Differentiating the Disciplinary Pastor vs. The Dictatorial Pastor


Sad to say but sometimes, "liberals" are not the only people who refuse to differentiate discipline from dictatorship.  In fact, some pastors tend to become unreasonably strict with their pulpit all in the name of discipline and Christianity.  They would even misrepresent Joshua or Moses just so they could go on with their unreasonable behavior.  What's worse is that these kinds of pastors can show a bad temper, do name calling, do cheapshots and even say bad words whenever they are angry.  They hardly show any Christ-likeness in their leadership and say, "Well don't tell me God never gets angry!"

There are leadership styles and the most common models are authoritarian (dictatorial) vs. authoritative (disciplinarian).  Discipline is defined as the act of training people to obey the rules using punishment to correct disobedience.  Dictatorship means running people through fear and often through brutality.  Differentiating the two can create the badly needed balance between being too strict and too lenient.

If a pastor is a disciplinarian or authoritative type, he is firm with the rules but he is not a dictator. He treats his pulpit with love and respect.   He establishes his authority with love and respect.  The reason why he punishes the people under him for their mistakes is not power play but out of concern.  While you can rebuke without loving, you cannot love without rebuking.  Their purpose of correcting members who are in error is not because of them personally but because of the well-being of their members.  He is strict not to do power play but because he wants his congregation to do well in their Christian life.

On the other hand, a pastor who is a dictator exercises discipline but he does not love.  He is most likely to yell at every single mistake the pulpit makes.  He establishes authority not by love but by fear.  He may not even be open and he may use legalistic means to preach.  Maybe every Sunday, he only yells at the pulpit or behaves like Hitler.  When he is contradicted, he may go from simple tantrums to getting physical (ex. punching a Catholic Faith Defender or atheist just to get a point across) instead of turning the other cheek.  For him, he may believe the only way discipline can be done is if he controls people by fear and intimidation.  He might even say, "Well I hope you go to Hell and if you do, I'll laugh at you!"  That is, he refuses to listen to reason and will display more stubborn behavior than usual.

However God has command to the pastors not to be dictators.  1 Timothy 3:3 says, "Not given to wine, NO STRIKER, not greedy for filthy lucre, but PATIENT , NOT A BRAWLER, not covetous;"  Even if a dictator pastor is against liquor, greed and covetousness but he cannot expect to be a good pastor IF he is a prone to using physical force, impatient and a brawler.  Pastoring requires patience and remember, when Moses struck the rock twice, he lost his ticket to the Promised Land of Canaan.