When you left for the church office this morning, what was the one sentence you didn’t think you’d read today?  Answer: “Darn you big overweight young pastors”. 

Thanks, it made my day!

Here’s the link to the google cache:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:OptxA-TzotwJ:www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=375+A+27-year-old+pastor+had+an+elderly+member+removed+from+a+Sunday&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Interesting, I hadn’t read the comments at the bottom.  Here’s an additional comment by Ingrid:

“Had I not learned of so many of these cases over the years, I would dismiss this. But the pattern is always the same. The similarities are a result of pastors essentially reading from the same set of instructions handed out by men like Rick Warren. They literally provide lists of things to do to change your church into a happening place. That’s why these cases look so similar, regardless of where they take place.”

I have the ‘revised’ post on my bloglines, but it doesn’t show up at google yet.

Todd

Todd, here is my beef with your post. 1. Did the event actually take place? Was the woman actually arrested or removed from the church? 2. The mis-statments got all the press rather than the event itself. 3. Add a fourth point to the bloggers’ creed: Report the main thing as the main thing and do not go off on rabbit trails that obfuscate the main thing but also report the ancillary issues.

It seems to me that the issue of “leaders’ whose plans for leading do not include respect for the members is a main thing. Whether the Pastor was overweight or skinny is not an issue. It is a rabbit trail designed to get either sympathy or disgust.

Too often the discussion are focusing on “the Church” as an organization rather than an “Organism”. In this case, if reported accurately, the Pastor’s attitude was, “God loves you and I have a wonderful plan for your life” instead of “God loves you and He has a wonderful plan for your life.”

As a consultant and coach to Christian leaders I say, “Leading is an art that demands wisdom more than knowledge.”

At my church we aren’t taking any chances.  I just gave all of my elders a copy of Warren’s new book, “Purpose Driven Police Force”.  All of our host team now carries guns, tasers and handcuffs.  We’re automatically taking down anyone over the age of 60. 

Yes, Daniel… the only thing worse than overweight young pastors are stupid Microsoft spell checkers.  (Or people like me who can’t spell).

Todd

BTW, Ingrid just posted a fascinating piece over at Slice on how innovative pastors are kind of like the reclining leather chairs in the theatre at the Buzz conference.

Thanks Peter.  I was waiting for someone to call it what it is - A LIE. 

This problem of making things up (oh yeah ... lying or sinning!) is rampant in our churches when it comes time that leaders (called by God according to Romans 13:1-3) do what it is that God has placed on their hearts to do and others just plain ole’ don’t like it.

What a shame.  It is no accident that God’s church - with it’s ga-zillions of steeples - isn’t having the impact on our nation that it’s numbers would suggest considering that God is the head of His church providing the power and results to those He chooses to.

Without making it a “one for one” thing - I can certainly suggest that God gives His church the maximum impact when they are the most obedient.

Pastor Bill,

Is is possible that ou’re “making up” just as many details about the story as Ingrid did?

This is the story as we read it in the news papers...Monday, June 25, 2007
Church Politics Send Woman to Jail

Last Sunday, Karolyn Caskey decided that since she just returned to town from her extended winter stay in Florida, she should attend church. She put on her Sunday best and arrived in time for Sunday services at Allen Baptist church in Allen, Michigan, a church she has been attending since 1959. But on Sunday, June 17, Karolyn Caskey became the victim of church politics.

As Mrs. Caskey told me in a recent phone conversation, the problem revolves around the hiring of a new minister for the independent Baptist church. After hiring the new minister, Pastor Jason Burrick, the church members noticed some immediate and troubling changes. “One of the first things he did was do away with all of the deacons and the officers of the church”, Caskey explained. She also shared that the business meetings of the church, once a place to fellowship and share ideas for the church, had become a dictatorship where no ideas were welcomed and silence was the rule. Pastor Burrick, whose Allen Baptist church job was his first, began to rule the church with an “iron fist” and consequently, “drove away members to neighboring churches in the area”.

After a heated argument with the remaining deacons, Pastor Burrick took control of the church accounts and book keeping. For Caskey, this was the final straw. She sought legal advice to determine what she could do protect her church. It was at this time that Mrs. Caskey was told, “This is against the church and church matters should be kept within the church.” After receiving a registered letter in December, forwarded to her winter-home in Florida, she was ordered to a church disciplinary meeting on December 27th. According to Mrs. Caskey, she contacted her lawyer and asked her to represent her in the meeting at the church. The meeting was not held, and through friends in the small town of Allen, Caskey was told that “they were going to try and dismiss me from the church.”

Having just returned from Florida in mid-June, Mrs. Caskey returned to church on the 17th of June and was approached by a deacon who asked her to step outside the church. According to Karolyn, “the deacon then asked me to please leave the church and told me I was not welcome here anymore”. When Caskey demanded to no why, the police were called and Karolyn Caskey was subsequently arrested for trespassing at the request of Pastor Jason Burrick.

According to Sheriff Larry Burchardt of the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office, Mrs. Caskey was arrested for trespassing as she refused an order to leave the church by church officials and a police officer. In a phone conversation with Burchardt, he told me, “The fact is, this was private property, and if someone in charge of private property asks you to leave, it is breaking the law not to do so.”

After a trip to jail in handcuffs, the 71-year-old Caskey says she was ultimately released after paying a $62 fine. Caskey, still shocked by the events of Sunday, June 17th said, “It’s a good thing I did not put that into the offering plate or I couldn’t have gotten out of jail!”

Multiple telephone calls to Pastor Jason Burrick and deacons of the Allen Baptist went unreturned. Karolyn Caskey has a court date on June 26