{"id":2858,"date":"2024-04-11T13:30:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T13:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2024-04-11T13:30:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T13:30:59","slug":"harnessing-the-power-of-the-congregation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/?p=2858","title":{"rendered":"Harnessing the power of the congregation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2839\" src=\"http:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dogwood.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"415\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dogwood.jpg 415w, https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/dogwood-300x273.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"en-ESV-24144\" class=\"text Matt-27-18\">&#8220;<em>[Pilate]\u00a0 knew that it was out of envy that [the religious leaders] had delivered him up. <\/em><\/span><span id=\"en-ESV-24145\" class=\"text Matt-27-19\"><\/span><span id=\"en-ESV-24145\" class=\"text Matt-27-19\"><em>Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, \u201cHave nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.\u201d <span id=\"en-ESV-24146\" class=\"text Matt-27-20 psuedo-selection\">Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to\u00a0ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.<\/span>\u00a0<span id=\"en-ESV-24147\" class=\"text Matt-27-21\">The governor again said to them, \u201cWhich of the two do you want me to release for you?\u201d And they said, \u201cBarabbas.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/em> Matt. 27: 18-21<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The religious leaders needed the power of the crowd to accomplish their purposes. They &#8220;persuaded&#8221; them.<\/p>\n<p>In churches in which there are credible allegations of wrongdoing by one or more leaders, members of the congregation have a duty to discern what is going on. Once the congregation is persuaded to see truth-tellers as the ones disturbing the peace&#8211; whether those truth-tellers are victims or whistleblowers&#8211;they often turn their backs on the innocent.<\/p>\n<p>Victims frequently say this betrayal by those they believed were &#8220;family&#8221; is more painful than any abuse they experienced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &#8220;[Pilate]\u00a0 knew that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-thought-for-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2897,"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions\/2897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapelhillbiblechurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}