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You are in a conference (Virginia) that currently is headed by an apostate (Bishop Kammerer), and I don't envy you that. We had the same in Ohio for a while with Bish Craig. I doubt you'll get much relief for a few years until she's gone.

The only way to get relief is to quit giving your money and to have others do the same. (How large of a church is it?)

Our church polity is no more inclined to pastoral dictatorship than is any other model. That really is something that happens at the local level.

In fact, all of the committees are elected by the church.

1. The "Nominating Committee" is the most important. This year have 3 people you want to see on the nominating committee. Nominate them from the floor if you have to. Next year do another 3. You will then have the group in place to bring about change throughout the entire system.

2. Start working on the Pastor Parish Committee. You can nominate from the floor for that, too, until you get the nominating committee fixed. This is the committee that officially approves and disapproves of the pastor's behavior. It recommends a pastor stay or go.

3. The trustees "own" all the buildings and property.

4. All the other committees are significant. They deal with some aspect of what the church does: worship, education, missions, evangelism. Get workers on those to DO what you want to do, and then you can safely OVERRIDE and ignore any liberal pastor that gets sent your way.

This is the path to the people owning their local church.

I don't believe it's any different in the non-denom down the street. They have their in-groups, dictator pastors, bad doctrine, etc.

And, there is no "independent" church in the New Testament. They were linked. (See Acts 15.)