Consider this real life case of a control freak with a name change. This is a woman who once was my late pastor’s wife back in the ’80s. In fact, it was under her husband that I was licensed to preach 30 years ago today, Oct. 25, 1981. I’ve had the opportunity to study Sister Black at least 20 years.
Sister Black is a well known, beloved, influential lay leader in her denomination for decades.
Much could be written about Sister Black. Prior to his death, Rev. Black was in a constant but subtle battle with Sister Black to rule his own congregation in his own despotic way. Rev. Black did everything he could to block his humble acting wife from taking over. Sister Black was always the hurt one, portraying herself as suffering for the Lord, by not being understood by her coldblooded husband. She fooled me for at least a decade, until I started seriously observing her. I could do so because we spent time together in Christian service and on a quasi-social level.
Once Rev. Black died, at the center of Sis. Black’s thoughts was usually not the Lord Himself but her own spiritual journey. Her priority in conversation is most often turned to her newly appointed pastor and his particular approach to leading “her” church and how the members have to seek counsel from “her” because of what the pastor is incapable of providing. Since his appointment to Sis. Black’s church she and Rev. Johnson have been persistently battling each other over various church projects.
The warfare seems to be centered in a battle between new members and those who have been members prior to Rev. Johnson’s appointment. For example, Sis. Black was co-chairing a project with another member and Rev. Johnson has been avoiding Sister Black and solely communicating with the other co-chair. Now these are Sis Black’s exact words: “Isn’t the Lord’s sense of humor so wonderful? The co-chair fell and broke her leg and can no longer function in the job. Now Rev, Johnson HAS to speak to ME bevause the other co-chair is out of commission. Isn’t the Lord grand?”
If this is not an example of a neurotic control freak, then I don’t know what is. I wonder if the sick thoughts to FORCE Rev. Johnson to speak with her directly did not cause the co-chair’s accicent. Why? Because Sis. Black sincerely believed that God broke the leg of one of His children so as to force Rev. Johnson to have to communicate solely with HER! This is a reprobate mind if I ever saw one yet Sis. black believes that she is a part of the remnant church. Admittedly, her pastor DOES have his problems, but Sis. Black used her ecstatic, kundalini spirit type of experiences as a weapon to contend with him. For example, she will appear to be completely consumed or “caught up” in the Holy Ghost—faling back and wailing loudly. Others respond by jumping up from the pews to either restrain her or to hold her up to keep her from falling and hurting herself or those who may be sitting near her.
One of her outstanding spiritual fits occurred as the service was being brought to a close. While the congregation was singing the doxology, suddenly Sis. Black fell “under the anointing.” In other words, she fell backwards into an euphoric state, a form of being slain in the spirit. Most of the congregants left the sanctuary, but a group of 10 or more women stood by her and ministered to her for another 45 minutes. Sis Black retorted, “Rev. Johnson didn’t even stick around to minister to me. Well, too bad, we all got caught up in the glory cloud and we had ourselves another wonderful worship service, praise the Lord! Pastor just went into his office, slammed the door and sulked.” My question is, “How was Sis. Black even conscious or focused on what Rev. Johnson did if she was “so caught up in the spirit.”?!
The bottom line is that Sis. Black is a religious control freak that desires a pastor–any pastor— to humble himself to HER so that she controls every aspect of church life. She had every opportunity to enter ministry herself, but the devil likes to use her to keep other pastors in bondage. Her “opponent,” Rev. Johnson is one of the denomination’s most popular sermonizers, yet he is a homosexual, raising adopted male children as a “single parent.” The late Rev. Black was a cold, lifeless pastor who hated bible study and who restrained anyone who seemed to be genuinely saved. He was also an adulterer, almost understandable— living with a woman like Sis. Black.
The visible church has several of these kinds of people in them. The true story of Sis. Black, Rev. Black and Rev. Johnson is typical in the church world where I served as a minister for 25 years. Today-October 25-is my 30th year in ministry. The good news is that the organized church is not the Body of Christ. Therefore, if you desire to come out of the bondage of religion, you can do so. The Lord will not work in the organized church in its present
condition, so you need to commit yourself to become free. Judgment has come to the household of faith because God’s people are unable to repent. Control freaks of this kind are completely out of touch with who they really are and therefore they can not even approximate normality because to their spiritual strangeness has been accepted by them to be normal. If you want to be set free to grow in Christ, then the phone lines are open at 518-477-5759.
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