Cyberbrethren: Pious Pretense and Attacks Against Faithful Shepherds

Pastor Paul T. McCain makes this very wise observation:

Congregations that refuse to abide by the faithful preaching and teaching of God's Word and force a pastor out who is carrying out his ministry faithfully but not according to the whims of the wealthy members in the congregation...

• who want him to marry their fornicating children who refuse to stop living together,
• who demand he commune their relatives who have long ago abandoned their Lutheran confession,
• who demand that the pastor stop calling on inactive members because he is irritating them,
• who insist that the pastor accept as baptismal sponsors people who have no interest in seeing the child raised in the Lutheran faith,
• who do not want their pastor talking about the differences between church bodies,
• who never want to hear the Law preached too specifically,
• who want their pastor to be, more or less, their hired hand,

...do not deserve another pastor and it is a shame when a church official allows them to receive another one!

Of course, those who attack and oppose faithful pastors do not really want a biblical pastor, like the one Pastor McCain describes above. And such sad, lost people will rarely force a pastor out honestly, for pretense and passive aggression are always their modi operandi. Instead, they write 'letters of concern' to district presidents or do their dirty work behind the scenes or through secret ballots.

They will not openly tell a district president why they are so dissatisfied with their pastor. Instead, they will point out that 'souls are leaving the church' because the pastor is not compassionate enough, caring enough, is not open to lay readers, blah, blah, blah. Frankly, I wonder how often domineering women or hen-pecked husbands are behind such attacks: "Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path." Isaiah 3:12

May God give 'church officials' the wisdom and character to discern the truth that such disgruntled sheep are rebelling against their faithful shepherd because they are in open rebellion against Christ, our Good Shepherd. Such deceived people, more than anyone else, are in need of the faithful shepherding that they so despise. Their souls are in grave danger.

"The curses of the ungodly can be more pleasing to God than the hallalujahs of the pious." -Martin Luther