I can’t speak for Pastor Tim, but I believe I can take a pretty good stab at what he is getting at.
First off, I greatly appreciate John MacArthur in regards to his expositional skill and his devotion to the text of Scripture. I have benefited much from listening to his preaching, and reading his books. I’ve never met the man, but I have benefited from his ministry.
The irony though, is that what I just said in the sentence above is probably about the same testimony you would receive from talking to the vast majority of the members of his congregation. And that’s a problem.
Here in the age of the pulpit ministry, most pastors have largely neglected the work of being personally involved in the lives of the specific sheep that God has entrusted to them. Pastors devote thirty-some hours of their time each week to study in preparation for Sunday’s sermon, while living life largely separate from the flock. They don’t know the congregation. The pastor no longer regards preaching as a part of pastoral ministry (significant and essential as it is!). Instead, preaching has become the totality of his ministry.
At best, today’s pastor accurately exegetes the word of God from the pulpit on Sunday, while knowing virtually nothing about the individual souls in his congregation.
Today’s pastor knows nothing about Bill and Tammy’s crumbling marriage. He knows nothing about Bobby’s pornography addiction. He doesn’t know that Sally, who has been a regular attendee at this church for two years, has sinfully divorced her husband. Today’s pastor doesn’t visit the families of the church to get to know them, and find ways to stir them up to love and good works.
Should the congregation all be loving one another in these areas? Of course, yes! But the congregation aren’t the ones who will be giving an account to God for the oversight of the sheep. The elders will, though, and most don’t tremble at this like they should.
Today’s pastor doesn’t think of himself as a shepherd. He thinks of himself as a preacher. Ivory tower theology, even if it’s sound theology, is still ivory tower theology. Pulpit ministry.
If Scripture commands us laymen to obey our leaders and submit to them, it’s implicitly understood that this is because our leaders will actually be involved in our lives in such a way that commands obedience. True pastors don’t deal only in the realm of the abstract. They deal with persons. Sheep. Souls.
And I think what Pastor Tim is getting at is that Pastor MacArthur doesn’t do that. And I think Pastor Tim is disheartened that this is the paradigm of pastoral ministry being fostered by MacArthur’s example.
So yes, is there a form of pastoral authority that oversteps? Yes. But as our forum motto states (I just made that up): we must be careful not to sacrifice the normal on the altar of the abnormal. Yes, abuse exists. Pastors shouldn’t be telling their congregation what color car to buy, or what kind of salad dressing to use. We get it.
But today’s problem is not that pastors are overstepping their authority. They are simply abdicating their authority. And the church is suffering because of it.