Preachers we have to stop promoting this image that we are perfect. We forget that though we are helping others to walk out their faith we also have to walk out ours. We are on this journey together. There is a pastor named Gary lamb who started revolution church in canton. Gary had an affair and was asked by the board of his church to resign. On his blog www.garylamb.org he discusses a few questions asked of him. This particular question and answer stood out to me:Will I be returning as the pastor of Revolution?
"No. That chapter of my life is over. Let me say again that I agree 100% with the decision by our board to ask for my resignation. I was in blatant sin that at this time disqualifies me from pastoring. I know this is hard to accept by so many people who attend Revolution because Revolution is a place of grace, forgiveness, and for less than perfect people. It still is all of those things but as I said in my resignation letter there are consequences for sin."
Cheating on your wife is bad I repeat bad!!! However, I think Gary should have took a leave of absence to get his family right but not resign. The reason why I think this is because this goes away from the purpose in which he started this church revolution. Wouldn't this be a great testimony of how one recovers after falling. After all this is the stage where Christ died for us (Yet while we were sinners). Gary says there are consequences for sin. I agree but the main consequence was death and Christ saved us from that. The scriptures are full of imperfect leaders who at one time or another sinned against God. But it was God's grace that was sufficient. What then are you saying because you are a leader and messed up there is no coming back from that. Perhaps that is the problem. We think of ourselves more highly than we ought. I thought the whole idea of revolution was grace to all even after you fall or was that just a gimmick?
ya know what? U really are right. It's hard enough that the people expect us to never fall or stumble, but fellow clergy expect us to be perfect. Above all we expect ourselves to be perfect. WTF?!?!? Makes no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA few thoughts...
ReplyDelete(I'm afraid this might get long...sorry...and it's easy to monday-morning-quarterback other people's failings w/o looking at our own. I'm looking at the possibility of going on staff at a church and have been thinking a lot about these types of things lately. I've done a ton of volunteer work at a vibrant church in LA, but never been on staff before.)
The biggest fact of it is grace to the fallen: if we remove that, we're all screwed. Having said that...
1. FOR A FALLEN LEADER'S SAKE: WE SHOULD CARE MORE FOR THE CONDITION OF HIS HEART THAN WE DO FOR SOME SERVICE HE CAN RENDER.
If the only person we take into account is the leader, your conclusion would seem good, except...when someone is broken, the most gracious thing is to give them the time to heal, to make sure that what caused the fall in the first place can be taken away and replaced with Christ's love. It's really hard to do that while running something as crazy as a church. Anything or anyone that's broken needs to take time off, not as punishment, but so they can heal. And I'm afraid that takes a lot longer than a leave of absence. And while he's gone the church changes: people leave, new people come, and are loyal to the new leader, new direction and vision is cast, none of which involves the old leader.
2. FOR HIS FOLLOWER'S SAKE: WE SHOULD CARE MORE ABOUT THE CONDITION OF THEIR HEARTS THAN WHETHER A LEADER GETS TO KEEP HIS POSITION.
If we take into account all his followers, you now have to deal with feelings of betrayal, the disillusionment that almost always follows, younger believers considering ceasing their following of Christ altogether, all of the collateral damage that guys like me have to step in and work with. How do we help these people heal and continue to look to Christ? It involves a lot of things, but I think it's a hard argument to make that it involves having the betrayer still in charge. You are right that the main consequence of sin is death, but there are other consequences — like the tons of disillusioned people who aren't sure if the church is for them anymore. Do they get to take leaves of absence?
3. On a totally pragmatic side: good leadership means that other people trust you enough to follow you. if that's gone...
Think of it as 2 pyramids. One is right-side-up, and the second is upside-down with the point on the ground. The normal pyramid stands for your personal freedom. The upside-down pyramid stands for your influence and leadership. As you move up, your influence and leadership widens while your personal freedom narrows. If you are unwilling to give up certain "rights" as we like to call them, you will only attain a certain level of influence. There's no better way to rocket you downward to a low level of influence than to insist on your own personal freedom. And you can't just start climbing up again.
4. As I said in the first point, we should give grace to the fallen. I'm just trying to find someplace where it's written that grace involves being in charge of a church.
5. In his statement he said "AT THIS TIME disqualifies me from pastoring..." And that's right. In some ways, he'll get beyond it, but in some ways he never will. But he will recover, and God can work through this to give him a ministry that's unique and powerful.
I hope none of this comes off too negative. I've just seen too much of this, and your suggestions don't seem to take into account all the hurt that results. I also want to say every one of us is in the same boat. Jesus forgives entirely and deeply. Whatever it means to be close to him, I will ask God for it to happen.
I get the hurt these things cause but i want to deal with why it hurt so bad. because people expect these people to be better, to be more. They look at the leaders for hope. People want leaders they may not have the will power to be. So it hurts them to know a hero a person they admire is broken. That is why we have to stop making things centered around personalities. But we are human and its natural to see yourself in someone else. That is why we get upset when we find out our favorite athlete might have cheated or wrestling is fake. Because we really want to believe in something and someone. That Someone should be God.
ReplyDelete