Lying leaders need facilitators

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Lying leaders need facilitators. There must be others who lend credibility to the leader’s lies.

The most important facilitator is the leader’s spouse. The spouse is the one who best knows the leader and if he or she vouches for the leader’s honest character others will tend to believe the spouse’s testimony. Consequently, an abusive or lying leader must have a complicit spouse who adopts the mentality and methods of the leader. Since spouses share in the glory or the shame surrounding the leader, it is in their own best interest to share in the dishonest traits that most enhance the couple’s position, income, and reputation. This spousal complicity seems to be surprisingly common. The Ananias and Sapphira phenomenon has been repeated many times.
The lying leader must develop a loyal stable of trusting undershepherds who support the leader and who report to the leader any signs of mistrust among the congregation. The proximity of the undershepherds to the leader lends credibility to their support of him. Followers reason that those who are closer to the leader than they are would know if something were wrong and the unanimous front projected by the undershepherds provides a powerful and intimidating testimony to the leader’s character that most individual followers find impossible to question.
By using these undershepherds as spies who report any mistrust or “disloyalty,” the leader is able to ensure that only implicitly trusting devotees are promoted to leadership positions in the church. The leader maintains the undershepherds’ unquestioning loyalty by making each one feel like a special and exalted part of the group, and to therefore tie the undershepherds’ ego gratification inextricably into the group’s opinion of the leader who has chosen them. Additionally, the leader will so demonize past undershepherds who were “disloyal” that the current undershepherds will be either afraid to think for themselves or, if all else fails, intimidated into leaving quietly.
Other prominent leaders outside of the group can unwittingly serve as facilitators. These other leaders may be men and women of integrity who are unaware of the liar’s character defects. These leaders’ friendship with the liar will appear to be a public endorsement of the liar which most followers will not feel qualified to disagree with.
The liar’s credibility increases as the size and status of his or her church or organization grows. A herd mentality overtakes an excited or growing group to such an extent that individual herd members believe and accept things they never would have had they remained outside of the group. Thus, the dynamics of the group itself act as a validating force for the leader.
Lying leaders will usually claim that any genuine activity of the Holy Spirit done through their ministry is God’s personal endorsement of their character. Followers often find it difficult to separate the source from the vessel of God’s expressions of grace. This is so in spite of the biblical examples of God’s using Balaam (Num 22-24) and Saul (1 Sam 10:10-11, 19:23-24), and His outpouring of spiritual gifts in the deeply flawed Corinthian (1 Co 1:7) and Galatian (Gal 5:5) churches. Jesus said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Mt 7:22-23 NIV) Clearly, God’s gracious activity is not necessarily an endorsement of the teachings or practices of the vessel used. The lying leader’s effort to use God’s gracious blessings as an endorsement of their character is an attempt to make the Holy Spirit a facilitator of their lies.

Lessons Learned from Lying Leaders

Effective lying leaders have a charming and forceful personality that they use to their advantage.

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Topic: Leadership Issues, Ministry

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