Yes Men

Recently we did a Bible study on an Old Testament king named Eglon. Because he was surrounded by servants who were so intimidated by him, he allowed himself to be put in a situation where he was left by himself and was assassinated by an enemy.



I remember back about 20 years ago when my family and I were attending a fairly large, well-known church. The pastor was very well-known as a speaker and book author and had started the church from scratch several years before. The church had grown into sort of a mega-church and had a couple thousand members. The pastor had a group of elders who were accountable to him. The problem was,... HE wasn't accountable to them. They were basically just "yes men".... too intimidated to challenge the pastor on any issue. After all, he was "The Senior Pastor"... and, to most of the people in the congregation he was a "Spiritual Giant".


This pastor had always cautioned his staff that it was not proper for a man to counsel a woman by himself, that there should at least be another person present. This was so there would be no hint of impropriety... and, lesser chance of developing an unhealthy relationship.


So, ...one day, the pastor finds himself counseling a woman.... alone..without any oversight. The elders know this is a problem but they choose to simply ignore it because they are too afraid to "make waves", too fearful to confront him on the issue. After all, this was "Mr. Spiritual" who was doing the counseling. This was the senior pastor. What could happen?


Well,... what could happen is that the pastor could end up having an affair and running off with the woman to another state, forsaking his church, his wife and his family. Yes, ....it happened. It dealt a devastating blow to the congregation.


Eventually the pastor came to his senses, repented and returned to the church. But, the damage was done, the church was broken apart, and a lot of folks were left questioning everything they had ever believed about Christianity and true faith.


It's a dangerous thing to be surrounded by people who are too afraid to question you once in awhile,... afraid to "confront" you about a direction your life is taking.


I think all of us would like to believe that we are always right about every issue in life. The simple truth is that we aren't. We all have our blind spots and will eventually, if not held in check, fall into a pit of some sort. It takes a degree of humility to admit this and to allow ourselves to be open to criticism. That doesn't mean that the criticism is always accurate, but it does mean that we have the ability to at least consider what people are trying to tell us.... without being offended by it....respecting the advice and even the "correction" of others.



I hope you will be one of those kind of people who refuse to surround yourself with "yes men" ... or "yes women". Allow yourself to be a person of integrity and humility. Both literally, and figuratively, it might save your life one day.