Eldership; Abuses

The following excerpt from an article from Eternity Magazine in 1979, written by Ronald Enroth, and entitled "The Power Abusers", certainly caused a stir at First Baptist of Chula Vista. If you would like to read the entire article, google Ken Pagard and this is the number one search item. Most of it has nothing to do with us. There are several very interesting parts to the article. The little selection below is excerpted because it is the section that directly attributes abuse in the First Baptist Church of Chula Vista.

"The touchy issues of authority and submission are far from being fully resolved in evangelical circles, however. A well-known charismatic American Baptist church in Chula Vista California , for example, continues in a swirl of controversy over the alleged authoritarianism of its leadership, especially the pastor, Ken Pagard. The church, many of whose members live in communal households, has also been criticized for certain aspects of its "inner healing" ministry. Some ex-members have claimed that spanking of unsubmissive wives was not unknown and that any criticism of the pastor (occasionally referred to as "our apostle") and elders was interpreted as a "spirit of rebellion" and hence, the work of Satan. Many have left the communal lifestyle claiming that heads of households are "on a power trip." One disgruntled former member commented, "They will not let people mature; they want to keep people dependent on the head of the household." Others have left because of the strain on their marriages resulting from group pressures."

I think that the criticism of the Inner Healing ministry is somewhat valid. At its most basic understanding, Inner Healing was the concept that God wants to heal us, not only physically, but also emotionally. He can and will heal those painful memories that continue to hamper our maturity. Originally this involved mainly prayer for the person as they walked through these memories, but later things like re-parenting began to be introduced. These were controversial innovations. They were unproven in effectiveness and they did create a lot of unhealthy dependency. I suppose that this attitude didn't just stay in inner healing -- some felt (probably correctly) that they weren't allowed to mature.

I am aware of no particular incident of spanking "unsubmissive wives". I don't doubt that it occurred , but it certainly wasn't anything taught as a routine matter -- at least I am not aware of it. I also don't believe that Ken or the elders were as sensitive to criticism as the article claims. We were certainly aware that we were criticized. We did label some as having a "rebellious spirit". This could mean that they were just rebels at heart, or it could mean that we thought that they were demonically influenced. As to Ken being an apostle. There were others mentioned in scripture other than the twelve that had an apostolic ministry. Modern writers discuss missionaries and church planters as having an apostolic ministry. I confess that I was uncomfortable with this designation, yet, it is apostle with a small "a" that was meant. Ken was never thought to have the authority of the twelve.

One of the things that I participated in that seems somewhat abusive in hindsight is that of 24 hour ministry. When someone couldn't seem to get over certain behaviors, an elder or other leader was assigned to be with them at all times to ensure proper behavior. I remember being assigned to perform 24 hour ministry with John Lee -- one of the men in our household. One of the humorous incidents was when we visited a non-resident household. I was visiting as one of the elders just to see how they were doing -- a pastoral visit. The people in the household assumed that John was an elder (he wasn't). A women who was having a hard time quitting smoking was asking for counsel and prayer. Before I could say anything, John went off, calling her a sinner on the way to hell. She was weak and deserved all the punishment that God could give her. It was pretty bad. I tried to explain to her that John wasn't an elder, but she left convinced that we elders were pretty mean!

I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Enroth after this article was written. It was at a seminar on cults here in San Diego (another article needs to be accusations that we were a cult). Since I was in seminary, I was sent by the eldership to engage people who, we thought, mislabeled us. Dr. Enroth and I had a good talk. I didn't persuade him of anything, but I sensed that we both felt that we had a discussion between Christian brothers.

Finally, were we abusive. I think some of the accusations were valid, but this was not our intent. I think that we went to far in trying to carry out what we felt were honorable goals. I was asked whether I would do things differently today. The answer is that, knowing what I know now, absolutely yes. All I can really say is that those were some wonderful times -- yet they were also terrible times. As an elder, I whole heartedly apologize to anyone who was hurt in those days.