Comments on: Abusing Authority in Teaching

By: Stephanie N.

Stephanie N. — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:34:20 +0000

Great thoughts, Brian. I have fallen into all three of these traps before. When I read your dissection of these issues, it all seems so clear: “Of course I would never want to do those things!” But as you stated, in real life the nuances are much more subtle. I don’t have any grand thoughts to add. But you’ve really given me a lot to chew on…thanks!

By: Beav

Beav — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:13:24 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts Benson. I appreciate that given how much you've seen on the ground level across the country. This stream of thought can be somewhat frightening because it calls us to continually be able to self-evaluate with an open mind, which requires a measure of character that often eludes many of us.I've particularly been bothered in the past by how dependence is equated with "teachability" or spiritual thirst as you mentioned. We end up developing leaders according to who puts up the least resistance to our efforts to get them to do what we want them to do because they're "faithful, available, teachable." We do need big time wisdom because many assumptions that have been passed on in ministry need to be re-evaluated, especially as we continue to see and experience the fruit of those assumptions.I love the phrase "not-quite-cults" too

By: Benson Hines

Benson Hines — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:18:58 +0000

What's interesting for us in the field of college ministry is that we, like the Christian academic, have an easier time than most abusing our authority – but for different reasons. In the case of the academic (or Christian "celebrity"), their position can make the three things you talked about happen more quickly.But in our case, it's our audience that's more susceptible (than most audiences) to falling into this. So as college ministers, we can fall into these traps without much warning. As we've seen in the history of college ministry, there's no easier place to start a cult – so what does that mean for not-quite-cults?Thanks for calling for big-time wisdom here. On a college campus, indoctrination looks an awful lot like biblical literacy, dependence looks an awful lot like spiritual thirst, and a mass following can be too quickly assumed to be the fruit of our labor in the Lord.I might add, especially for our world, Facilitating True Depth vs. Gnosticism.