I WAS JUST THINKING ON THIS MONDAY, JULY 4, 2011

I received this question from a young Bible School student (she needed some input from an older pastor).

“How should the church and the Pastor deal with Preacher Eaters in the local church?”

Several years ago, I taught a group of young preachers in a licensing seminar class. The class was made up of young men who were assisting pastors in some ministry in the local church settings, young traveling evangelist and also young men who were just starting to launch themselves into the ministry. I cautioned these young preachers and ministers about a large snare that was lying in their paths. I told them this snare has been there for every young preacher and minister who were in the ministry of helping or assisting other men in their ministry. I told them to beware of certain church members who would come around and try puffing them up into believing that they were superior to the pastor or minister and that they ought to have his position.

In telling my own story from several years back, I expressed my gratitude to the fact that I had not become the senior pastor while I was a really young man, for several reasons. The chief reason among the many reason was the fact that extremely strong laymen who exercised great influence in the home church I was raised up in would have chewed me up and spit me out.

One of the young preachers who attended that class wrote me an e-mail asking me to elaborate on who these type people might be, how do we identify these type people? How do these people operate in the local church? What is a pastor to do when he finds himself serving in a church with such strong laymen in it and especially when those have a role in leadership?

Nothing that I write is meant to imply that I think I have the wisdom and knowledge nor do I have all of the answers or the solutions for this subject. Far from it, but I do carry may wounds and scars from the many encounters with some of these type laymen. I have been pastor in only two churches and have had to encounter these type laymen in both of them.

The Apostle John wrote to his beloved friend Gaius in his epistle,

III John
1 The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

John talks about the charity and kindness of the church and how they have treated those traveling through the area speaking this great truth, but there is now a problem.

3 John 9-11 New Living Translation ®,
9 I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us.
10 When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.
11 Dear friend, don't let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

By reading these writings of John we see that these types and kinds of laymen have always been with us. I am talking about these self-appointed church rulers, church bosses, Preacher Eaters, who set themselves up as the Big Frog in these small ponds we call the local church to reign and control. These who are self-appointed get their thrills from dominating God called and God sent pastors and even other ministers in the local church.

These self-appointed leaders are almost always men, but I have learned through my tenure as a pastor, that most often behind these type men is a woman with the spirit of Jezebel. Usually the men and the women want to put on airs and appearances as though they are super spiritual and they only have the work of the Lord in their local church in mind. Only in two or three instances have I actually encountered a woman who was trying to control the church, pastor, preachers and the saints of God the way some men do. Human nature being what it is, doubtless there are several female Diotrephes out there.
I have often wondered, where do these kinds of people come from?

In my investigations I have found that many of these people start out as serious Holy Ghost filled saints of God and are actually genuine disciples of Jesus Christ who start out right and they rise to these leadership positions in the church on their own faithful merits. Many of them stepped up during very difficult times in these local churches. They provided leadership that saved the church. The congregation became overwhelmed with gratefulness and is now naturally looking to them for direction long after the crises is over.

When the new pastor arrives at the local church, he wants to identify the influence makers of the church. Whether these men hold elective office or not, these are the men and the women to whom the congregation naturally looks to when critical decisions are to be made in the church. If these people of influence oppose a program the new pastor is presenting, the new pastor is in trouble from the start. The new pastor will do well to get to know these people of influence and make sure they keep them on their side in the beginning.

Most of the Sons of Diotrphes, (SOD,s) are not and never have been serious disciples of Jesus Christ, but they simple were willing to step in to fill a leadership vacuum in the local church during a crisis time in the local church and now they have a foothold of control and power and they refuse to vacate these positions. They enjoy being the power brokers and controllers of the local church. Such people are a blight and curse of every pastor and the painful slow death for every church unless the congregation binds together in unity, acting in harmony to break the stranglehold of these types of individuals.

As sad as it is, sometimes carnal men are assigned to positions of church leadership by merit of their wealth or position in the community or because of their professional role in life. In a small to medium size church which is made up of typical Americans, the owner of a business or a guy with a professional position, or an elected official will always stand out. The admiration which is shown to these people during the weekdays, by the ordinary run of the mill people, will also be shown to them at the local church they attend on Sunday morning. If they are regular in attendance and generous with their giving, they will almost always be elected to key positions in the local church, just because of their personal influence. Whether these individuals are spiritual, godly, humble, prayerful, mission minded, or even Holy Ghost filled with a servant’s heart and spirit or a with a heart for the work of God or not; these things rarely come into play in the typical small local church in our westernized America.

How sad this is today, it is so prevalent in our smaller local church communities? I personally pity the new pastors, especially the young men who are novices and especially if this is his first pastorate. These men walk into a church with a desire to do the will of God, and they are unprepared to deal with these carnal church leaders who enjoy their positions of control and power, these people who cannot wait to let this new pastor know who is in charge and running the show in this local church.

I wish I had been taught about dealing with the Sons of Diotrephes (SOD,s) when I began to pastor. In the local church where I served in my first pastoring position, (I was 49 years old when I was voted in by 100%) it did not take me long to realize the strongest lay leaders, (the ones that had the loudest voices and insisted that everything that went on in that little church had to be run by them) were a couple successful farmers who did very little in the city the church was in. These men were related to one another and over half the church members were related to them. (In fact over forty seven members of the church worked on their farm.) I had preached three revivals in that little church before I was voted in as pastor and these men were personally so kind and friendly, they were a pleasure to fellowship with. However, it was not long after I became their pastor that I realized to them I was a hireling, a man with a position on the church staff and hardly a blip on their radars at all. I as the pastor of that small local church was in their cross hairs from day one. I found out later they served the pastor for dinner and supper often, because they were preacher eaters.

Let me relay a story I read at this point:

A new pastor arrived at this small local church and quickly ran into the reality that this church had a small group of SOD’s controlling the church. After a few weary and difficult years the pastor bails out and relocates his family to another state to another small church. Some years later, the pastor who succeeded him had gotten into moral trouble and had resigned abruptly, the pastor search committee wanted this former pastor to return and pastor the church again. The search committee was surprised by his response. “Before I agree to talk with your search committee, I want Mr. Diotrephes (he named this pastor eater by name) to fly out here and ask me personally to become the pastor, if he does not fly out here and personally talk with me I am not interested and I will not even talk with you as members of the search team.” When this man or Diotrephes showed up at this pastor’s office, he was somewhat older now and he approached the pastor with his felt hat in his hand and very kindly he ask this pastor to please come back to their local church and be their pastor. The pastor began to speak kindly, but very plain and straight to him and told him if he would return as pastor, this man Diotrephes would have no say in the church, because things must be as the Lord orders it. The pastor said, if this is a problem we have no deal. This pastor returned and led this church through a major building program and a local church that tripled in size. He wrote that his influence, leadership and authority were never seriously threatened from that day forward. Unfortunately this pastor was in an unusual, unique situation, something that is not easily duplicated in the Westernized Christian Churches here in America, because there are so many Sons of Diotrephes in our local churches.

I have asked myself this question and still ponder it today, “How would a pastor deal with the SOD,s in a local church where he was the new pastor?”

1st the new pastor would have to walk very quietly and carefully in his new pastorate.
2nd the new pastor must spend much time in prayer and have a group of prayer warriors praying with him and for him.
3rd the new pastor must get a very good understanding quickly who is trying to run and control the church, also know who is trying to become his friend for the purpose of manipulating him. He then begins to gingerly deal with the situation a little at the time.

A wise pastor will do everything in his power to find out how decisions are made, and whether elected, non-elected or self-appointed laypeople call the shots in this local church this is a must before a new pastor even accepts the pastorate of the church. Just a little investigation is all it takes this along with much prayer and communication with God. If you know who some of the previous pastors are call them and be plain with them. (It is usually not a good idea to call the pastor who has just left, because wrong or right you will get a slanted view about the church.) Call your denominational leaders, sectional presbyters and other elected officials much of what they have to say will help you to proceed further with the local church and its search committee.

The former pastor of the first church I was elected to pastor, made no bones about it with me. “Brother Bankens,” this younger gentleman said, as he and I sat in the church office, “ten of the most miserable years of my life and my ministry were spent in this church.” “A little group was organized against me and they fought me on every decision I made. Whenever they got word that we were going to be presenting anything to the church for a vote, they would burn the telephones lines up organizing their opposition against the change.” (Although after leaving this church for nine or ten years this former pastor is back at that church assisting the leader of the group that had organized everything against him while he was pastor there.)

After hearing this former pastor speak to me, I still went to that church as the new pastor. I went, knowing I could expect opposition from that same small, but powerful group of church members. Sure enough they were on the job when I got there. They fed me and my wife, fellowshipped with us after church and were just so kind when we first got there. I found out later that the leader of this group told the church members I was too conservative for his liking, before I ever got there. Instead of staying twenty years as I had intended when I accepted the pastorate, I left after I had been there five years.

In my case, after I had been there two and a half years, I called our sectional presbyter to come to a meeting. He came and spent several hours talking to the entire congregation, then he and I met with the man and his brother who were leading the opposition. After our conversation for over two hours these strong willed laymen said they would not change their stand. I had tried to meet them half way in their demands but to no avail, they left with sixty seven family members and people who worked on their farm. (Personally in looking back, I should have packed my bags and left that area as quickly as I could, while I still had a number of churches who were after me to come hold them revival meetings. But I stayed, to my detriment a little over two and a half years longer. I still had some good people in the church with me, but not one of them was a leader or aggressive in evangelism and drawing new people.

After five years, I resigned and moved to my second church as pastor. (When I left within just a short while that group came back and begin to control the little church. The man who was Diotrephes was voted in as the pastor.)
I must confess, it hurts to walk away from a local congregation in that manner. I left there feeling so defeated, but I now realize that in doing so, I probably saved my own life. The stress of that pastorate was slowly killing me. When I left I had lost my voice and could only whisper when I preached.

(Let me deal with something, there is that feeling that creeps up inside of all of us when we feel like we have been defrauded by controlling SOD’s and we would like God to quickly deal with them as He dealt with those who stood against Moses.

Numbers 16:1-3 New Living Translation ®,
1 One day Korah son of Izhar, a descendant of Kohath son of Levi, conspired with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, from the tribe of Reuben.
2 They incited a rebellion against Moses, along with 250 other leaders of the community, all prominent members of the assembly.
3 They united against Moses and Aaron and said, "You have gone too far! The whole community of Israel has been set apart by the Lord, and he is with all of us. What right do you have to act as though you are greater than the rest of the Lord's people?"

Numbers 16:4-6 New Living Translation,
4 When Moses heard what they were saying, he fell face down on the ground.
5 Then he said to Korah and his followers, "Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us who belongs to him and who is holy. The Lord will allow only those whom he selects to enter his own presence.

Numbers 16:9-11 New Living Translation ®,
9 Does it seem insignificant to you that the God of Israel has chosen you from among all the community of Israel to be near him so you can serve in the Lord's Tabernacle and stand before the people to minister to them?
10 Korah, he has already given this special ministry to you and your fellow Levites. Are you now demanding the priesthood as well?
11 The Lord is the one you and your followers are really revolting against! For who is Aaron that you are complaining about him?"

Numbers 16:15-17 New Living Translation ®,
15 Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, "Do not accept their grain offerings! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, and I have never hurt a single one of them."
16 And Moses said to Korah, "You and all your followers must come here tomorrow and present yourselves before the Lord. Aaron will also be here. 17 You and each of your 250 followers must prepare an incense burner and put incense on it, so you can all present them before the Lord. Aaron will also bring his incense burner."

Numbers 16:18-20 New Living Translation ®,
18 So each of these men prepared an incense burner, lit the fire, and placed incense on it. Then they all stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle with Moses and Aaron.
19 Meanwhile, Korah had stirred up the entire community against Moses and Aaron, and they all gathered at the Tabernacle entrance. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to the whole community,

Numbers 16:20-24 New Living Translation ®,
20 and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
21 "Get away from all these people so that I may instantly destroy them!"
22 But Moses and Aaron fell face down on the ground. "O God," they pleaded, "you are the God who gives breath to all creatures. Must you be angry with all the people when only one man sins?"
23 And the Lord said to Moses,
24 "Then tell all the people to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram."

Numbers 16:25-27 New Living Translation ®,
25 So Moses got up and rushed over to the tents of Dathan and Abiram, followed by the elders of Israel. 26 "Quick!" he told the people. "Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and don't touch anything that belongs to them. If you do, you will be destroyed for their sins."
27 So all the people stood back from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Then Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives and children and little ones.

Numbers 16:28-30 New Living Translation ®,
28 And Moses said, "This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things that I have done—for I have not done them on my own.
29 If these men die a natural death, or if nothing unusual happens, then the Lord has not sent me.
30 But if the Lord does something entirely new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and all their belongings, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have shown contempt for the Lord."

Numbers 16:31-35 New Living Translation ®,
31 He had hardly finished speaking the words when the ground suddenly split open beneath them.
32 The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the men, along with their households and all their followers who were standing with them, and everything they owned.
33 So they went down alive into the grave, along with all their belongings. The earth closed over them, and they all vanished from among the people of Israel.
34 All the people around them fled when they heard their screams. "The earth will swallow us, too!" they cried.
35 Then fire blazed forth from the Lord and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense.

I do know what westernized Christians say about this kind of writing from a pastor or preacher, God used those tactics in the Old Testament because the people in that day needed to know He alone was God. But today we are sophisticated and educated and God has given us the gifts to be able to lead our own people, we do not need a pastor to tell us what to do, these kinds of thing no longer happen today. Beware saints of God, do not overstep your calling and position in the Local Church.

One day not to long ago one of these SOD’s came to me in this church I now pastor and said, “Preacher, does it not matter to you the caliber of the people who are opposed to you? At that time I simple muttered a couple words back to him, “It Does.” Only later after I was by myself away from this carnal individual did the Lord call Numbers 16:2 to my mind, it was here that all of these people of renown opposed Moses.

Numbers 16:2 KJV,
2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:

In Moses case God dealt quickly and dramatically with these men of renown. Now in my case God is dealing with these men, maybe not in a quick and dramatic way but God is dealing with them. I pray they will see the error of their ways and repent. I have learned over my lifetime that God grinds slow, but He also grinds fine. This is a point we must understand we cannot avenge ourselves, vengeance belongs to God.

Romans 12:17-19 New Living Translation ®,
17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.
18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the Lord.

I was preaching one evening in the church I now have been pastoring for several years and in so many words I let the entire congregation know that there was a small group of people who were trying to control and manipulate our every move as a local church. I let the church know this small group was simply that, small in number, and they did not represent the majority of the saints. But I told the church as long as they manipulated and controlled we could not have a spirit of unity in our local church. I said this small group puts a drag on everything we do here, they have been a thorn in my flesh and do everything they can to destroy my ministry and my leadership. I then told that small group of SOD’s I was talking to them and they needed to listen to me carefully; (I have never called their names) I said, “I need you to know two important things as I preach tonight: 1st, God has allowed you in my path, using your opposition to strengthen me as it purifies my spirit. 2nd, each and every single one of you will have to stand before God one day and give an account for what you have done against His Church and the men through the years He has sent to you as pastor. I then went on to say, I would not want to be in some of your shoes for anything in this world. I then quoted to them this scripture as I continued to preach,

Hebrews 10:31 KJV,
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Toward the end of my preaching at that time, I told the SOD’s who have been in that church for a long time, “I am serving you notice at this moment, I will continue to love you, this church family will continue to love you, but we will no longer listen to anything you have to say. We are simply going to ignore you as we go forward.” The majority of the congregation stood to their feet in applause. After service several came to me and asked me why it had taken me so long to come against those spirits openly. I told them you do not understand I have vivid memories of the turmoil I left in the former church I pastored and do not want to end up here as a failure. I went on to say, I have spent seven hard years trying to become the pastor of this church and gain the confidence of the majority of the good saints here. I said without the people of this church standing with me we will never overcome the controls of the SOD’s.

Here are my suggestions to the pastors who find themselves in the spiritual pit filled with SOD’s who are filled with evil demonic spirits:
1. Spend a great deal of your time on your face talking to God.
2. Protect your wife (spouse) from the majority of the stress. If your wife can continue loving the SOD’s and their families without reservation, that is the best for her. When you are confronted by these type people she needs to know some of what is going on, but she does not need to know all the gory details.
3. Remember always these words of Jesus,

Luke 6:27-28 New Living Translation ®,
27 "But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.
28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

4. Minister to the SOD,s in your church as faithfully as you do everyone else. Otherwise, you will be giving them materials to use against you, and some weak saint will believe them and spiritually become defeated.
5. As you slowly gain the trust of the rest of the congregation, slowly move forward toward your goals, in God’s timing you will then be able to withstand the SOD,s more aggressively and with greater success. (Remember do not make a quick and open move against them, let them make the quick and open moves against you. In this manner the good saints of god will see they are wrong in their spirit.)
6. Remember that a short-term pastorate plays right into their hands. If you pack up and leave in just a few short years, they are vindicated that their leadership is needed to save the church from all these vicious pastors. In the interim they will gain support among the members of the church and they will be lying in wait for the next pastor that is voted in. That is why you must stand for truth and right, so that these spirits that have controlled our churches and stifled our pastors for so long will be defeated.
7. Remember Vengeance is not yours, I talked about that above vengeance belongs to God. Our job as the pastor, is preach the Word of God, love the sheep God has placed under our pastorate and all the while stay very close to the Lord. Have a strong personal relationship with Jesus.
There is one more method I would like to deal with. It is a quick method that will end the reign of the SOD,s in the church you pastor. It will break the strangle hold these people with these evil spirits have on your local church.
Other laymen who are within the local congregation will have to see the need and rise up against the controlling spirits of the SOD,s and put them out of business. These laymen can do this quickly and anytime they please, but they have to stand-up and do it.

In many of our local congregations including the one I now pastor, the SOD,s have the pastor down for the count, in fact they have him in a hammer lock. The pastor has his back against the mat so to speak and has nowhere to go.

Pastoring this local congregation is a pastor’s livelihood, he needs the income he receives to pay his bills and feed his family. If he gets run off from this local church and is unemployed he has no recourse, nowhere to turn. As an unemployed pastor it is difficult to find another local church to pastor. Pastor search committees are understandably wary of a “flockless shepherd.” If you are such a good pastor, Sir, why aren’t you leading a local church somewhere?

Now on the other hand the SOD,s do not have these same controls on the rest of the congregation. These people have their own livelihoods and means of making a living so the SOD,s have to gain their friendships and build their confidence. They become suave, kind and thoughtful to the people of the congregation. They appoint people into positions of leadership, teacher positions and even platform leaders while the church has no pastor, making the whole congregation indebted to them. The church congregation becomes so trusting of these wonderful, godly, spiritual leader’s, that when the new pastor does come on the scene the church is still following the leadership of the SOD,s.

When the pastor does try to become the leader of the local church and these SOD, stand openly and oppose him the church congregation has so much trust for the SOD,s, they know they could not possibly do anything that would be detrimental to the work of God or the local church. And like sheep the congregation begins to fall prey to these wolves in sheep’s clothing as they wonder all alone and theses wolves then begin to harass them and eventually devour them, because they have taken them from the security of their shepherd.

The remedy seems to be so simple, but it will take men with dignity, to stand with the Pastor. So as a pastor use the business meeting to get someone to ask pertinent questions so all of the members can hear the question and the answers as they watch the SOD,s be so unkind to their shepherd. Questions such as, “Who decided this? Pastor, was this what you wanted?” “Who is on the committee and who appointed them to this position?”

Two things that SOD,s cannot handle are exposure (for everyone else to know what they have been doing behind the scenes all this time) and accountability (the insistence that decision makers must report to the entire congregation on what they did and why they did it.)

Sons of Diotrephes (SOD,s) have contempt for the laity in their congregation, they actually think no one is as smart and intelligent as them. They know for a fact no one in the congregation can make the right decisions, like they can. The SOD,s know that the greatest number of church members want to be left alone and do not want anything to do with the inner workings of their local church. Just let us come to church in a comfortable setting, we will give our tithes and offering, we will ask no questions, we will be happy just to have our nice little church to attend.

But pastors if we can ever wake the congregation up and let them really understand what is happening to their little church. Some of these wonderful people will begin to hold these Sons of Diotrepes accountable for their actions as they begin to ask questions in public. This begins to turn a light on the matters at hand and the people begin to see what is really happening and what is really taking place in their local church. This could save the church from constant battles and it could sure rescue the embattled pastor.

I have come to the realization and understanding there is no one two plan for dealing with these SOD,s or self appointed bosses, these pastor eaters in the church. But I hope for the sake of the question that was asked by me from this wonderful Bible College Student, that my analysis will provide you and everyone else some assistance.

Do not forget every local congregation needs to mobilize a prayer support team. This is needed in good times or in bad times we all need a strong team of intercessors who regularly go before the throne of God praying for the local church, the pastor, the ministering team and the work of God through their local church in general.