Eph 4:11-12 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, (12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church, gives, appoints, and calls men to His Church for the building up of the body of Christ. He called the original few as apostles, but down through the history of the church He has continued to call and give to His people evangelists and pastor-teachers.

Now, think carefully on this and I think that some lights will come on for you as to why so many abuse victims are treated so wickedly by their churches and the leaders in them. The Lord GIVES these ministers to His church. That means (as you can see in a multitude of Scriptures) that He calls them to their calling. He gifts them, like he did Jeremiah, with a burning of His Word within them, though now that Word is found in the Bible.

Consider then – if a man is not called and appointed to preach and teach and shepherd His church, then he is unauthorized to do so. He is a mere hired hand who looks after himself rather than Christ’s flock. And I want to suggest to you that many, many church leaders today are self-appointed. They are not called by Christ. They are self-exalting, looking to preach a message that pleases the unregenerate and builds a man-made tower of Babel kingdom for that counterfeit’s own glory.

What, then, do you suppose a widow or orphan or victim of evil abuse in a marriage is going to receive from such a trespasser in Christ’s church? I can tell you –

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
(1Co 13:1-6)

Do you see it? These counterfeits can have great degrees from the most illustrious seminaries. They can write books which sell thousands of copies. They can develop a name for themselves in “christendom.” They can build massive mega-churches. And yet, they and all they do is worse than nothing. Why? Because Christ’s true shepherds love their Lord and they love Christ’s people. They treat the sheep kindly. They do not compromise the Lord’s truth so as to protect their own kingdom. When a poor suffering woman, for instance, comes asking for help from a wicked narcissistic false christian husband, a real shepherd will protect that lamb. If he does not, if he does not act in accord with the love of Christ, then all of his great kingdom is nothing. It’s a sham.

I suggest to you that we all need to rethink very carefully this matter of Christ’s call to His true shepherds, and to re-evaluate how we might have assumed wrongly that the leader we are listening to has not been sent by the Lord. And if that be the case, what is going to happen to the sheep in such a kingdom? Noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. Where the love of Christ is absent, everything else is worse than nothing.