Failure in the Church

On social media, a minister shared a link to an online  article about a rising star, a person of influence, a minister of the gospel, who is now on the hot-seat. This is due to his ungodly and disrespectful behavior, behavior unfitting for any minister of the faith. He is immensely popular and has a multitude of followers. Because of his misbehavior, deceitfulness, and other self-glorying actions, some Christian organizations are pulling his books, and he is being removed from upcoming speaking engagements. I have followed some of his missteps over the past few months.

We have been here before, in recent years and also a couple of decades ago, when television evangelists and preachers have been exposed for walking a walk that doesn’t match the talk. It is a shameful business. I am sure these ministers didn’t start out that way. But the success and popularity got their eyes off Christ. This one is a big story and has been months in coming. However, it doesn’t make me want to add my voice to the condemning mantra, which many delight in doing. Rather, it makes me want to go to him and say, don’t you realize what you’re doing? This is man-serving not God-pleasing. This is bringing shame to the name of Christ.  As fellow-believers we react to such things. Our reputations are also affected albeit distantly. The unbelieving take notice. My first thoughts were sad and judgmental but also wondering and desirous of a spiritual cleansing for this minister of the gospel.

Quickly the thoughts collected and spewed in my head: You reap what you sow. You’re leading out of your flesh not out of the spirit.  Pride comes before a fall. Pride begets arrogance. Stardom turns some leaders toward demagoguery. They become infatuated with their own selves and the reach of their influence (and ministry). They dominate the people they lead. It becomes cult-like.  God will prune them and their ministry, or he may remove them from the action. God humbles the proud, and He means it for their good. I conducted a web search. There are many injured as a result of this pastor’s ministry. These people believe they have been sold out, their reputations compromised, because they didn’t follow the mold or agree with the leadership in some way. There is a warning here for anyone in leadership.

I have noticed this same pattern over the years. Independent thinkers who question the leadership, not on the same track as the minister for whatever reason, get waylaid or removed with some spiritually-sounding explanation given as the justification. Is that God’s way? I don’t think so. I also read an article by an unbelieving person who went to great lengths to condemn this minister by citing quote after quote, writing an in-depth blog that slammed this minister. The blogger found great fault with both the message and the messenger. It was putrid. Some of it was against biblical stances which are contrary to political correct ideology, but the rest was, apparently, deserved. The sad thing is, there was lots of fuel available, actions unworthy of a minister of God. Some blame rests in growing a ministry that has lost its first love and also its balance. 

It is a difficult position for a church to be in. Ministers ordained and serving have an anointing from God. To expose them when they are in error, is something that must be done in God’s way and with confidence that this isn’t a preference or a  reaction but biblical. In scripture, the goal of confrontation is always to restore the person to God and godly behavior. It is not to shame, degrade, or to designate them as an outcast. It is a call to holiness.

Christian leaders who silence the people (those Christians who hold them accountable), who lead with an iron fist, who take power and authority and then abuse it, these leaders have quit looking in the mirror of God. They think they are the gifted person, the one who matters. In truth, they are a tool, a special one who God is using to proclaim his message to the world in which they live and to grow His kingdom. God tends to shout if from the rooftops when they continue living a lie, act as a hypocrite, and/or are unrepentant. They are held responsible to God for their actions.

I thought of how we are all fallen people. We all have a propensity to glorify self and we tend to believe we are in the right. We all need Jesus to set us on the right course, to change-up what needs changing up in our spiritual lives. Today I added my comment. “It is a sad commentary. But, for the grace of God…”

But, for the grace of God there go I. Although it is a sad commentary, this is not the end of his story. This minister will either become broken and experience the insights which come with brokenness, or he will continue on and on unless God stops him, and he will continue to bring shame to the name of God. There are too many reports for me to not believe that some of this is true. If there is repentance and godly sorrow, God will cause a rebirth in this minister’s ministry that will have a different sort of impact.  God sees the contrite heart. That is what is needed here among some other things. We must pray and believe for God’s intervention in this man’s life.

I feel hopeful for him, that God will cause a watershed moment in his life, and he will know the grace of forgiveness, and the joy of restoration at the feet of Jesus, that he will die to self and live unto Christ. A death and resurrection experience is what is needed here.