Picking Up the Pieces
Ed Bratcher
Preaching and visitation are essential in any pastorate, but in a broken church, their need is magnified.
—Ed Bratcher
I was jogging down the street, thinking about my new church (I had arrived in Manassas only a few weeks earlier), when a man I had never seen motioned with his hand for me to stop. I stopped and tried to catch my breath.
"Are you the new pastor of Manassas Baptist?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, smiling.
"I'll never go there again!" he exclaimed heatedly. Then he began an angry tirade about the church's hypocrisy, its control by a few members, its lack of love. Thirty minutes later, he was finished.
I could tell he had been deeply hurt, but I wasn't sure what to say. I only knew this was going to be the most difficult pastorate of my ministry.
Meltdown
The previous pastor at Manassas, whom I'll call Fred Sharpe, had resigned under pressure from charges of sexual indiscretions and aberrant theology. When I had candidated, the pastoral search committee described the problems in general terms, with a note of sadness. "Fred was a man of unusual abilities," they explained.
Before Fred had become pastor, the congregation had been divided on whether to call him, but Fred had been highly recommended and had demonstrated qualities the congregation sought: he was articulate, personable, and young, and he held a reputation for leading churches into growth.
The church grew rapidly under Fred's ministry. Many were attracted to his nontraditional approach to preaching and worship, and soon a second service was started. After about eighteen months, however, a few people started leaving the church, upset primarily by Fred's theology and his practice of drinking beer in public. Rumors of sexual indiscretions flew.
As I had considered the ...
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