Without Getting Too Specific…
Saturday, November 4th, 2006
feel like there are things I want to say about the latest “fall” in evangelical circles. But I’m not even sure where to start. I have made one decision, however. I’m not going to mention names here or link to any other websites about it. It’s all over the blogosphere and Internet, so you can find it if you want to. But I don’t want to talk about names or specifics here because the points I want to make are not strictly limited to this particular incident. Additionally, I don’t want to mention specifics because I’m not the least bit interested in gaining traffic from search engines with regard to this topic. With that all said…
When are we, as the body of Christ, going to learn that we must stop elevating leaders to pedestals so high that they can’t possibly remain on them? And when are those on those pedestals going to stop accepting the adulation that is foisted upon them? When you have thousands (or possibly even just hundreds) of people calling one man their “pastor”, this is a recipe for disaster.
I would hope that even my friends in more conventional structures of church would recognize that this is a huge danger. Earlier this year, I wrote about multiplication ministry, and how it would minimize the burnout of leaders and the fallout from their “indiscretions”. But rather than follow a reasonable method of discipleship, we continually fall into the world’s thinking that “bigger is better”.
You know the mindset. If our church gets bigger, we can have a bigger impact on our community. If it gets bigger still, we can maybe even impact our nation. Or even the whole world! Wow. Just think what we could accomplish for God with more people, more money, larger ministries. Gather millions of believers together, slap a label on the group, and we can be a political action group. We could get legislation passed that would make our nation better.
Hogwash.
I’m sorry, but I cannot buy into that thinking. The greater impact seems to be the negative one that comes when that leader tumbles from his pedestal. It is a disgrace, and it should not be something that we continue to tolerate in the Church. It runs counter to the words of Jesus and makes us even more vulnerable to attack.
The other thought that continues to run through my mind is the words of Peter when he wrote in 1 Peter 2:
[W]hat credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
When you are accused of doing something, and you immediately point a finger at your accuser and say that they are falsely accusing you (for example, for political gain), and then it is found out that you actually are guilty of at least some of what your accuser said, you have lost the ability to be held up as an example of “patiently endur[ing]” your circumstances. You don’t get a pat on the back and a “Man, I hate that you’re going through this” as one who is suffering for the cause of Christ. And frankly, the motives of your accuser are no longer relevant.
Repentance will bring forgiveness, and ultimately restoration of fellowship. I personally don’t believe anyone is ever fully disqualified from ministry, unless they resist repentance in areas of sin. So far, very sadly, the present case has not shown this kind of repentance. Instead, there have been lies, cover-ups, and crafty Clintonesque language, all with a smile. That is a disgrace.
I pray very deeply that this situation will end in repentance and restoration. So far, I have been deeply concerned with what I have witnessed. And I’m just talking about the very things that this person has said. Not media reports about them.
When any one of us is caught in a sin, we cannot afford to gloss over that and try to make excuses. Trust me. I’ve been there. I know the fear. I know the pride. I know the instinctive defensiveness that comes into play. But we cannot allow ourselves to fall into that. Those things are not of God. And I know that true freedom and peace comes only with true brokenness and repentance.
Praying for the Church,
steve
