Thou Shalt Not Steal

We all know you can’t rob a bank, steal a car or steal copyrighted material without serious consequences.  We learned as kids that you can’t steal that pack of gum, filch that dollar bill sticking out of the back pocket of the kid in front of you, or take that bicycle in your neighbor’s driveway.  Stealing is wrong.  But, in some ministers’ books, you can steal a church.

For some strange reason, some think the proscription against stealing has nothing to do with churches.  They think it is fair game for a minister in an organization to receive a church congregation from the organization—an election for which the pastor would have never have even been nominated were he not a licensed minister with the organization—and then summarily take the church out of fellowship.  It is as if the church becomes the minister’s own personal property.  (Indeed, in some cases, churches have been sold out from under the congregation and the money pocketed by the thieving pastor.)  Most of the time, however, the pastor pushes the blame onto the people, saying that due to changing convictions and scriptural views, they no longer supported the organization’s articles of faith.  The only logical thing for them to do was go in an independent direction, with the pastor leading the way.

Of course.  If you don’t believe something anymore, why pretend that you do?  Why not just be honest and leave the organization?  Seems like the right thing to do, wouldn’t you say?  No, it doesn’t.  The right thing to do would be to announce to the church and to the organization that you are no longer in agreement with the belief system under which you received the pastorate in the first place.  You should then resign and turn the church back over to the organizational leaders so they can bring another pastor into the church.  Afterwards, with a gentlemanly handshake, you can ride off into the sunset, your honor and integrity still intact.

Any pastor who is not the church founder has a solemn obligation to honor the legacy of the church.  He did not dig the original congregation out of the muck and mire of the world.  He did not raise the money to build the building, work with his bare hands to erect it, or suffer with the people to keep it going.  He walked into a rosy set of circumstances, courtesy of someone else. Everything he now enjoys is the product of other people’s labor.  Most likely, those who contributed did so because they loved the Apostolic message.  To take their material offerings and distort them into another belief system is a slap in their faces.  Those whose sweat equity went into the foundation of the church would never have contributed had they known that their investment would be so ravaged.  In addition, the church may have received general funds from the organization over the years in the form of loans, love offerings or land grants.  Should the church leave the fellowship, the investment of the organization would be lost.

But, the argument goes, don’t you have to respect the wishes of the present congregation?  Shouldn’t they have a say in the change?  My problem with that line of reasoning is this:  the pastor is the primary spokesman, the chief influencer and the spiritual leader of the congregation.  He serves as the conscience of the people.  If he senses that the will of the congregation is to separate, even though he is opposed to it, he should resign because, as the leader, he should not preside over a mutinous people.  On the other hand, if he alienates their affections against the organization, he cannot throw up his hands and say he couldn’t help it.  He’s the one who did it!  If he says that the congregation wants to do this, and the truth of the matter is that he actually fomented the change, then he has a serious lack of ethics.  He should resign because of that problem alone.

But, what if he has been the pastor for a number of years?  What if he is responsible for converting most of the congregation?  What if he put much blood, sweat, toil and tears himself into the building?  No matter.  He still is the recipient of a core group and a physical place of worship, even if much of the original group is gone.  There was something there for him to start with.  It is quite possible that he would never have considered taking the church had the physical plant not been there. 

A few illustrations may clarify these contentions.  Is it unethical for a managerial employee of Company X to secretly work for Company Y while collecting a paycheck from Company X?  Should the same employee talk other employees into leaving Company X and join Company Y? Should a married man carry on an affair with a girlfriend and divert money to her while his wife goes without necessary care?  Should a commanding officer in the military sell national security secrets to an enemy of his country because he identifies with the values of that country more than those of his own native land?  The answer to these questions seems obvious to me.

Everything comes down to ministerial ethics.  Any church that elects a pastor because he flies the banner of the organization only to discover that he is not as loyal as he presented himself to be, or if he starts preaching “another gospel,” has been defrauded.  Any pastor who goes through the election process and fails to disclose his underlying dislike or contempt for the organization is guilty of dishonesty and deception.  Any pastor who changes his views about the articles of faith of the organization, even if it happens years after his election, has an ethical and moral responsibility to terminate his relationship with the church.  To remain in his position and use his considerable influence to manipulate the congregation is disingenuous and constitutes abuse of leadership. 

Admittedly, walking away from a lifetime work, or leaving a gold mine behind seems like a draconian solution.  Doing the ethical thing has never been the easiest route to take.  That’s why so few go that way. 

“Thou shalt not steal” applies to churches as well as to a pile of money in a bank or a pack of Spearmint gum.  In God’s book, it’s all the same.