E does not want me to be friends with the church staff. He says, “You can’t be someone’s boss and their friend–what would you do if you had to fire them?”
E says that if I discuss anything negative about an elder, he will fire me. Ok.
I violated both.
Yesterday, I had coffee with one of our staff members, T. T is one of the ones E is gunning for. He shared frustration with E. I decided I didn’t care what E said and I was honest with T. We talked frankly about how dangerous E is and imagined a church without bullies.
T listed a number of people, including the former pastor, who left largely because E was such a jerk to them. How can one person cause so much trouble?
Then T told me that if we needed to go to war, he was in.
War is not what I want, nor am I willing to go to war. It is not that this is not worthy of a fight. It is. It is just that I am not willing to go to war. It is not something noble or good, it is just that I don’t know that I have it in me.
I appreciate T’s willingness. It is good to know I am not alone.
everybody needs a T maybe if I had a T I would still be in the ministry. And he’s right in the SECULAR world it’s hard to be a boss and a friend. I am guessing e is white collar or wants to be. he has no real concept of ministry together and how is it HIS decision to fire you? If I read right he is not even chair of the elders Hopefully the rest of the elders or at lest one of them will keep it from being unanimous if he decides to fire you crazy, I know! I have a big house you can share.
He is not the chair, but if you are the one who speaks the loudest and quickest, you have a lot of power.
T is a great guy, and I think he is well intentioned. The idea of “going to war” makes my stomach churn.
In the end, we will likely stand together against this, but in the end, taking up swords, however appealing, is not the answer.
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