[CC1]

Originally Posted by ttpaba

Unfortunately the church board only consist of three men! It seems to me a church running approximately 800 should have a dozen or more board members (just my opinion). I think none of the board members should be related to the pastor or each other. Shouldn't be hard in a congregation of that size.
When Bro Black resigned it was definitely a shock to many of us because we had no idea anything was even going on. To many apparently at least 100 (since that's the number of people it takes to bring a petition of no confidence) it was no shock! Well maybe that he resigned instead of fighting it. The church has not crumbled but is regrouping with the TN HQ assisting in the transition process. Every individual will process the situation in their own way but I can assure you that TB was and is loved. I've seen him handle people so lovingly and diplomatically. I've seen him protect his flock from allowing judgmental attitudes taking over in an unfortunate situation. I've heard him direct the church to not kick a person when they are down but to love them and pray for them and not talk bad about them.
I wish I could say I know what happened but I don't. I know I lost my pastor, I don't know where he is or how he's doing. My children have lost their youth pastor and his wife who from all I can gather did absolutely nothing wrong. We've lost another leadership pastor and his wife who also have no accusations of wrong doing! The original two preachers that were helping us immediately after the resignation and were expected to be with us up to six months are also gone suddenly! Time will tell how people will handle things during the process of getting a new pastor. I'm sure it won't be easy because of the size alone of the congregation it will be a challenge for any man of God especially since we lost so much of our experienced staff that could have helped a new pastor through the orientation and settling in. I know this, I feel like I've been sucker punched to the point of being disoriented in my own church. I never know who to expect to be in the pulpit and the ones that are there are strangers to me. I'm supposed to trust God to lead us through the process of finding a new pastor but since I trusted Him when I came to TPC I wonder if I have a clue as to what God's will is. I know I can trust Jesus I just question the way organized religion does things. I wonder if I've been misled to trust to much. I fight my flesh and wonder if I can even know the will of God for our lives right now. I know I'm going to keep on striving for the mark of the high calling! I know I'll pray and read the Word and for now keep still and know that He is God and wait on modern men to work through a business like process all the while praying they will use wisdom and love and the Spirit of God to make tons of decisions and probably rewrite another ton of policies to avoid a similar situation and pray a hedge of protection over my family to protect us while we seek His face! I know this is long but I guess it's my way of working it out in my mind.

Your post really touched me because of its sincerity and lack of rancor. You really bared your innermost thoughts about the situation and what you are experiencing is exactly what I felt a lot of people in your situation go through.

As you touched on in your post the most important thing is to keep following Jesus who unlike human beings never fails. A leaders failure is heartbreaking and hard to understand but our faith is in God not men.

On a practical point I am shocked the church board was only three people. Wow! That is weird. I don't know the situation but if it is like a lot of Pentecostal church boards the board members were probably all hand picked by the pastor as people he thought would be yes men who would completely trust him, offer no real oversight, and rubber stamp whatever he wanted to do.

While I don't think a church board should run a church or a preacher I would think a pastor would want some accountability in place to both protect his reputation and to protect the church in case he ever did fall. I think ego is the main stumbling block to someone seeking accountability.