The Crisis of Toxic Leadership in the Church

And Why We Need to Take it Seriously

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.” -Ezekiel 34:10 (NIV)

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[This article is the first part of a new series on the topic of toxic leadership in the church, which is the topic I am teaching about at Pepperdine’s Harbor Conference this year.]

It’s no secret that the church has a leadership problem on its hands. Actually I think a better phrase would be a leadership crisis. The problem, stated as simply as I can, is that too many toxic people are being given leadership positions in the church, too many oversight boards are turning a blind eye to the toxic behavior of those leaders, and as a result, too many innocent victims are being subjected to abuse that could almost certainly be prevented.

And this is not an isolated problem. Laura Barringer and Scot McKnight write that this kind of abuse can happen almost anywhere — at any congregation (or organization) that hasn’t taken specific, intentional steps to resist it:

“In the absence of a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth, the heartbreaking truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse.” (Laura Barringer and Scot McKnight, A Church Called Tov, p. 5, emphasis added).

One of the saddest realities we have to acknowledge as Christians is that there has been an unacceptably high number of cases where church pastors, elders, or volunteers have abused their leadership positions by acting in ways that violate the most basic teachings of Jesus, and in so doing they have inflicted unimaginable pain on the very people they are called to serve.

On top of that, as these instances of toxic leadership or outright abuse come to light, those actions have cast a shameful light on Christ himself and undermined the church’s ability to reach people for Christ.

“Our mission is in jeopardy if we cannot stem the tide of fallen leaders. It is crucial that the church address this issue before irreparable harm is done to the cause of Christ in this generation.” -Gary McIntosh & Samuel Rima, Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership, p. 222

After all, what kind of person would want to associate themselves with a religion that sometimes seems to attract toxic people to its leadership positions and then turns a blind eye to their abuse when victims courageously begin to come forward?

I see no value in naming specific leaders or congregations where this has occurred, but suffice it to say that it’s a national, cross-denominational, growing problem, and it’s not that hard to find specific examples of this happening in recent years.

Sounding the Alarm

It’s for these reasons that the experts are sounding the alarm about the crisis of toxic leadership in the church. One such expert, Dr. Michael Kruger, wrote an entire book about this problem and how churches can begin to address it. His book is called Bully Pulpit—Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church — and in the opening pages he references a 2019 article in the Gospel Coalition which called toxic leaders “the next pressing issue our churches must face.”

Dr. Kruger is drawing on his twenty-plus years of training future ministers as a seminary professor and his decade of experience as a seminary president when he highlights toxic leaders as the next major crisis we need to grapple with.

Here is Dr. Kruger sounding the alarm in his own words:

“Having spent nearly my entire ministerial career training future leaders of the church—more than twenty years as a seminary professor and a decade as a seminary president—I am more troubled than ever about the trajectory we are on. It’s not just the high-profile national leadership failures over the last decade that worry me, as concerning as those are. It’s also the rising number of abusive leadership cases I’ve seen in my own circles… I have seen the ugliness of spiritual abuse in ways that I cannot ever unsee. And because I love the church—Christ’s own bride—I am now compelled to do something about it.” (Bully Pulpit, p. xiv, emphasis added).

Another such expert is Dr. Chuck DeGroat, a seminary professor and Christian therapist whose professional career has involved interviewing young ministers who are applying to be church planters. In his book When Narcissism Comes to Church, Dr. DeGroat offers some tremendous insights into what narcissism is and the toxic ways it plays out in the church.

One of the things I picked up on from his book was his frustration at the way church planting candidates could exhibit all kinds of red flags and warning signs of toxic behavior, but the sponsoring congregations would hire them anyway because they felt that their ministry skills and natural charisma were too good to pass up. They thought that as long as those ministers had the right skills, the character issues could be ignored.

In one specific situation, the hiring committee pushed back on Dr. DeGroat’s objections by saying, “you’re always looking for what’s wrong versus what’s right. God’s up to big things with Zak. He’s a bit rough around the edges, but I don’t see anything that a good coach can’t work out with him.”

Sadly, Dr. DeGroat was right to raise some concerns. Today Zak is divorced and no longer in ministry. His wife left him a few years after he started the church because of his ongoing abuse, and then more people from the congregation came forward with similar allegations of toxic behavior coming from Zak. It eventually became clear what was really going on:

“Zak didn’t just get moody on occasion or lose his temper once or twice a year. Zak abused. Zak gaslit. Zak manipulated. Zak refused accountability and scapegoated others. His victims felt the impact of his relational pattern; they felt narcissism’s bite.” -Chuck DeGroat, When Narcissism Comes to Church, p. 130.

So with experiences like that in mind, Dr. DeGroat implores us to take those kinds of warning signs (and the whole idea of narcissism) more seriously so we don’t fall into the same trap:

“Understanding narcissism’s underbelly has been the most important revelation for my own work with pastors, ministry leaders, spouses, and organizations. As you’ll see, this revelation invites us to take narcissism with a deadly seriousness, but also to envision a compassionate path forward.” (Chuck DeGroat, When Narcissism Comes to Church, p. 6, emphasis added)

Let’s Take this Seriously.

More troubled than ever. Next pressing issue. Deadly seriousness. Irreparable harm.

Are you starting to hear the theme? The experts are lining up to tell us that the church has a leadership crisis on its hands, and we can’t afford to ignore it or rationalize the toxic behavior of leaders who are “getting things done.” It doesn’t have to be this way, but we can’t keep on doing what we’ve always done and expect a different result. We have to confront the issue head on.

To be clear — the vast majority of Christian leaders are honorable men and women who love God, love their neighbors, and demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit throughout their daily lives. But the terrible effect that the small minority has on the health of the church and the cause of Christ is too great to ignore.

This post is part one of a new series on the problem of toxic leadership in the church. I’ll be posting several more articles on the following topics:

• The leadership dynamics that enable toxic leaders to stay in their positions for so long

• Why churches (and search committees) seem to attract toxic leaders.

• Three ways to confront our own toxic tendencies (self-awareness, humility, developing a heart like Jesus)

• How churches can prevent toxic people from gaining leadership positions

• Why churches need to hold their leaders accountable.

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Other Posts in this Series:

1. The Crisis of Toxic Leadership in the Church (April 25, 2024)

2. Why Don’t Churches Ditch Their Toxic Leaders? (April 27, 2024)

3. Confronting the Toxic Leader in the Mirror (April 29, 2024)

4. Unattended Baggage (May 1, 2024)

5. A Test of Character (May 3, 2024)

6. Honoring God in the Aftermath of Sin (May 5, 2024)

7. Developing a Christlike Heart (May 7, 2024)

8. Stopping Toxic Leaders Before It’s Too Late (May 9, 2024)