This and many other pretty little sayings can be heard in some Christian sub cultures. To people outside of those sub cultures, phrases like this are scary at best. Let’s take this statement ‘You never know what is waiting on the other side of your obedience’ for example. How much scriptural truth can be found in this statement? This statement was repeated to us for years in order to get us to go with the program. In other words, “just be obedient and God will bless you”. The problem with this is that obedience was always seen as submission to what that person was trying to coerce you to do at the time. I would like to share a little story about a man that did not know what was waiting on the other side of his obedience.

In 1 Kings 13:7-25 we read the story of a young prophet and an old prophet. God clearly spoke to the young prophet and told him what to do. The old prophet interfered and convinced the young prophet to be obedient to him rather than God. It is interesting to me that the Bible clearly calls the older prophet, well, a prophet. Verse 11 states “Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel…” Surely this guy was reliable. Surely he would not lead the younger prophet astray. Unfortunately, he did just that. The young prophet listened to the old prophet and verse 24 tells us this: “And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass.” His obedience to man cost him his life.

So, you never know what is waiting on the other side of your obedience. I, for one, am not going to get eaten by a lion because I would rather hear from a man than have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. God has been speaking to you. Maybe it is time you started listening.

Look to your right. See the Email Subscription section? Enter your email address and you will receive an email when a new post is added to my blog. I promise not to tell anyone you subscribed to my blog. It will be our secret. Also, I will not send you spam or sell your data unless things get really, really bad. For those of you that don't think I know you read my blog, it is okay if you subscribe as well. I know you are reading it and it will make your life much easier if you receive an email letting you know there is a new post rather than lurking around my site until one happens to pop up.

In First Timothy Paul writes to Timothy and instructs him to remain in Ephesus in order to charge some that they should not teach false doctrine. Not only does Paul tell Timothy to confront false teaching, but he states that teaching false doctrine is the equivalent of  profanity, murder, fornication, sodomy, kidnapping, lying and perjury. He then continues and actually names people that have done such things. Not only did Paul tell Timothy to confront those who were indicted of teaching false doctrine, he went as far to call them out by name. God then chose to include all of this in scripture. According to this scriptural precedent not only do we have a Biblical foundation for uncovering false doctrine, we also have the right to name those guilty of teaching false doctrine. Paul when talking about elders states in 1 Timothy 5:19-20 that we should rebuke those who are sinning in the presence of all! "19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. 20 Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear." 1 Timothy 1 3: As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. 5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. 8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. 18 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. I wonder how many confronted Paul about his church bashing or his exposing Hymenaeus and Alexander? I would rather side with scripture than my desire to be popular and accepted. I hear so many stories about men that are afraid to confront leadership that is in error because they do not want to "church bash", or they do not want to be guilty of sowing discord among the brethren. Sowing discord among the brethren is teaching that is contrary to sound doctrine. Not only does Paul name these people he does it several times and it is included in scripture. 2 Timothy 2:16-17 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort.

In a recent meeting I read a small excerpt from the book Spiritual Authority by Watchman Nee, I then looked at the pastor and asked him what he thought about the ideology. He responded very quickly "I think that is hogwash!". He then went around the room pointing at various men and asking "Man of God, did I give you that book?, Man of God did I give you that book?" He asked two to three people in the room and then looked at me and said "I do not believe in it and we do not teach it!". This was quite perplexing for me as I know pastors on staff have handed the book out within the previous few months. I then told this pastor how I heard what he was saying, but it presents a problem. I then reached down into my bag and I pulled out the handouts from their membership classes entitled "Spiritual Authority", I then looked at this pastor and the elders and I stated "You say you don't teach it, and you say you don't believe in it, but clearly you do." I then turned to page three and pointed out to everyone in the room that the spiritual authority class that all members must go through, teaches the concept of delegated spiritual authority. It is in their own literature. After convincing some to lay down their stones so I could ask another question I asked the pastor this question "If I were an apostle and I taught people that I have the right to rename them and define their destiny, what would you think? What would you think about such a man?" The pastor stated again very quickly "I would think the man was an idiot and I would have nothing to do with him!" I responded "Well, then we have another problem, because in his book called the Divine Alliance your pastor teaches just that". You may wonder what that has to do with anything. It is an integral part of what is happening at this church. This teaching is from the top down. The senior pastors pastor teaches it and although they deny they teach it, it is clearly who they are and what they do.

Now that you think I have aired people's dirty laundry for the world to see, I would like to explain my motivation for this blog. Some of my readers may completely disagree with what I am about to say, and that is okay. I genuinely think that this pastor thought he was telling the truth. When presented with very clear evidence, everyone in the room was appalled that I could suggest such things happened at their church, even though many in the very room have been recipients of the consequences of this teaching. There were signs of this teaching actually happening in the room while we were meeting. One of the elders that perpetrated this teaching on a friend of mine acted like Lynde and I had lost our minds. I tried to state as clearly as I could to everyone present that this teaching is so destructive and blinding that you can teach it, act upon it, and perpetrate it, and not even realizing you are doing it. This, my friends, is very serious. Now, leadership is aware of what has been occurring and is promising change. I think they genuinely mean it, just as they genuinely believed they were innocent of teaching it. But there is a problem.  And the problem is that if they cannot see that their own destructive beliefs are destroying people, and if they can deny that they are effectuating these beliefs, then it is not possible to see the solution.  They have been caught with their pants down, and have no other choice but to perform damage control.  When, what they need to do is rip this teaching from the foundation of the church.  You cannot fight an enemy you cannot see. This is spiritual dysfunction and it's course of correction is in the hands of the dysfunctional.

The enemy within is the leadership of a church that for more than ten years now has abused people and destroyed lives, all the while sitting  back and looking at all the ‘good’ that has been done. The rotten stench you smell seeping through the cracks is not the devil attacking; it is the fruit produced by dysfunctional teaching that no one has been willing to confront.

Unless I get distracted, in the next blog I will detail what I think needs to occur for healing to take place and the course to be corrected. Is that a squirrel?

God is not about Collateral Damage. Often we would, and still do, hear this statement “but look at all the good we do”. I actually heard one person say “Sure, people have been hurt, but look at all the good we do. Look at the fruit being produced”. From time to time I still struggle with the events of the last several years. I would be lying if I said there was nothing good produced from the last seven to eight years of our lives. There is a lot of good that Lynde and I learned from our previous pastors. We are a product of their ministry. In spite of what many may think we still love them dearly and miss them very much. I just sent Lynde a text message a few minutes ago telling her how I missed my pastor and would just like to talk to him. The fact that we do not communicate any longer underscores how divisive and destructive the teaching of spiritual authority is. When you must separate yourselves from people you love because they do not agree with your vision, agenda, or authority it reveals the true nature of the relationship. To be honest when questioned about the practices at the church for years I would also tell people to look at all the good we were accomplishing. Over the past year I have had to redefine what it really means to be fruitful. A good tree cannot produce both good and bad fruit. Matthew 7:18 states “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” If convincing people to conform to my way of thinking and inducting them into my behavior modification program meant that I was bearing fruit then I was very fruitful. It was easy for us to look at numbers for so long and see “growth” and think that surely, we must be doing something right. The fact of the matter was that people were being run over. People were being hurt and destroyed. We watched as it happened, but we looked the other way, because after all we were doing so much good. Jesus talks about leaving the ninety-nine and going after the one. Clearly Jesus does not think collateral damage is ok. Why should we?

Part One

This post might be slightly cerebral. You are welcome to take a nap at any point and simply pick up where you left off. Someone asked me yesterday where I was at with everything. The thought flooded my mind that I feel like the church needs a reformation. I have had somewhat of a personal reformation over the past year, but nearly everywhere I turn I am sickened by practices that I see in Christianity. We wonder why people don't want to be Christians. I think it is mostly due to the fact that most Christians look nothing like the Jesus they claim to follow. We wonder why society is rotten and the world is the way it is. I think that we as Christians are the biggest contributing factor to why society is the way it is in America today. We have extracted and segregated ourselves from society and now we have little effect on it whatsoever. The effect we do have is generally not positive.

Recently I have seen many blogs and articles about church bashing. There are many that feel as if somehow practices within church and Christianity should never be questioned. I have seen firsthand how destructive this thinking can be. We have missed it on so many levels and need to seriously step back and examine the areas in which we do not look like Christ and resolutely take the required action to begin looking like the Jesus we read about in scripture. For those of you that feel like pointing out short comings within the church is wrong I would like to help you understand how you are a part of the problem. The fact of the matter is that if it had not been for several men realizing there were serious issues with the way their Christianity represented Jesus, and if they had not been willing to confront these issues, we would all be Catholic today. For those of you that are not familiar with church history I will give you a crash course on the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Catholic Church, effected by Western European Catholics who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They felt as though the church’s hierarchy was corrupt all the way up to the Pope. Some of the false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice included the teaching and the sale of indulgences, the selling and buying of clerical offices, imposing licenses on brothels, and special taxes on priests who kept mistresses. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, thereby establishing a virtually infinite source of revenue. Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) fathered seven children by two mistresses. Luther having realized how the church was in grave error was prompted to nail a summary of his grievances on the door of a church at Wittenberg in Germany and launch the Protestant Reformation. There is so much more to this story, but the details above are enough to show a precedent that has been established for when the church and its leaders stray too far away from what Jesus intended his bride to look like. If confronting false teaching and reevaluating the current state of the church is offensive to you and is considered church bashing then you should be Catholic. If you are a Christian, but not a Catholic, you are a protestant, a product of the Protestant Reformation. I personally am sickened by men that have sacrificed their convictions on the altar of convenience. Men that want to hide behind pretty little sayings and act like the status quo is OK. Luther posted his grievances on the doors of churches themselves. Many are quick to point to a blog or a person and accuse them of church bashing, yet fully embrace what Luther did, and participate in the product of his actions.

We are failing. If you would rather hide behind the anti-church bashing mindset than confront the areas in which we do not resemble Christ, feel free. Personally, I like to sleep at night. I must draw closer to Jesus than I do to my preconceived ideas of Christianity.

I have been in church most of my life. I have seen and experienced very crazy things over the years. Having dealt with many really bad experiences in church has caused a great deal of struggle in my life. In my early twenties I walked away from church and lived in bars for several years. I could not reconcile the Jesus I saw in scripture with the men that represented Him. Having gone through some rough times over the past couple of years I have to be honest and say I have wanted to walk away from it all again. I can’t tell you exactly what you should do, but I can share with you what has helped me and what has brought me through the last year. First of all, somewhere along the way I really met Jesus and He messed me up. In a good way, of course. I could not deny His kindness even if I tried. Knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him is what has kept me. Outside of my relationship with Jesus the next best thing I have learned is that I must separate the men that claim to be representing Jesus and their actions, from Jesus Himself and the kindness He has shown me. The ability to separate the men from Jesus brings the right perspective. Men will always fail us and to expect them to live up to the same expectations we would put on Jesus is not fair to them. If you put a man in the place of Jesus, eventually Jesus will have to show you why the man should not be in His place. This could come at the expense of your own grief and heartache. If you have been hurt in church, please remember you have really been hurt by people that are just like you. Imperfect.

 So, my suggestion to you would be to do the following:

1. Remember His kindness toward you.


2. Separate the actions of men from the heart of Jesus toward you.


3. If you have put unfair expectations on men and put them in the place that was meant for Jesus, you should accept your
   responsibility for setting them up for failure, and you should renew your relationship with Jesus and redefine His place in your life.


4. Don’t give up on church. After all, it is filled with people just like you and me.

This is one of the many questions we were asked by church elders when confronting the false teaching of spiritual authority and how it has permeated their church and destroyed lives. I could provide many details about the meeting, but at this point, I will only be posting details that I think will be beneficial to people that have been or are currently in a similar situation. If you have read any of my blogs, then you know that the majority of this teaching comes from the following books: Spiritual Authority by Watchman Nee, God’s Armor Bearer by Terry Nance, and Under Cover by John Bevere. The principles taught produce language similar to the following statements:  “when you find your people you find your purpose”, “we are your spiritual authority”, “to question your spiritual authority is to question God Himself”, “we are your covering”, “to walk away from your covering is to walk away from God.” So , when asked this question I responded and told this elder, “When the only pastors you have ever known have convinced you that they are your covering, and that they are the voice of God for you, and that to walk away from them is to walk away from God’s covering, you will stay and endure hell, all the while thinking you are where God wants you.”  If you have heard these types of statements, chances are that you are in an environment where there is a great possibility of spiritual abuse. My advice to you would be to ask the senior pastor where he stands on the teaching of spiritual authority. If he embraces it and defends it you should leave and find a church that has a pastor who wants to serve people rather than create minions that will be under his authority, serve him, and do his bidding. This, by the way is in stark contrast to the example Jesus set for us.

The statements given above and the books referenced are great indicators that the environment may be unhealthy. The teachings of Bevere, Nance, and Nee related to spiritual authority are non-scriptural and at best diabolical. Jesus Himself is your covering and your authority. Take the time to develop a relationship with Jesus. I promise it is worth it.

Recently my wife and I had the opportunity to meet with the pastors and elders of the church we left around a year ago. We were able to address the unscriptural teaching of delegated spiritual authority and how it has hurt many people over the years. While some were resistant to hearing what we had to say, some including a couple of the elders and pastors said they clearly saw what we brought to light, and promised to make changes where needed. The three hour meeting ended with the senior pastor asking Lynde and I to forgive him. As I have said in previous blogs we have already forgiven. We did not go to this meeting for an apology. We went to help bring this very serious issue into the open so the pastors and elders could address it, and remove it from the foundation upon which they are building. A couple of the elders thanked us for coming and we have received phone calls from people that were present in the meeting telling us how much they appreciate what we have done. My wife asked me a hypothetical question a few months ago. She asked "What will you write about if these pastors call you and sincerely repent, and then follow the repentance with the change required to make certain things like this never happens again?" My answer was "I will write about what I have been writing about." I do not write blogs about spiritual abuse and spiritual authority with a single church in mind. This teaching has permeated the American church and it must be addressed. So, if you read my blog and you are one of the angry readers, I would like for you to know that your pastor has repented for what we and others endured for many years, and has promised to make changes to correct this behavior. He was forgiven before we had the meeting. I will continue to tell my story not in an effort to discredit a man that has repented, but to help others that are serving men that subscribe to this deceptive and destructive teaching. There are parts of our story that are not so pretty. The ending as it relates to this particular church is not up to me. I would love nothing more than to write about how this issue has been taken seriously and how the pastors and elders dealt with this teaching swiftly and severely. We should all pray for wisdom, discernment, and guidance for these men that have a difficult task ahead of them.

 Our Experience with the teaching of Spiritual Authority

Over the next few weeks I will detail some of our experiences in ministry. There are many wonderful stories I can share about our experience. From time to time I will share some good stories. For the next few weeks I want to deal with a very sensitive subject. I feel that this subject is very important and must be addressed. I have eluded to it in some of my previous blogs, but have yet to really give details about our experience. For many years we were told we could not talk to people about what we were going through. This feeling persists even today. We were taught to cover our leaders, and this warped teaching still tries to invade rational thinking. I have to remind myself that there should not be anything in my pastors life that he would need me to cover. I have to ask myself the question “why would they teach me that what I cover in my life God will not cover or forgive, yet they ask me to cover them?”

These blogs are intended to help people that may find themselves on staff or in leadership positions at churches where shepherding, spiritual authority, and spiritual covering are taught. These blogs will give details about what we went through with a follow up of a concise scriptural contrast. This is all in an effort not to uncover a man, group of men, or a church, but rather to uncover the very dangerous theology of spiritual authority, and how it can destroy people. My experience with this teaching and those that practice it left me questioning the very existence of God himself. As someone that has seen the results of this unscriptural teaching many times over, I feel the need to expose it for what it is, and help those that have experienced it as well.