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Diary of a (Maybe) Retired Pastor

Tag: Christian leadership

  • I Didn’t Know This!

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    I Didn’t Know This!

    One of the great things about being “maybe retired” is having a lot more time to read.  So it was I came across a book titled “The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity” by Kevin Giles (1). I knew what complementarianism was, or so I thought, and have raised my hands (figuratively) in exasperation at what I have always thought was a bit of fig-leaf of a doctrine (for those of you who don’t know what it is, it is the way some parts of the church justify excluding women from leadership in the church) but I didn’t know there was a complementarian doctrine of the Trinity! This may also surprise those of you who think, as I did, that the doctrine of the Trinity had been done and dusted 1600 years ago – there’s a complementarian doctrine of the Trinity!? So it was with a feeling of intrigue that I dived into this book.

    It was as good as a thriller, a page turner I couldn’t put down. As I delved into the nefarious doctrinal shenanigans surrounding the development and justification of the complementarian doctrine of the Trinity, open-mouthed astonishment would be a good description of my demeanour. The list of heavy-weight evangelical theologians and pastors nonchalantly strolling across the pages as major players in the development of major heresy – all to provide an irrefutable base for complementarian teaching about women – made me feel fortunate that I am of an age to have escaped their influence during my training!

    What these heavy weight theologians and pastors argued was that the Son – the Second Person of the Trinity – is eternally and essentially subordinate to the Father. And, from this position argued that this conclusively demonstrated that women must be subordinate to men (a little oversimplified perhaps, but the essence of the argument). It turns out, that for most of my time as an evangelical Christian, the bulk of the evangelical world has subscribed to a version of the Trinity that was labelled  heretical all the way back at the Council of Constantinople in 381AD. I have been fellowshipping with heretics!

    This may seem very obscure if you’re not a Christian, and even ordinary Christians might feel this is a bit dry, but we are taught by the ancient creeds of the church that the Father, Son, and Spirit are the same in divinity, power and authority; the Persons are each fully, and completely God but yet still one God. There are not three gods. It’s a mystery, and hard to get our heads around (who said God had to be simple?), but this has been what the church has professed since the 4th century. But late 20th – early 21st century evangelicals have seemingly deviated from this teaching and have taught a version of the Trinity that leads to the Son being a lesser god than the Father and, with that, the theology of the atonement goes out of the window (how is all of our sin paid for by a lesser god?)!

    The worrying thing about all of this is that it appears that foundational doctrine was changed simply to justify the subordination of women to men. Perhaps, the theologians and pastors involved would vehemently deny this, but this is what it looks like. Thankfully, It appears that in the last few years other evangelical theologians have recognised the serious departure from orthodox Christian teaching on the Trinity and have rejected the path taken by these senior theologians and pastors. How long this change of heart will take to percolate through the ranks of ordinary church ministers and local congregations who have been trained in this version of the Trinity is unclear. Complementarian teachers continue to argue their case but the fact that their leaders found it necessary to resort to fundamental heresy surely says all that needs to be said about the soundness of this teaching? It all seems like convoluted mansplaining to me!

    1. Kevin Giles, The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trintiy, 2017 Cascade Books.

  • God, Mammon, and Paula Vennells

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    God, Mammon, and Paula Vennells

    “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

    Matthew 6:24 (RSV)

    Here in the UK, the public inquiry into the Post Office scandal which has been described as the greatest miscarriage of justice in English legal history is reaching a climax. The former CEO during the most important period of the scandal, Revd. Paula Vennells, has begun giving her testimony to the inquiry. For Christians the fact that she was, and is, an ordained minister in the Anglican Church adds an extra dimension to the scandal – how is it that a Christian Minister could be at the helm of such a miscarriage of justice? In fact, a little reflection on church history, both in the past and more recently, will remind us that Christian ministers are by no means immune to the grossest violations of integrity and justice. But that does not excuse us from asking the question why should that be?

    I have quoted one of Jesus’ most famous sayings above. The alert reader will notice that I have used the old Revised Standard Version (which I grew up with) in which the counterpoint to God is Mammon. Modern translations will translate “Mammon” as “riches” or “wealth”. This is quite reasonable since “mammon” was indeed used to mean just that. But Jesus’ contraposition of the word to “God” confers, it seems to me, something more to the word. It implies a deeper spiritual significance. We are not talking about mere riches but the spiritual powers behind it. The Apostle Paul warns us that it is not against “flesh and blood” that we struggle, but against “principalities and powers”, that is, spiritual forces.

    I feel sure that mere money did not sway Paula Vennells. She was indeed well paid as the CEO of the Post Office and felt obligation to the Post Office and she worked hard to fulfil her duties. But in doing so she failed to notice that her devotion was slowly drifting away from God and to the spiritual powers underlying the riches of the position of CEO. Instead of serving God, she served the spiritual powers behind the position of CEO and so she became blind to the ordinary people who were suffering at the hands of the Post Office – her hands. She had become devoted to the Post Office.

    Paula Vennells is not unique in this. Christian leaders everywhere have fallen to this subtle idolatry. Whether it is a church, an evangelistic ministry, or some other kind of work or organisation, as wealth starts to figure large around the office of the leader the powers behind that wealth start to exert their subtle influence on the Christian leader. Whether it’s in defence of the church, the ministry, or the NHS (say), or, indeed, simple greed, slowly the institution or organisation or the office itself  begins to usurp the place that belongs to God in the heart of the leader. The result is that people become mere assets, units of resource, or any of the other euphemisms that we use to disguise the fact we no longer regard people as bearers of the image of God but only as resource units worthwhile only in so far as they have value to the institution or the satisfaction of our greed.

    Paula Vennells story is a stark reminder to us of the subtle perils of idolatry for Christian leaders once wealth and riches start to accumulate around their office and organisations. We need to remember that as leaders we serve God through serving people. Because we are leaders much of that service is through the institution or organisation, but that must never blind us to the purpose of our leadership – to serve the people we lead, it is through that that we honour God.

  • Paula Vennells

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    Paula Vennells

    God has made me a byword to everyone, a man in whose face people spit.

    Job 17:6

    Paula Vennells is a Christian minister who was the chief executive of the Post Office during the period when it was most vigorously denying any wrong doing regarding the prosecutions of hundreds of its own sub-post masters (the ordinary people who run the local post offices). In the face of public outcry against the injustice perpetrated by the Post Office – it has been described as the “most widespread miscarriage of justice … in British legal history”1 – she has expressed her sorrow2 for the suffering of those wrongfully treated by the Post Office and has returned the CBE she was awarded when she left the Post Office in 2019. This surely falls far short of what is required.

    The chief executive of an organisation is responsible for the actions of the organisation. This is part of the raison d’etre of the office and a major reason why they are substantially rewarded. The chief executive shares in the glory of the organisation but also its shame. Paula Vennells was rewarded and honoured for turning the Post Office from loss to profit. She shared in its glory. But this was before the true extent of the injustices perpetrated by the Post Office were known. With the exposure of those gross injustices the Post Office is rightly shamed. Paula Vennells shares in that shame. But so far she has not owned that shame nor owned the fault.  It maybe that, privately, she feels it, but that is not enough. She has to publicly own and confess it.

    But, she is also a Christian minister who, it is said, was at one time even considered for the Bishopric of London.  As a minister of God she is held to a higher standard than others (see e.g. the letter of James 3:1  in the Bible). It maybe that part of her silence is due to legal advice not to say anything in case she incriminate herself. The Court of Appeal described the actions of the Post Office as “so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the “Horizon cases” an affront to the conscience of the court”3 . But she is accountable to a higher court than any mere human judge and she must do what is right before Him. Publicly confessing that she failed, as the CEO, to ensure that the Post Office acted in a just manner and apologising to those who have suffered as a consequence is the first step of repentance and of putting herself right with God and with all those who have suffered through her failure. This is regardless of the details of how well she understood what was going on, whether her subordinates deceived or misled her, or any other internal matter. It is as the CEO of the organisation that she has to respond.

    To be a byword is not a good thing in the biblical Old Testament.  It is the sign of God’s judgement on a wayward and unrepentant Israel and Job applies it personally to himself as he mourns the condition he finds himself in. Paula Vennels has, sadly, become a byword for corporate injustice on an enormous scale. She will be referred to and studied in business management courses, in theological courses, in Christian leadership courses, as an example of what not to do as a leader.  She can, however, still affect the final chapter of this tale by what she does before she testifies to the public inquiry.

    1The CCRC and Post Office/ Horizon cases https://ccrc.gov.uk/news/the-ccrc-and-post-office-horizon-cases/  acc. 13/02/2024

    2 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/post-office-scandal-paula-vennells-bates-b2475635.html acc. 14/2/2024

    3IN THE MATTER OF A REFERENCE BY THE CRIMINAL CASES REVIEW COMMISSION Between: JOSEPHINE HAMILTON & OTHERS Appellants – and – POST OFFICE LIMITED Respondent https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hamilton-Others-v-Post-Office-judgment-230421.pdf acc. 13/02/24