When the Uri-kiri wants to fire a pastor

Koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Visiting Professor, Department of Liberal Arts Education, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Like the crisis Elijah faced with Ahab and Jezebel who did not like his sermons because Elijah was pointing out their sins and like John the Baptist with Herod Antipas and Herodias “that old fox” Jesus said about him, so the country-side pastor, a gentle, kind, friendly, polite but straight-preaching pastor, faces the uri-kiri who thinks they can cast him out of his ministry in their countryside congregation.

The background is that the headelder and his wife worked in a mine during his early years and did not keep the Sabbath. He worked on Sabbaths. Now that he is retired he moved to his hometown, keep the Sabbath and became headelder. They boast that they had to work on the Sabbath to keep their sons at Medical school and now that both are doctors, how wonderful they are because they are giving them lots of money.

The headelder and his wife do not pay tithe. Their son gives them $3000 per month and they do pay $300 tithe but on their son’s name and not their name. Then they get the receipt in their son’s name faithfully each month for who knows what purpose. The issue is that a tithe cannot be paid to God by a spiritually dead member. The second point is that Ezechiel 18 indicates that the son will not save the father and the father the son. My father died last year but I cannot pay my tithe under his name. It is the same principle. Not for the headelder and his wife.

So the headelder a few weeks ago prayed in the backroom for the pastor that the Holy Spirit will accompany him for his sermon and when this great pastor, the modern Elijah, the modern Jeremiah 26:7-8 Jeremiah, the modern John the Baptist, walked up to the pulpit to preach about tithe he mentioned that God provided this instrument for us to receive enormous blessings from him. He also indicated that one cannot pay tithe on another person’s name for oneself. And here the saga started . . .

The headelder approached the pastor, unauthorized by any elder, unauthorized by the Bible, unauthorized by the Church-manual, and asked him why he mentioned about the tithe, and added, since he preached about the tithe, the people did not like his sermon, and the people do not like his sermons. With no support from the headelder the experienced retired pastor felt that he will say: “then maybe I should not renew the contract after February”. But, in essence the pastor wants to continue and in essence the majority of the members liked his sermons.

The pastor gave his telephone number to the congregation and they called him to tell him how they enjoy his ministry some without knowing the headelder’s conversation with the pastor, not even that the pastor mentioned “then maybe I should stop”.

The headelder informed the uri-kiri, of which he and his wife is a key member, that the pastor decided to stop. He did not quote the sentence correctly “then maybe I should stop” but “I should stop”. There is a difference in perception and that is what him and his wife was hoping for.

The situation is the same as in the days of Jeremiah 26:7-8 “And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying: ‘You must die’”. Horrible. And that in the year 2014 right in front of my eyes.

So what is the solution? The uri-kiri is corrupt since some drink, don’t pay tithe, work on the Sabbath, move furniture for members on the Sabbath, under the sanctioning eyes of the headelder and his wife. Their sons are no longer Adventists although one is working for an Adventist hospital but smoking. The other one was leader of ACT church in Seoul but left to work on Sabbaths for the government and although he has opportunity to come to church, does not come, despite numerous efforts to get him involved and to come to church. He prefers to play tennis with friends after work. The daughter also forsake the principles of Adventism.

What is the solution? It is evident that the headelder and his wife cannot function as leaders in our local church but no-one wants to approach them to explain that to them. He contracted recently Parkinsons? or rather diabetes and she is also not too healthy, but it does not stop them from their notorious agendas. So one elder and his wife went to them to persuade them to apologize for their behavior.

If this does not work, the other alternative is to call an elder’s meeting in order to discipline the headelder for his unauthorized comments to the pastor, for harassing the pastor, for not following church-manual on various occasions, for paying tithe on the name of a dead member.

The pastor is a very well-known and famous pastor of Korea that has written words for two or three hymns in the SDA Hymnbook of which 489 is one of them. The headelder and his wife do not realize the enormity of the problem they are busy creating.

It is possible that the problem will die down naturally, since it may be just a “Korean thing” which means after a few days they forget and go on as if nothing happened and the pastor just continue.

In any way, I sent the pastor a message: “Have faith like Elijah, despite Ahab and Jezebel”. Nevertheless, we will have to sit it out to see if it is going to be resolved.

The uri-kiri is a team of more or less same age members who come together to play, gossip, in the boundaries of the sanctuary without prayer at the beginning and prayer at the end. They make decisions that way and then inform the Churchboard of what they have decided. The pastor, who is the chairman of every committee according to the Church-Manual, is not present in the uri-kiri Sabbath afternoon playing together.

They are also scared to do evangelism since new members will break the chemistry. They like to be 9-10 members that can control the navigation of the church.

In these circumstances, I sometimes feel like taking the cross in the left hand, Bible in the right and Church-manual under the arm and crusade to the headelder and tell him his future. But a voice keep saying in the mind: “not by power nor by might but by My Spirit, says the Lord”. That is the best. Why?

Because if I march in such a meeting with a crusade, self gets in the way. Their self, my self, and it becomes an ego-war. Everyone is defending themselves and there is no progress. Sparks fly, tempers run high, the headelder threaten to retire and run out of the meeting, as it happened previously, only to be grabbed by uri-kiri members in the main sanctuary and brought back to sit calmly. This is not the way got intended church to work.

The uri-kiri is a dangerous instrument who has no respect for the ministers and think two things: “I do it my way” and secondly, “We laymen can do it by ourselves, we do not need a pastor”. Two very dangerous thoughts for our times.

The other problem is that the uri-kiri is sometimes comprised mainly by people who started the church and they feel they are the owners of the church and that they appoint the pastor or fire him. This Presbyterian twist in Korean Adventism is a constant hazard. The Church-manual points out that the pastor is not appointed by the church-board or by elders but by the conference. That is explicit.

Our pastor is a very faithful man, praying by himself often in church even surrounded by members. He also pray secretly in the church and read his Bible there since you often see his car standing at the church and when you walk in, he is on his knees in front of an open Bible.

What is needed in the Korean churches it seems, is a proper understanding of ecclesiology. They do not know properly what is church. They do not know what is the functions of the churchboard and since most of them have no education above highschool and are only farmers, it is tough. Membership training seminars for churchboards and treasurers is in dire need.

The headelder’s wife was treasurer last year, but she did not keep records of the church-expenses and it is another tough meeting that we are facing in weeks to come.

What we are experiencing, is the most difficult aspects of the ministry that we have every experienced in any congregation in any parts of the world.

Due to the pastor’s preaching on tithe, last week a family that never paid tithe started to pay tithe, the grandfather, the son and wife and their three children. Each one gave their tithe! Where does the elder’s harassment of the pastor: “The people do not like your sermons and sermon on tithe” come in?

God have mercy on us and I said to my wife, let us stand behind Jesus because He says, taking the wheel, “Watch how I ride out this storm!”