Anointed, Untouchable, unaccountable

If your authority can’t survive scrutiny, it isn’t spiritual—it’s control. This is a call for pastors to step off the pedestal and back into the work of formation.

This is the one that usually gets me in trouble.

Not because it attacks the Church.

But because it asks pastors to step off the pedestal we did not always ask for—but too often refuse to leave.

I am a credentialed minister. I believe in the pastoral calling. I have served under pastors who were faithful, humble, Scripture-anchored, and deeply accountable. If you are doing that work—quietly, honestly, without needing immunity—this is not aimed at you.

This is aimed at a posture that has crept into pastoral culture: the slow elevation from shepherd to unquestionable authority, from servant to spiritual reference point.

And it is killing people.

Once again, this is not aimed at any particular person, nor is it an attack on clergy. It is a call to reflection. If the shoe fits, wear it.

Calling is not immunity.

Somewhere along the way, “the anointed of the Lord” stopped being a reminder of responsibility and started being a shield against correction. Pastors became people you do not question, do not challenge, and must agree with—because disagreement is framed as rebellion, and discernment is recast as disobedience.

That is not biblical authority. That is fear dressed up as reverence.

If your calling cannot survive scrutiny, it is not spiritual authority—it is control.

Submission that ends at disagreement is just a preference with religious language.

Here is the unspoken truth many pastors already know: most people are “submitted” only as long as they agree. The moment they do not, they leave. That means the Pastor is treated like a pope—right up until the listener decides to become one themselves.

That dynamic does not produce disciples. It produces consumers.

And pastors who mistake that arrangement for absolute authority are building on sand.

A platform is not an altar.

When the success of a ministry becomes inseparable from the Pastor's personality, everything becomes distorted. The sermons get sharper. The brand gets cleaner. The platform gets protected.

And when sin surfaces—especially among leaders—the instinct is not repentance. It is containment.

Protect the Voice.

Protect the Influence.

Protect the Optics.

Just don’t get blood on the platform.

That is not pastoral courage. That is cowardice with a microphone.

If your Church collapses when the Pastor leaves, it was not built on Christ.

This one stings because it is measurable.

It also stings because it is happening to many good churches with good pastors who never learned how to delegate or pass the mantle.

This one is a double-edged sword.

If removing the Pastor means removing the Church’s identity, stability, and future, then the Church was not centered on Christ—it was orbiting a personality. That does not mean the Pastor was malicious. It means the structure was unhealthy.

As a side note, I have seen too many churches “rebranding and restructuring” to ensure their continuance, but all too often, it is just the Pastor making his vision louder and bolder. True repentance leads us to Scripture, not to a good mission statement.

Pastors are meant to equip the saints, not replace them. When everything funnels through one voice, burnout is inevitable—for the Pastor and for the people.

And burnout leaves a blazing trail to scandal.

The Pastor is not the Bible.

This should be obvious, but it is not.

When a pastor’s interpretation outweighs Scripture, something has inverted. When people are more afraid of disappointing their Pastor than misrepresenting Christ, formation has gone wrong. When “touch not the Lord’s anointed” is used to shut down accountability, Scripture has been weaponized.

Faithful pastors know this and resist it. Unhealthy ones need it.

Ordination is not coronation.

Pastors who are doing this well understand something crucial: authority in the kingdom is derivative, not absolute. It flows from Christ, through Scripture, for the sake of the people.

They do not need untouchability.

They do not demand silence.

They do not confuse honor with control.

They get off the high horse willingly—because they never believed it belonged to them in the first place.

This is the Line I will not cross.

I am not writing this to tear down pastors. I am writing this because I care about them—and about the people under their care.

Pastors who cannot be questioned are dangerous to themselves.
Pastors who cannot be corrected are dangerous to others.
Pastors who require silence to lead have already lost the plot.

And pastors who are doing it right already know this—because they’ve never needed to be treated as untouchable to be faithful.

If saying that gets me in trouble, so be it.

Better trouble than silence.

The altar is where one dies.
The pit is where authority gets tested.

If this feels threatening, ask why. Faithful authority doesn’t fear examination—it welcomes it.