Who Do the Assistant Pastor's Work For?

The assistant pastors have a set of marching orders with a hidden agenda that their congregations do not generally understand. The assistant pastor is told not to question the Senior Pastor publicly even if the Senior Pastor is leading the sheep into spiritual error. This is documented clearly in Larry Taylor's book on "The Ministry of the Assisting Pastor." The assistant pastor is not free to tell you what he thinks, but is bound by the Senior Pastor. Anything else is viewed as disloyal to God. This is also documented in the book by LE Romaine, "Second". Romaine was the assisting pastor to Chuck Smith.

Are Associate Pastors Hirelings?

I think we’ve been understanding the hireling point incorrectly. Any good exegetical method starts with the context of the passage.

Jesus says who was a hireling. It was all the false Messiah’s which came before him. After him there would be false Messiah’s too, but he doesn’t call them hirelings. He call’s them False Prophets and False Messiahs.

I think that Chuck made the initial mistake in using the term “hireling” when he used it in the Philosophy of Ministry of CC. He’s used it in sermons similarly as well.

The hireling thing can certainly happen in a congregational church although it can happen anywhere. If the people of the church think of the pastor as an employee rather than a shepherd the problem can exist potentially.

The characteristic of the hireling Jesus talked about was running when trouble came. But as noted the context was the false Messiahs which preceeded Jesus. Rather than running from his death to a mountaintop or off to a fortress, Jesus rode right into Jerusalem on a donkey and was killed. To be the good shepherd He had to be the sheep for slaughter. The center of Jesus' comments was about His own self-sacrifice. The good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. The other wanna-be shepherds ran when trouble came.

Let's not throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater

I don’t want to put down the leadership role of the pastor. I think Chuck’s right about that one. But the pastor should be in a plurality of elders. There may be a Senior Pastor either in terms of administrative gifts or seniority, but there needs to be equality when it comes to accountability. Otherwise you have a caste at the top which can’t be removed. And with the hereditary nepotistic model of CC this will be a problem for generations to come.