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How to Make a Bad Pastor Resign in Six Months
 Leader: .
Sometimes a church hires a new pastor who initially seems like a fine guy. He doesn't preach too long and seems very likeable and mild mannered. Then almost without warning he begins to do things that turn the church upside down. First, his preaching becomes very intense, even scary on some Sundays. Many in the congregation start to feel uncomfortable, and you can see them often shifting around in their seats.
Then you begin to notice that there are some new people who begin to attend on Sundays. This is very unsettling to many of the folks who have been coming for years. They are forced to sit in seats that they are unfamiliar with because the newcomers have arrived early and are setting in the older members usual places. Then, some of the visitors start going to the altar at the end of the service. This of course makes the service last much longer than the congregation is used to.
The final straw comes when the pastor, who now is obviously raging out of control, asks the members to come to prayer meeting and to start tithing. At this point, it is clear to everyone that the pastor has lost the vision of the church and is becoming a tyrant. He won't listen to reason no matter how many times the elders warn him that his actions are causing many folks in the church concern.
There is only one thing to do. He must be replaced with someone whose vision more closely matches that of the mature Christians that have been at the church from the beginning. The question is, how is it to be done? After all, just firing him is not the best way to handle this, that would be unchristian and unkind.
The rest of this article will concern the steps that may be taken to get the pastor to quit of his own accord. Remember if you fire him, you will feel an obligation to give him a severance package. This may amount to many thousands of dollars and would greatly hinder the work of the church. It is better to get him to want to leave, then your conscience will be clear when you send him off with a handshake.
First, make sure that you give him no raises or financial blessing of any kind. It would be even better, if you could arrange to cut his salary. This will serve two purposes. It will keep him humble, and allow him to seek God without any fleshly temptations, and it will make it easier to convince him to seek a better paying job in the secular world. Because a man that has this much disregard for God's house and His people, probably shouldn't be a pastor anyway.
Second, make sure that there is plenty of criticism coming his way. One of the ways you can do this, is to talk to some of the folks in the church and point out his weaknesses. Make sure these are people you can trust to pass this information on in a godly and biblical way. The phone is a great way to do this. It's quick and easy to use, and sometimes people feel better if they don't have to carry out this ministry in person.
Then begin to schedule some prayer meeting in homes of some of the members. Make sure that you only invite those folks who you know are mature enough to be able to discern the danger that the pastor is bringing to the church. If your meeting is an hour long, make sure that you talk first, so that everyone understands the issue at hand. Even if you don't ever pray, at least everyone is in unity about what has to be done. It is very important that the pastor does not know about these meetings. In the state that he is in, he wouldn't understand, and what's most important is that the church is protected.
Then, begin to visit the biggest givers in the church and inform them that there is a problem. Your goal here is that they would choose to withhold their giving. This is a great way to send a message. After all, it's just democracy at work, right. Cast your vote by witholding your tithe, and make a difference that God will be proud of. When the church gets to the place where it can't pay it's bills, or better yet, it can't pay the pastor's salary, then you are very close to accomplishing God's will. It's only a matter of time.
Finally, make sure that the new people in the church start to feel uncomfortable. This can be accomplished by ignoring them and making sure that they don't feel welcome. A few icy stare can go a long way in accomplishing this goal. After all these immature Christians do not understand the deep spiritual heritage of your church, the will only get in the way of fulfilling the vision God has given the original founders. You will begin to notice that more and more of them will not show up on Sunday anymore. This is eveidence of their lack of commitment & devotion. This is the Spirits sign that you are very near victory.
This will be a very hard time, but take heart it won't be long until things will be back to normal and everyone will be comfortable once again. One day soon your pastor will enter the pulpit and announce that he is going to pastor another church. Try not to applaud, this would be unchristian and rude. Just quietly bask in the satisfaction that you have been used of God to protect your church. It's up to you, but if you want to, to you could try to find out where he's going and let them know what they are getting into. After all you've proved you believe in the unity and protection of the body. It just wouldn't be Christian to say nothing.
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