“It is possible to disobey a leader, leave their ministry or ignore them, without disobeying or sinning against God. It may even be God who has revealed the truth to you.”
I made a decision a few weeks ago. That I would ‘take a break’ from Youth leadership. To put it bluntly I was not in agreement with the Youth Pastors policies, and told him so politely in a private meeting. Many hard-liners in my church would look at this incident and shake their heads in disappointment. Many look down at me and decide that I’m a frustrated dissenter. They probably pray for me that I would understand their leaders heart, humble myself and toe the line.
This is the inward culture of my church and in many churches like it. Teaching that, to be humble and obedient to the vision of the church, is to not question your leaders but to follow and do anything they tell you to. Many just swallow this bosh without question in the vain attempt to show their obedience. They usually cite examples of Davids obedience even whilst Saul was attempting to kill him. But David is a perfect example of humility and obedience whilst not following the designated God-appointed leader.
What they don’t realise is this. David was chosen of God, Saul was rejected (though he was appointed by God). Although God gave Saul into Davids hands twice, rather than follow through, justify himself and kill Saul, David actually honoured Saul and spared his life. This is the crux of the matter. Saul was a bad leader, God gave David a chance to trash the bad leader, and instead David chose not to. In no way was David being obedient or humble towards Saul, on the contrary, David was still on the run from Saul.
It is possible to disobey a leader, leave their ministry or ignore them, without disobeying or sinning against God. It may even be God who has revealed the truth to you. I have had many opportunities to trash our Youth Pastor to others, but I have declined, even when it seemed that the opportunity was handed to me on a plate. Whether the Youth Pastor will ever know or appreciate that I don’t know, but I resent the fact that I am treated like a Judas when I’m simply trying to defend my position or present a different viewpoint. It’s almost like they don’t understand why you would think any different from the leaders and if you do, then you’ve got some sort of issue and until you resolve it (ie. think the same as everyone else) you will be shunned.
Thankfully I’ve learnt to be obedient and humble, doesn’t necessarily mean to take every order without question. In fact the bible encourages us to question everything. Just as an old mentor of mine used to say “If you don’t have doubts, you’ll believe everything”. When I quote this to the hard-liners, their eyes simply glaze over and they move on. So I hold on hoping I can raise enough influence points to challenge the system. But it’s hard to earn influence from sheeple, to them I am a sheep in wolves clothing.