A few weeks ago I found out that the pastor the church in Korea I used to attend had been asked to leave the church. The reason for his dismissal was a few likely influential members of the Korean side of the ministry did not like his management of certain ministries including social justice and the children's ministry. According to what the pastor said there was no discussion, or personal attempt to resolve the issue. There was no attempt at genuine resolution of conflict from their side. The relationship was broken and seemingly distant.
Initially my reaction to this was how could this have happened? I thought it was rather unbiblical and unfair to the pastor to be dismissed because of the opposition of a powerful few, based on preference. Now looking back though I had to consider something else. Biblical conflict resolution is only part of the story. Biblical conflict preemption is the other half. I'm not sure if the pastor had much in the way of any power, influence, or connection to the people or involvement in the lives of these people. Personally I didn't feel any strong connection to this pastor either. When people said, "You should go and encourage him." My initial response was my words would be meaningless to him and I personally didn't have any sincere words to say regarding his dismissal. Considering this fact I thought, perhaps these people too felt the same kind of cold distance from him as a pastor. One Korean man I know from the Church said he felt like he only knew the pastor as a man on the stage, and not a human being, who loves his church members. I have to say I felt the same way. Perhaps there are reasons for his distance in that regard.
I now have to wonder. Was this kind of dismissal more about a lack of genuine dialogue from the outset and an a lack of genuine availability from the pastor's side so that actually the anonymous members in question did not feel comfortable, or thought it even possible to have a dialogue with him in the first place. Really I don't know the situation totally, and personally I think that people who are so influential in the church should be more mature, but I can see where this kind of attitude might come from. It is unfortunate that this kind of cowtowing to people with money or political power simply continues the cycle, of babying people with this kind of power to think that they are important in God's kingdom because of their reputation, money, or position here on Earth. On the other side of the coin it is part of a pastor's job to attempt (before this kind of situation breaks out) to go to people who may have something against them and try to reconcile too. That is the position and example of a more mature Christian, that they attempt to resolve conflict before it becomes a problem. A disconnect from personal relationship with members of one's ministry makes this very difficult. It's part of the reason I left that particular church. I don't think it is an offense worthy of being removed from the pastorate, however it is important to maintain relationships with people with whom you disagree. This shows the love of Christ.
One of my personal struggles with watching the events unfold was actually that the pastor was a self confessed workaholic, and asked people on occasion to pray for him about that, but at the same time he was the editor of a devotional magazine, a seminary professor, a lead pastor, and heading up a social justice organization, and had a wife and baby son. I would have to say in all of this there was a providential consequence. This pastor may now have to evaluate what is really the most important thing in his life and focus on doing that. He will probably no longer be tied to the myriad of responsibilities in his work with a ministry organization that has a reputation for over taxing their ministers, and perhaps will find a ministry context where he might be rebuked rather than praised for overdoing it. Having to manage so many complex things in a ministry makes it very difficult to have time for people. Managing a controversial ministry makes it even more challenging.
While my personal feelings towards the pastor may not have been the warmest, as a Christian who sat under his ministry, and who watched him struggle to do all of those things well, I feel saddened that his church leadership thought so much of political/monetary influence that due process was ignored and he was simply let go. I am at the same time a critic of his style but a supporter of him as a person. Even though I may even feel this was a natural consequence of the events in question, it was clearly unjust, and has caused me to question the governing principles of the host church which initially I had such a high notion of for avoiding scandals. Here is one thing I have against this church and I would like to say it is to their shame that this is how things have played out (if what the pastor who was dismissed had said was true). The insult to injury of this case is that the accusers who threatened to leave the church remained anonymous. Under Korean law this actually perhaps is the one case where I feel the slander rules are fair and needed. Anonymity protects the powerful in this case and hurts those without the political or monetary resources, and I am saddened to see such a tragic display of power politics that has been fracturing the church in Korea for centuries continue to play itself out.
2014/11/29 Edit: It has come to my attention that some parts of the Onnuri side of the story were not accurately represented by the Pastor in his announcement which actually changes my position on this issue. It is unfortunate that either due to such a distressing situation or some other reason the pastor gave such an impression.
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