Big enough to write your own rules

It is not an easy thing to be the pastor of a mega-church. There are peculiar pressures and temptations that accompany such a role. Not least is the temptation to believe that you are big enough to write your own rules. The church's "success" is so intricately woven to your own that you become too big to fail. That is a dangerous place for any pastor and church. Add to that great sums of money and gratuitous praise from followers and the results are toxic.

More can be written about a story out of Charlotte, NC about a pastor and his great big house but suffice it to say that I now have another reason to be grateful for Presbyterianism.

Now, before my congregational brothers and sisters misunderstand, I am not saying that you are bad. I am not saying that autonomous congregationalism inevitably leads to the current outrage in Charlotte. It surely does not. I am saying that any well ordered denomination ought to have a means by which to discipline its goofier practitioners.