Hi Brooke Eikenberry

Thank you for your comment at Provoketive Magazine (http://provoketive.com). We’re creating a space of rich conversation about life, faith, justice and culture without judgment. Our desire is to provoke the reader’s imagination through conversation and open up spaces of dialogue, learning, and hope.  We want to invite you to come back soon and continue to participate in the conversation. 

Thank you,
Jonathan Brink
Provoketive Magazine

You posted the following comment:
---------------------------------
Tiaan,

Thanks for the comment and opportunity for further discussion! 

If I am being completely frank and not just trying to be diplomatic or provoke discussion, I agree with the premise that, if Christians are following the will of God, they will be like-minded (for the most part) and that leading does not include dictatorial powers. In my experience, those who follow a more dictatorial approach to leadership also agree... So the problem comes when there is disagreement, as there will be. For, we all still fall prey to sin, and I think we can agree that means everyone falls out of the will of God on occasion. What then? In the dictatorial churches, it is assumed that leadership is never wrong and should always be followed. So, the member or lay person is assumed to be always wrong. That is a dangerous set-up, much like the belief that the Pope is infallible. 

Even if they will admit that leadership can be wrong, dictatorial churches will still say members must always 'submit' to leadership-- for the leadership will be accountable to God in that case, not the member. They tend to extrapolate on verses about women submitting to husbands(Colossians 3:18, Ephesians 5) general verses about submitting to earthly and church authority (Romans 3:1-7, Hebrews 13:17,1 Peter 2: 13-14) and Old Testament references, like when David refused to harm King Saul, because he was the Lord 's anointed. They also go so far as to suggest that disagreeing with leadership is always rebellion, which allows for clobber verses like 1Samuel 15:22-23, which states that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. These are verse that I've personally heard used for such purposes, and I am sure there are many more. In my opinion, it's QUITE a stretch, yet it is not that uncommon. 

In the end, we are all accountable to God, and I doubt "but my Pastor/minister/whatever told to do it this way, so I did it even though I knew in my heart that was wrong" will fly.