Bad Church Leadership

Matt, Alastair, and Andrew consider the many different factors present in bad church cultures of leadership.

Many Christians and ex-Christians have experienced severe trauma because of bad, even abusive, church leadership. Using the story of Mark Driscoll as a basis for comparison, Matt, Andrew, and Alastair discuss the causes and outcomes of bad leadership. They compare and contrast the US and UK churches, look at the sociology of trust, and ask how to examine one’s own leadership to avoid becoming abusive.

Links Mentioned:

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill bonus episode on Joshua Harris

Andrew Wilson’s pastorate

Framley Parsonage, by Anthony Trollope

The Book of the Month is Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body, by Dr. John W. Kleinig. Through his keen sensitivity to Scripture’s witness, Dr. Kleinig explains why bodies matter and addresses issues like shame, chastity, desire, gender dysphoria, and more, by integrating them into the biblical vision of creation. For the month of September 2021, Mere Fidelity listeners will get a 40% discount on their purchase of this volume with the code MEREFIDELITYSEP21 at checkout.

Timestamps

0:00
Book of the Month: Maybe Not as Protestant as You Think
1:20
The Trauma of Bad Church Leadership
2:56
Andrew Wilson, UK Pastor
9:13
Why do we put too much trust in the wrong place?
15:56
Not Letting Ourselves Off the Hook
20:10
Many Contributing Factors
25:21
Ephesians 4: Glorious Mixed Metaphor
31:08
Astroturfing the Mega-church
34:31
Overcorrecting
38:24
Really Knowing Your Audience
43:23
What does good authority look like?
47:24
Diagnostic

Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Timothy Crouch for keeping us organized. Special thanks to Tim Motte for sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.

Church Culture Abuse Technology
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