Dysfunctional leadership is a serious issue, causing significant harm to individuals and organizations. As highlighted by Derek Lusk and Theodore L. Hayes in Overcoming Bad Leadership in Organizations, poor leadership can breed low morale, stress, and ultimately, organizational failure. This problem isn’t confined to the business world; it tragically exists within evangelicalism, where figures like John Macarthur have, in my experience, exerted a damaging influence on their followers.
My personal journey with John MacArthur and his ministry in Southern California offers a stark illustration of the negative consequences of following what I now understand to be dysfunctional leadership. In 1987, drawn in by friends, I attended Grace Community Church and was immediately captivated by MacArthur. His profound biblical knowledge and unwavering confidence in the Bible’s authority were compelling to a young man seeking direction.
During those impressionable years, I had never encountered anyone who commanded such extensive scriptural memorization and delivered pronouncements on Christian faith with such certainty. Following that initial Sunday, I became an ardent, perhaps overly zealous, disciple of John MacArthur. I immersed myself in his teachings, spending countless hours listening to his radio broadcasts and Bible study tapes.
“I became a devout and insufferable follower, often listening to several hours of his radio broadcasts and Bible teaching cassette tapes.”
In my early twenties, fueled by newfound conviction, I enthusiastically shared what I believed to be the definitive “Gospel According to John MacArthur” across Southern California. Any dissenting Christian viewpoint was readily dismissed. My world revolved around his teachings.
My acceptance to The Master’s Seminary, where MacArthur served as president, was a moment of immense joy. Studying under MacArthur had been a long-held aspiration, and I genuinely believed the seminary would mold me into a powerful expository preacher in his mold. However, this dream quickly devolved into a fundamentalist nightmare, a stark and unsettling reality reminiscent of the oppressive atmosphere depicted in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
For three years, I was immersed in the rigid and doctrinaire environment of The Master’s Seminary, shaped by John MacArthur’s inflexible ideology.
The majority of my professors mirrored MacArthur’s dogmatic and unyielding approach. Expressing even minor disagreements with their assertions was met with severe reprimand. I soon found myself isolated, becoming a target for seminary administrators and professors who seemed to relish criticizing and correcting me for holding theological positions that deviated from MacArthur’s dispensationalist fundamentalism.
After enduring three years of constant criticism and condemnation, I made the decision to leave the seminary and never return. I decisively distanced myself from John MacArthur and have not listened to his teachings since those difficult years.
Lee Enochs is a graduate of Texas Baptist College, Princeton Theological Seminary and Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention. Currently Lee is in his last semester at the University of North Texas’ Mayborn School of Journalism where he hosts a podcast for KNTU radio.
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