Leadership Contracts Are Fine...but Where Do You Draw The Line?

One of the new fads out there seem to be leadership contracts...y'know, getting those in leadership positions to agree to certain standards of lifestyle, spirituality, and appearance. I think these are great...to a point though.

Let me give you an example: I know of someone who was recently asked by her pastor to agree to him contacting her boss for a reference. This was to ensure that how she was living outside of church matches what she is inside of church. Now some background: yes, this person did go through some traumatic stuff in her life, and yes this person is young...BUT...do we ask ALL of our leadership in the church to provide references? Is this a matter now that we have to be intrusive to all aspects of someone's life before allowing them to act as leaders in our pastors eye's?

In fact, are YOUR pastors under some sort of contract? Is there anything in there that would allow your board or your membership access to areas of their life normally secluded to privacy? Why shouldn't there be? If they're going to ask US to do it, why shouldn't they be held to the same standards? Why shouldn't we have a public record of their phone calls, their internet browsing history, where they go, what they drink...you see the slippery slope this causes.

We need to ensure that the leadership of our church is Godly and are people who are serious about improving their Christian faith, absolutely. But none of us is perfect and all of us will have some area of sin in our lives that we're dealing with. To hold leadership to ultra-strict contracts without any aspect of love or care seems to tread on the boundaries of legalism...and we've all seen what happens when that takes power.

CC