Bible knowledge and spiritual gifts are from God and they are good, but knowledge and gifts come with dangers. A gifted leader with excellent knowledge can become overconfident, self righteous, convinced that he is always right.
I knew a preacher with amazing bible knowledge, healing gifts and a wonderful evangelistic ministry. He was zealously devoted to sound doctrine, but this became an obsession which alienated him from other preachers who had different beliefs, even small differences of opinion.
He tried to pastor a local church, which was a mistake, because his primary gifting and calling was evangelism. His local church failed dismally, with membership declining until there was only a tiny home group left. Still he persisted, burning himself out to earn a living and missing his calling to be a full time travelling evangelist.
If you are in a church where the pastor has wonderful bible knowledge and spiritual gifts, that can be good or it can be bad.
If the pastor believes he is always right, that is dangerous.
If the pastor believes he knows better than everyone else, everyone in his church or even better than other ministers, that is dangerous.
If the pastor believes he is entitled to make every decision for every ministry in the church, that is dangerous.
If you are in a church like this, there are several dangers.
You can become overly submissive, so that you let the pastor dictate all your personal decisions.
You can zealously adopt all the ideas of your pastor, so your pastor takes the place of God in your life.
You can become like your pastor, believing you are always right.
You can rebel against control, which is good, but then you construct your own understanding of truth in such a way that you disagree with your pastor, but you are infected by his wrong attitude, so that you believe you are always right.
You can attach yourself to another prominent church member with a legitimate grievance but also with a personal agenda. This can lead to church splits.
You can search the internet or christian bookshops for alternative points of view, which is good, but it can lead to being led astray in wrong directions.
So what should you do?
Seek out good teaching from different sources but be careful to be personally connected to Jesus.
Read you bible for yourself, not just to find confirmation for this or that teaching, but with an open mind and a questioning heart.
Ask God to show you what He wants to say to you.
Find a better church, where the pastor is not convinced he always knows better, because this is a delusion. No one is always right about everything. No one.
And if you faithfully apply all these things, you will still not always be right. You will make mistakes. No one is perfect. You are not perfect and I am not perfect.
Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.
But whoever loves God is known by God. 1 Cor 8:2–3 NIV
