusations against the pastor, hoping that the sheer number of charges will drive the pastor far away. But love doesn’t keep lists of offenses … love deals with offenses as they occur … and one at a time.
All three tactics are evil. Doesn’t Proverbs 6:16-19 tell us that the Lord hates “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who pours out lies?”
Finally, the church bully has aligned himself with Satan.
Let me quote from Chris Creech in his recent book Toxic Church:
“It is my belief, however, that the one sure way to recognize a clergy killer is the use of the lie. When an individual within the church is shown to have used a lie, there is no doubt that evil is at work and the person has tied himself or herself to an alliance with the devil, either knowingly or unknowingly” (see John 8:44).
How is the devil able to influence a Christian … even a Christian leader … to destroy his pastor?
It’s disturbing to say this, but the bully is so bitter and so vengeful that he gives himself over to the will of Satan. In the words of Proverbs 6:16-19, this person has “hands that shed innocent blood” as well as “a heart that devises wicked schemes.”
I have recounted what happened to my wife and me in my book Church Coup … and our conflict climaxed, of all days, on Halloween.
There is no doubt in my mind that Satan attacked my wife and me repeatedly during the fifty days of our conflict. His intention? To destroy us in hopes that he could destroy the church.
There were so many lies going around the church … so much chaos … and so much hatred that it was absolutely unbelievable. I could tell you story after story of Satan’s work during that time, and it would send shivers up and down your spine … unless you’ve been through this kind of thing yourself.
But most of all, Satan used false accusations to try and destroy my wife and me. His strategy is simple: deception leads to destruction.
And yet here’s the ironic thing: the church bully believes that he is doing the will of God!
Where in the New Testament do we have even one positive example of a believer trying to destroy one of God’s chosen leaders?
We don’t. Such behavior is condemned throughout the New Testament.
But as I look around the Christian world today, I see incident after incident where Satan influences a bully … the bully tries to destroy the pastor by lying … the pastor ends up leaving … the bully is never confronted or corrected … and someone from headquarters is sent to cover the whole thing up.
In fact, after the pastor leaves, in all too many cases the bully ends up being asked to serve on the church board … or the church staff … or even become the interim pastor.
What a dysfunctional lot the church of Jesus can be at times!
If a church bully read this article, he wouldn’t recognize himself. I once heard a prominent Christian leader state that any individual who tries to destroy their pastor might be termed a “sociopath lite.”
Since the bully’s conscience isn’t functioning well, the consciences of the rest of the congregation need to be operational and discerning, or Satan can take out a pastor … or an entire church.
Let’s resolve not to let that happen anywhere.
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