How are parishioners, especially those who have had negative experiences with authority figures in their past, to trust church officers: pastors, elders, and deacons? This is a good question, and it is one that merits our careful and compassionate consideration.
First of all, it is good to note that the Fall has left ALL people skeptical (at best), and rebellious (at worst), when it comes to ANY authority.
But what is not often comprehended, is that refusal to trust authority is directly related to refusal to trust God. Now, no one denies that a saint's trust of God is to be implicit, comprehensive, and filial. The same cannot be said about one's trust of all human authority. The godly person trusts other fallen sinners, put in positions of authority over them, in an incomplete and yet still sincere way.
Ironically, failure to trust (in this way) legitimate authority, is failure to trust in God, who providentially and sovereignly put the people He has, over us.
The best way for parishioners to trust church leaders, is for those leaders to show themselves worthy of their trust. Do they (the leaders) defend the flock? Do they feed the flock? Are they willing to stay with the flock, through thick and thin? If the answer is, "Yes," then the people in the pew develop a bond of trust and love, that cannot be generated in any other way.
The fact that there ARE bad church authorities is not to be taken as reason to cast an aspersion on all such authorities. God is especially hard on false shepherds. (But He is not easy on rebellious sheep, either.)
The Forum for Ecclesiocentricity is designed to educate Christians and non-Christians alike to understand the Biblical teaching concerning the Church (the "Puritan" church in particular), with regard to its principal role on the earth. When this is achieved, it is hoped that the Church would then be in a better position to convey Christ's redemptive virtues to the civil government (state), and the family. (You may email me at: markjhenninger@gmail.com)
