"..... When a "delegated authority" provides counsel to those under him, he speaks with God's authority. As Derek Prince, a leader in the discipleship movement, puts it: "whenever his [God's] delegated authority touches our lives, he requires us to acknowledge and submit to it, just as we would to him in person." Or, as John Robert Stevens of "The Walk" describes it, "If the authority over you is submissive to God, then you are to be submissive to him with your very life."

A practice common to both cultic and certain Christian groups is to seek to control the private lives of followers. Christians need to beware of those leaders who claim "a direct word from the Lord" concerning a person's finances, family matters, or major decisions such as the choice of a life partner or a career. Bible scholars point out that the New Testament concept of authority as expressed in the Greek word exousia does not have the connotation of jurisdiction over the lives of others. Rather, it is the authority of truth, the authority of wisdom and experience which can be evidenced in a leader who is held up as a special example who can commend himself "to every man's conscience in the sight of God." (II Cor. 4:2)

Two of the classic hallmarks of authoritarianism are blind loyalty and unquestioning obedience. Kennedy and Lewis remind us that "blind trust in any human authority, be it in a pastor, or in a group of elders, or even in an apostolic authority of the status of Paul is never called for in Scripture. The loyalty we are called to is first and foremost the loyalty to the received Word of God. The loyalty we have to one another as Christians is not blind loyalty... nor is it an unthinking loyalty."

Christ should be our model Shepherd. In the Bible he is called the Chief Shepherd. His is an example of servanthood. Peter exhorts Christian leaders to imitate the supreme role model when he writes, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care... not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" (I Pet. 5:2,3). The good shepherd leads but does not control.

One of the major figures in the shepherding movement is the Argentinian Juan Carlos Ortiz. In his influential book, Call to Discipleship, he speaks of the need to "control your disciples." He describes a disciple as "one who obeys commands." Critics of such a view contend that only God has the right to command people. David Breese makes the point that only Jesus Christ deserves disciples. The book of Acts warns of those who will come seeking followers: "Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:30).

Paul Tournier in The Violence Within recognizes this "will to power" which all too often is present in a religious movement. He warns of the dangers of having too much influence and spiritual authority. "They look upon us as experts, God's mouthpieces, the interpreters of his will -- to begin with for ourselves but very soon, before we realize it, for other people too, especially since they insist on requiring it of us. Very soon, too, we find ourselves thinking that when they follow our advice they are obeying God and that when they resist us they are really resisting God."

http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/a08.html