Reining in rainmakers

Rather than seeing church growth as something God gives and removes for His purposes, we have pursued it at high cost to the most vulnerable members of our congregations.

Russell Moore, speaking of the Southern Baptist Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandal (perhaps even “crisis”).

The linked article has other observations, but valorizing the powerful, “charismatic” pastors who most reliably drive measurable church growth strikes me as central, based on decades in evangelicalism. I even watched one sexual predator at work, his supervisors unwilling to rein in such a rainmaker.