You’ve met them, the coalition of the disaffected.

They’ve been around for centuries, if I read 1 Corinthians 1-3 (and all of 2 Corinthians) correctly.  Marshall Shelley wrote a book about them back in the 1990’s, entitled Well-Intentioned Dragons.  Well, at least partly about them.

And if you’ve been in church leadership for any length of time, ESPECIALLY if you have planted a church, they’ve caused you headaches.

The disaffected are that group of chronically unhappy church shoppers who move from congregation to congregation, infecting others with their dissatisfaction, never finding a church that properly appreciates them or allows them to serve in keeping with their spiritual gifting.

They can be very attractive.  When you first meet them, they seem like an opportunity, not a problem.  They’re gifted, articulate, passionate about church.  They may offer to help with the worship team or the children’s ministry.  Usually, they offer to help with things that give them some kind of recognition.  They’re less likely to volunteer for the cleanup crew.

But they’re gifted and articulate and passionate about church, you know?  And if you’re a pastor, you NEED people who are gifted and articulate and passionate about church.

Until you realize that they have their own agenda, and it won’t harmonize with the agenda God gave you for your church.

You soon realize: there is a good reason why these gifted, passionate people were not happily plugged into a healthy church.  The healthy churches figured out what they were, and either asked them to leave or cut off their attempts to take control, and they left of their own volition.