jerry sweet:
Meaningful accountability seems to be a problem for Calvary Chapel from Chuck Smith on down. Calvary has a history of problems concerning this issue.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
The overwhelming majority of Protestant churches in the United States have democratically elected boards that can fire a postor for bad conduct. That is, churches have constituions and bylaws that provide for the regular election of board members who serve fixed terms and then must stand for re-election. The board typically votes upon and controls the church budget, hiring and firing of staff (e.g. pastors) and is itself elected by secret ballot, as we elect government officials on the local, state and national level.
Calvary also appears to have a probelsm with financial transparency.
Meaningful financial transparency is provided by annually published budgets distributed to all contributors that are independently audited, which disclose in detail all salaries, compensation and expenses paid out from church funds.
No church is perfect and there is "good" and "bad leadership".
But problems concerning leadership can largely be prevented through meaningful accountability.
Democratic church government is one thing that distinguishes Protestant churches from the Roman Catholic Church, which as anyone can see from its recent clergy scandals has a problem with accountability.
Chuck Smith is something like the "pope" of Calvary Chapel. He and his chosen few run the churches much like a franchise operation.
It seems to me that so-called "hirelings" (i.e. pastors that are hired and can be fired) are preferable to dictators without meaningful accountability.