Ok, maybe we jumped the gun here in quickly judging MFI and their actions in regard to Pastor Doug Cotton. I think we need to spend some time closely examining all the evidence we have gathered and re-evaluate our position.

First, lets look at the facts:

            Fact 1: This is a gossip blog, we don't work with facts we work with rumors and suspicions. Lets move on.

Now lets look at what we've "heard":

         Doug Cotton has been the pastor of Christian Life Fellowship for around 17 years.

"the man who had done much over the last 17 years to grow the church into one of the largest on the Harbor.¹

          CLF does not belong to any denomination.

"Christian Life Fellowship is an independent, nondenominational church"¹

       The church elders were the ones to make the call to request Pastor Doug to step down due to his anger problems.

"What it boiled down to is that a pastor with anger that had overflowed to others, including those he worked with and ministered to, was a problem that couldn't continue, the church's elders decided"¹

So where does that leave us? Right back where we started.

 Listen; if you've been the head pastor for close to 2 decades then you've had plenty of time to get "your people" in leadership. We have got to be able to assume that these elders are "good" people. It's hard to see an eldership with NINE individual pastors coming together as a group to dump their head pastor for no good reason.

Further more, how is it that we are supposed to believe that Pastor Wendell Smith and Dick Iverson can have better insight into this situation than the elders who are closely involved?

Both of Dick and Wendell's actions were invasive and inappropriate. They clearly violate their (MFI's) own philosophy. And it is undeniably hypocritical for these men to take this action when by their own standards "All ministries including the senior pastor should be under the legal authority of and accountable to their own church elder board."

I don't really care why the elders made their decision. I also don't care if Doug continues to pastor, I trust those deeply involved in this situation will be able to make the right decision, but I can not stand by and watch MFI try to use their position and power to manipulate another group of Christians who are clearly going through a rough time.

The final analysis:

Dick Iverson and Wendell Smith, I have no choice but to say: NO SOUP FOR YOU!

¹Taken from The Daily Word

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