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Originally Posted by Ohio
I'm not understanding why you are differentiating Recovery leaders from so-called "church" leaders on this thread. If the differences are so "insidious," then we should discuss it. And who are these "church" leaders? Are you referring to the parish priest where I grew up? Perhaps the guy running for POTUS? They are both considered "church" leaders. Of course, the Bible says nothing about "Recovery" leaders, but neither does it mention "Baptist" leaders either.
I'm not trying to be funny here. The thread title mentions "Church Leaders" on a LC forum, and I thought that's what was being discussed. Perhaps a few lurkers out there have had the same issues that I have faced.
I have said repeatedly that we should submit and obey church leaders based on Hebrew 13.17. Paul's instruction was pretty straightforward. After 30 years in the Recovery, I reached the point where I could not, in all good conscience, continue submitting to these leaders. I faced serious issues on a local, regional, and national level.
I was hoping for healthy feedback, that's all.
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I think you are completely misunderstanding my point.
I am not discouraging you from discussing it. Go ahead. My point was NOT that we shouldn't discuss it. My point was that the Recovery is not a church. It's a movement. So the rules of church leadership may or may not apply. And since the Bible doesn't speak to the organization of movements, any search for some kind of defining biblical word on how the leadership of that movement should lay will be futile.
It's not that I think movements are invalid. It's that the Bible does not speak to their organization. That's why I said "I don't care." I wasn't saying that it shouldn't be discussed. Just that I don't think it can be defined biblically.
I've watched these discussions go round and round before. Everyone's trying to figure out how "the Recovery" should have been organized. My point is to take a step back and ask, "Whoever said it was ever supposed to have been organized in the first place?"
We can search the Bible all we want. We are not going to find commandments having to do with movement leadership. The best we can do is make some big assumptions. But that's not what the Recovery believes. They seem to think that the lines of authority in their movement should be biblically definable. My point is they can't know because the Church is not supposed to be organized as a movement in the first place.