Then Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, "May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep which have no shepherd." ~ Numbers 27:15-17

The bottom line with the current situation at our church seems to be this: we tried to make a pastor out of a person who never once seemed to be a pastor, and God took action (in the way He so often does) by drying up some pocketbooks.

Things that went wrong:
* The congregation had no prior knowledge of the pseudo-pastor, in terms of truly knowing him or his calling.
* The pseudo-pastor's role was never made clear to the congregation, which led to confusion.
* The pseudo-pastor's calling was openly questioned by members of the church.
* The pseudo-pastor demonstrated no ability to speak with authority or insight into people's lives, no experiential knowledge of the Word of God, no capacity for leadership, and no wisdom or originality when faced with conflicts and problems. Yet he was not immediately removed.

The situation placed stress on the lead pastor, who felt responsible for turning the pseudo-pastor into the real thing; on the wannabe, who really wanted to be a pastor and was having to front like Cinderella's gangly stepsisters when the glass slipper was presented and proved to be eight sizes too small; and on the people who had to suffer through the mess for two years plus.

Okay. So, if the real pastor is called to be an overseer and walk in some other ministry that is outside our local body, then the church needs "a man over the congregation."

No obvious candidate comes to mind. This time around, we need no assumptions or good ideas. We need to be praying, as Moses did, that God will make His choice plain to us.