Church Antagonism -- Part 2 -- Identifying an Antagonist

At what point does a person cross the line from being a person with an objection to the direction of the church (which I think is healthy) to an antagonist.

The real issue is what is the standard makeup of the average antagonist. I am speaking here of course of the guy or gal who leads the charge not the followers of an antagonist. I am showing you what the leader looks like and how they work. My backup is The Wounded Minister by Guy Greenwood. I am summing up his findings. It is a good book to buy if you are going through this; it helped me a lot.

1. They are destructive --they have no qualms about destroying relationships or causing emotional pain. To make matters worse they initiate trouble because they genuinely believe they are doing what they do for the greater good.
2. They are determined -- They will stop at nothing to achieve what they want regardless of the desires of the rest of the church. They have contempt for rules, constitutions or democratic action. They are never satisfied and no amount of concessions will be enough for them. Even when they get what they want they still go on starting a new crusade.
3. They are deceitful nitpickers -- they dwell on the smallest problems and enhance the belief there is a bigger problem by lying about it and making things up. They will do something and then accuse someone else of doing it -- The end always justifies the means for them.
4. They are masters of intimidation -- They often start harmless enough and maneuver themselves into positions of power and responsibility through putting on a show of being pious and devote. Once they strike, they attack the top and have no fear in trying to destroy a minister or even a fellow board member. The goal is selfish ambition to get what they want and to do this they must seize control.
5. They take advantage of inactivity an apathy. They attack where things are weak and when no one seems to have a desire to put up a fight.

There are people out there like this? In church? Yep. I have had two churches in Assemblies of God which had several each. Now none of them were this extreme and you don't have to have all the characteristics to cause trouble. In fact, there are many levels to this, but that is the subject of the next post

Next -- Types of Antagonist.