Note from Rowland: I know the writer of this article, and have decided to leave his name off it. There’s much to think about here. It’s written, as you’ll note from the relevant ‘in-house’ language, from a Pentecostal viewpoint…

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“Mature Spiritual Sons and Daughters takes a Mature father figure”

I believe in the Body of Christ we have a major problem with Senior Ministers, who assume a fatherly type mandate with that authority position, who struggle to receive truth from the very disciples they have raised up!

I was a Pastor some years ago and this young man who was in my group, also lived with my family for 8 years before he got married. It was now 7 years on from his marriage and he was visiting with us recently. I had been struggling for 3 years with some father issues myself, after leaving a church.

I decided to share with my ‘spiritual son’ and he gave me some home truths about myself, that others had mentioned, but coming from him it had an extra humbling affect.

All as I can say that God used what he said to help me be set free from my past and break some ‘soul ties’ with the father figure of my last church.

I am not tyring to base an entire doctrine on my experience, but it did get me thinking! As I spoke to other Men and Women of God I thought it would be good to get this down on paper.

I would like to write a brief list first of the reasons why I think some Senior Pastor’s of churches struggle with this problem:

1.Pride

2.Underneath the Pride will generally be fear, insecurity and rejection.

3.Building their own Kingdom…even though they speak an opposite message to this.

4.Want people to serve their vision and not serve and release maturing son/daughter’s vision. (Servant Leadership)

5.Take a differing opinion to their own as a personal rejection

6.Can’t let the reins go to allow others to be truly empowered by God…they eventually get in the way and …wait for it… usurp God’s authority over the mature one’s life!!!

7.Too many resources and people needed to run the system, and to keep tithing to pay for it, therefore want to keep people in their church.

Surely what happens in the natural is a mirror for what should happen in the spiritual. When our own children hit the teenager age we began to step back a little and allow them some freedom and responsibility. By the time they were 18, they are making their own decisions and we are hopefully there to coach them if needed. When they get married, they are meant to leave the home and start their own. (Gen 2)

Either the Senior Ministers leave the church to begin their ascension gift ministries/calling and allow the mature ones to take over OR keep sending their mature ones out into the harvest. (Not necessarily to start a church either.)

I am not saying that the established church hierarchical structure God cannot use. I just believe it binds Men and Women of God to keep running it and if you throw in a fathering message with some pride and insecurity, you have a recipe for two things:

1.Immature people dependent too much on system and clergy.

2.Maturing ‘Sons and Daughters’ who sense a ceiling to their growth personally so they leave.

Maybe it’s time to re-think the way we do things, look inside our hearts, and be open to the next generation as they hear from God and speak the truth to us in love.