Spiritual abuse is a hot topic these days. Typically, though, the conversation is geared toward exposing abusive leaders, but the same principles could be applied to this conversation where the abuse is aimed at the pastor. Quite frankly, pastors do experience spiritual abuse by congregations. The abuse can come from the leadership and formal power structurers, or even from a smaller group in the church and unofficial power structures, all aimed at punishing or removing the pastor.

It was time for me to leave. When I took the call to a congregational Baptist church four years earlier, I didn’t know that I would soon undergo the change of a lifetime—a change of my convictions. The church’s doctrinal statement was the Apostle’s Creed – that’s it. So, as my convictions began to trend in a more reformed direction, I believed myself to be within the doctrinal framework of the church, until I wasn’t.

The congregation was a little ruffled when I baptized the first couple of infants but generally tolerated my increasingly reformed sermons. But then I went too far. I took the painting of Sallman’s Head of Christ from above the communion table, which they still referred to as an altar, and I was in trouble. After four years it was time to leave, so I offered my resignation. However, what happened shocked me. The older folks in the congregation demanded a congregational meeting at which they refused my resignation! I didn’t know what was going on. Had I misread the people? Was there reformation brewing?

I didn’t have time to think more about it when another motion came from the floor, “I move that we terminate our current minister!” I was stunned. They had refused my resignation so that they could fire me. To add insult to injury, the very people who started the coup approached me afterward with smiles and offers to remain in the parsonage for as long as I needed.

In the moment, I didn’t think of what I was experiencing as spiritual abuse, but it certainly was, and I am not alone.

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