I just found out today that a pastor friend of mine is in transition. This was for what could be best and rightly described as irreconcilable differences. That happened in the Bible too, you know, with Paul and Barnabas. I didn’t know when it actually happened, or was blogged about, b/c I have to confess that I can no longer keep up with 600+ blogs a day in my Bloglines reader. So I found out through some secondary sources, in a conversation over brunch today. RLTBR (real life trumps blog reading), as they say.
What bugged me is that part of the deal was that he was to be silenced from blogging. Now, granted, some things in the midst of mediation or in the bedroom shouldn’t be blogged, out of Christian charity and Christian modesty, but can we not trust discerning people to refrain from blogging certain things, rather than being prohibited from blogging at all? Best wishes, Bruce, for your new chapter, and may the God of grace be with you for your new ventures and offer you healing and encouragement.
[update] local paper Gazette picks up the story: Church leader steps down
dj, do you peronally know bruce at all? After going through his blog, somehow I questioned the whole thing.
How could someone specialized in Organizational Leadership, dished out church leadership lessons via his blog, yet failed to influence the board of his own church to follow his direction, especially when he started the church from scratch and had 16 years to shape its culture?
Perhaps the drive for church growth short-circuited the quality of the disciple-making process? I don’t know, but I don’t want to ask that painful question to Bruce at this point…
Praying for him.
I do know Bruce personally and he knows me, as an acquaintance. We haven’t hung out, so I don’t know all the details.
The funny (and not so funny) thing about seminary professors, is that many of them are skilled at teaching the principles, and many of them have had pastoral experience, but they seem more suited to teaching those principles than actually being the pastor within the organized church. This is an unideal world, and that seems to be how things fall out — professors who teach about leadership vs. pastors who actually do the pastoring.
Or, another possibility is that God calls someone to pastor for a season, and then to teach other pastors for a season.