Dear Editor,
Thanks as ever for the recent print issue of Evangelicals Now.
As a Christian relatively new to an FIEC church, it was with interest that I read the article about John Stevens’ time with the FIEC. It’s encouraging that the purpose of FIEC is to “serve and support” independent churches. Encouraging because it reflects our Lord’s mission to be among us as one who served, not as one who lorded it over anyone.
Before I joined my church, I know that it found the FIEC extremely helpful in trying to sort some problems out – and I believe we were not even members then.
The one thing I wonder about with our system is, to whom is an FIEC pastor accountable?
A man of good reputation once described to me a situation where a pastor stayed on way beyond retirement when very few, if any, of his church actually wanted him there. I asked what the elders were doing about it and the reply came that they were too weak to do anything about the situation.
There didn’t seem to be anybody to whom the pastor was accountable. We all know that there have been splits and factions in independent churches and I wonder whether the lack of a pastor’s accountability is part of the problem.
In the New Testament a number of churches seem to be accountable to the apostle Paul for the good reason that he founded them. If traditional, hierarchical structures have been shown not to be the answer, how should we approach this?
Yours sincerely, Peter Whale Rugby
