gengwall

It seemed that when ever we raised and issue or even offered an opinion to church leadership (elders and pastor) we were labelled this and our view dismissed (and told to be quiet to boot). I will give three examples.

We directed the children’s Christmas and Spring musicals for 8 years. Whenever we asked for more rehearsal time and space, or objected to reductions in the same, we were told we were usurping authority and conflicting with the “important” ministries of the church.

When we were involved in the worship ministry including being on a call committee for a new worship director, we were told numerous times that we were conflicting with the head pastor’s authority over worship when we offered ideas, opinions, and recomendations that differed from those of the head pastor and the elders regarding the “direction” of worship ministry in the church. Not only were we told we were out of order, but also that our ideas subverted the mission of the church for reaching the community.

When we started our own performing arts ministry outside of the church, we were “hauled in” to a meeting with the head pastor, the elders, and the current worship director and accused of a variety of offenses including planning to “rob” the worship ministry of human resources, not focusing enough on our ministry within the local church body, and using stolen ideas from the church’s internal worship creative team to “seed” our own ministry creativity. (To be fair, this was mostly the head pastor and the worship director. The elders either remained mute, supported us, or considered the whole thing much ado about nothing.)

These are the extreem examples, of course, but that atmosphere was purvasive in the church not only for us but for a number of other people. If you objected, suggested, or even opined on any area of church operations from administration all the way to the preaching, you were told to hold your tongue or be disciplined for divisiveness.