Tag Archives: pastors
How can you tell if someone who has the office of shepherd is actually a hireling?
Barbara Roberts ♦ 28th May 2020 ♦ 47 Comments
Discerning good leaders from incompetent / bad leaders is vital in these perilous times. This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. Part 1 Part 3 In Part 1, I set out some basic differences between good leaders (true under-shepherds) and hirelings. Sooner or later, hirelings will abandon the sheep to the wolves. All true …
Sheep, sheep-like shepherds, shepherds, and wolves
Barbara Roberts ♦ 18th May 2020 ♦ 62 Comments
Society and especially the churches are in perilous times. Therefore it’s imperative to discern the difference between shepherds and wolves. There are three types of people in the church, as there are elsewhere. That’s a generalisation, but it can help us understand life. In Christian terms, those three types are Sheep, Shepherds and Wolves. This …
What is the basis for saying Christians must obey church elders?
Barbara Roberts ♦ 18th April 2020 ♦ 16 Comments
Have you been told to submit to church elders? Have you heard the ‘rule’ that we must obey church leaders? What is the basis for this ‘rule’ that you, as a professing Christian, must (must) obey church elders? Definition of terms…so we all start on the same page. I will be using the term ‘elders’ …
Covid19 and interpersonal abuse
Barbara Roberts ♦ 23rd March 2020 ♦ 13 Comments
Domestic abuse and family violence are bound to increase because of the new laws and policies that have been put in place. Many victims of abuse are stuck at home with their abusers because of lockdowns of non-essential services, people being urged to work from home, and people being ordered or choosing to self-isolate in …
Church apologies are getting old. It’s wise to be cynical about church abuse-awareness programs.
Barbara Roberts ♦ 24th November 2019 ♦ 16 Comments
Don’t get too excited if a church apologises to abuse victims and runs an ‘awareness program’ about abuse. This post is a head’s up to those who might be getting hopeful about the churches that are running ‘abuse awareness programs’ these days. It is a re-working of an old post of mine. First I’m going …
Are abusers blind? Are abusers deceived? What does the Bible say?
Barbara Roberts ♦ 26th September 2019 ♦ 7 Comments
This is part 1 of a 7 part series on Spiritual Blindness and Deception. Are abusers spiritually blind? (Or psychologically blind, which is pretty much the same thing.) Are abusers deceived? If they are deceived, to what extent have they been deceived by others and to what extent have they deceived themselves? These questions about …
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