First of all, you really need to pray about this, and ask the Lord to reveal to you whether or not you really do have designs on your pastor's pulpit. Are you being an obedient servant to your master, or are you trying to get the people to love and follow you at the expense of your pastor? Don't get me wrong: it is important for the people to love and follow you too. You are an elder (bishop, pastor) in the local church, and thus you are a gift to that church every bit as much as the senior pastor. However, it is not your place to take the people away from him.

Unfortunately, many senior pastors view their assistants as threats to their "kingdom". They fail to realize that the assistant pastor is still a PASTOR, with the same calling, burden, and office gift that the senior pastor has. It seems more important to them that they (the senior pastor) be exalted than that God be exalted through the accomplishments of the assistant's ministry. It is not competition to him for the members to love you; it is a responsibility for them to do so, and a blessing to the senior pastor, because there are folks in the church and community that you can reach that he can not. Once I became a senior pastor, and had an assistant of my own, I did everything I could to keep him in front of the church. He had talents I didn't have, and relationships with people that I couldn't. This made us a TEAM, and proved to be a great help to me in the ministry.

Assuming that your motives and heart are correct, you need to seek God's face as to what He would have you to do. Perhaps this is God's way of pushing you out into another position. You need to earnestly search the Scriptures for this answer. Personally, I believe this may be the case, because the Bible states that two can not walk together, except they be agreed. In addition, if your pastor can't, or won't speak to you, there is a definite spiritual problem there. Do you want to spend your ministry in a place that is led by a man who refuses to follow the teachings of Scripture in the area of forbearing, forgiving, and fellowshipping within the local church? Can God really bless a church that has this problem?

You do have a responsibility to go to him. According to Luke 17, as the offended brother, you need to confront him (in a proper attitude, Galatians 6:1). If he repents, then life should get better for you. Perhaps he will show you some problems in your life that you have not noticed, and repentance will be necessary on your part. If he refuses to repent, or even discuss things with you, then I think it will be clear that someone needs to leave, and that someone will almost assuredly be you. If you do decide to leave, do not attempt to take people with you, or tell everyone what a rat the pastor is. Just resign quietly, and tell people that the Lord has led you to do this (assuming that the Lord has led you). God will deal with him: you do not need to do so.

Of course, if he refuses to repent, you do have the option of continuing down the path to church discipline. After all, the pastor is not exempt from this. If he has trespassed, and refuses to repent, then he has a spiritual problem, and he needs to be reconciled to the Lord and to the church. While this may be the best thing for you to do (for both the sake of the church and the sake of the pastor), I am sure it would be very difficult.

Spend a lot of time in prayer and in the Scriptures. Make sure that your heart is clean in this. Go speak to the pastor, and confront him about the problem. Then determine what God would have you to do.

May the Lord bless you.

By Dr Mark Montgomery Ambassador Baptist Church 1926 Babcock Blvd Pittsburgh, PA 15209 (412)477-3210