54
Pastoral Ministry
brethren with kindness and courtesy, not with harshness and severity.
You do not realize the harm you do by your sharp, domineering spirit
toward them.—EGW’88 245.
[54]
Do not exercise arbitrary authority—When our schemes and
our plans have been broken; when men who have depended upon
our judgment conclude the Lord would lead them to act and judge
for themselves, we should not feel like censuring, and like exercising
arbitrary authority to compel them to receive our ideas. Those who are
placed in authority should constantly cultivate self-control.—
Counsels
to Writers and Editors, 37, 38
.
Do not pervert your pastoral power into despotism over your
flock—The minister is not to rule imperiously over the flock entrusted
to his care, but to be their ensample, and to show them the way to
heaven. Following the example of Christ, he should intercede with
God for the people of his care till he sees that his prayers are answered.
Jesus exercised human and divine sympathy toward man. He is our
example in all things. God is our Father and Governor, and the Chris-
tian minister is the representative of His Son on earth. The principles
that rule in heaven should rule upon earth; the same love that animates
the angels, the same purity and holiness that reign in heaven, should,
as far as possible, be reproduced upon earth. God holds the minister
responsible for the power he exercises, but does not justify His ser-
vants in perverting that power into despotism over the flock of their
care.—
Testimonies for the Church 4:267, 268
.
Leaders should act as wise counselors, not exacting rulers—
Sometimes a man who has been placed in responsibility as a leader,
gains the idea that he is in a position of supreme authority, and that
all of his brethren, before making advance moves, must first come to
him for permission to do that which they feel should be done. Such a
man is in a dangerous position. He has lost sight of the work of a true
leader among God’s people. Instead of acting as a wise counselor, he
assumes the prerogatives of an exacting ruler. God is dishonored by
every such display of authority and self-exaltation. No man standing
in his own strength is ever to be mind and judgment for another man
whom the Lord is using in His work. No one is to lay down man-made
rules and regulations to govern arbitrarily his fellow laborers who have
a living experience in the truth.—
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel
Workers, 491
.