Dear Editor,
Have you ever been asked whether you submit to or trust the elders? If you were asked to meet with the elders, would you be excited or fearful? Do you feel free to express views that are different? Are the things said in your church meeting regarded as highly confidential? Is there much real discussion or friendly debate?
Some friends have been pushed out of an independent reformed evangelical church (not one I have ever attended) and banned from Communion at any gospel church. They questioned some of the ways in which the elders were running the church and then revealed, to a few friends who asked them, the shocking way that the elders had treated them in a ‘private pastoral meeting’. Only two others in the church spoke up publicly for them.
The elders concerned say that the members are duty-bound to vote for any proposal that they, the elders, put to a church meeting unless it is explicitly contrary to Scripture: ‘to disobey them is to disobey God’. In effect the elders have become accountable to no one on this earth. The combination of excessive authoritarianism and the elders’ claim to secrecy creates a fertile ground for abuse and together they make a church function like a sect.
I am wondering how widespread this view is amongst reformed evangelical churches? Have others fallen foul of excessively authoritarian and domineering elders? What can be done? I would be interested to hear from others by email.
Yours sincerely,
John Horrocks
john@horrocks.co.uk
