Manipulation and Greed (a Christian perspective)

M and G are terms well known in the Businees world.  There are television programs that bear one of their names.  But no one talks about how it lurks around in the church.  Some people call or label it as having the experience of 'church hurt'.  Here is how it normally works:  A new person comes into the church or it is someone who has been around a while and has decided to not 'bury' there gifts.  They cast aside what 'everyone-might-think and they venture out.  Perhaps to become President of and auxilary or just anything that breaks their old norm of coming to church and going home.  Well, now that action can cause  a re-action and some of the 'members' get uneasy.  Comments begin to flow 'you see how sister or brother so-and-so are acting different...the Pastor calls on them more than me...and I'm the one who has done ..... another comment might even say to you is : 'leadership treats me different since you came around...they don't talk to me as much...'  This seems to start a new 'click'.  And before the moon can go down in blood (as the song goes), that person has said things and repeated things and the listerners are now back where they wanted them. 
That  member who was trying to use their gifts, doing more to help around the church finds it better to allow things go back to the way they were.  They discontinue everything just to keep everyone happy.  That is the power of M and G.  It will not snap or break evenly.  It seeks to tear and rip painfully and unevenly. (Well, that is how I've experienced it) It causes people to feel that 'church hurt' feeling.  The M and G worker feels fulfilled and satisfied once everything returns to their (so-called) normal.  Why? Because they've learned how to  use Manipulation and Greed to get relationships for themselves.  And,  a false esteem.  They're wounding others along the way and not ever recognizing what they have done.  

Manipulation and Greed.