After reading the 8 Power Groups every pastor should watch out for, I felt like blogging about the Power Groups every church leader who is not a pastor should watch out. When I say church leader it could be a small group leader, deacons, ministry leaders and people who operate in some level of leadership in the local church.

Here are some groups you need to watch out for:

1. The Elitist Group.

This is groups who feel like they are cut above the rest of the congregation. This group exudes pride and has a culture of their own that is different from the culture that is seen in the local church. To get in the group, is to have a stature that is different. Everywhere I go, whether in youth ministry, kids ministry and leadership groups – you see this happening. If starts getting cliquish – it’s a red flag warning already that this group might be moving towards spiritual pride.

2. The Disgruntled Group.

This is usually people group who think the church should be run another way. We lack focus on worship, we need a choir, we need more of the signs and wonder, we need blah blah blah. The problem with such group is that they tend to specialize and are biased towards a way of doing church. What they do not understand is that when you start leading a church – it is not as easy as they suggest. My advice for people who are not happy with how the local church is being led – is to talk to the senior pastor about your concern and see his view or find another church that might suit you or be humble to submit to the direction of the local church.

3. The Legalist group.

This is the model Christian – pharisees at best. They read the Bible from cover to cover every year, they pray at least an hour, they know the ins and outs of church behavior and are proud of it. Proud of it – that is the key. They have become unteachable and distance themselves with others because they are deep and advance while the entire church is elementary.

4. The deep group.

Everything taught in church is shallow. Give me some deep stuff like who is the anti Christ, Arminian and Calvinism debates, signs and wonders that get us to heaven, butt kicking the devil stuff.

I have encountered such people who would say “How come the topic never gets deeper?” Why are we talking about the gospel again? This group needs to be reminded that Paul said I preach Christ and him crucified. It means you do not graduate from the gospel, you get deeper into it.

The problem with the groups I mentioned above is that they think they have graduated in some level of spiritual maturity while failing to understand that Christ likeness and humility is the mark of spiritual growth. It is learning to work with others and rely on God’s grace as they work with the local church. So watch out for people and groups who are trying to isolate themselves from the local church, it usually doesn’t end well.

One of the keywords I usually emphasize is LOCAL CHURCH. I’ll expound on that more on my next blog.