Who is at Fault?

We have just finished discussing how Christians get hurt by guilty churches and other guilty Christians. But what if the Christian who got hurt is guilty?

The wrong-doers will make the claim that the other side is guilty, so how do you know who to believe? Often, both sides claim that they are led of God in their actions, so how do you know who is led of God?

Many years ago, our church had about 175 kids in children's church. Many of us worked hard on church bus routes, and the children's church grew to 300. Led by the pastor's wife, an angry group of people in the church seized control of the children's church, and after a few years, they had brought it down to about ten children. The pastor's wife claimed that God had given her the ability to lead, and people like me were interfering with God's will for her life. But how did the people like me know, in advance, that God had not called her to lead the children's church? Or is it possible that God really did lead her to do it, and it failed for other reasons?

Over the years, I've seen several attempts by people to seize leadership positions in good, Godly, fundamental churches. They usually fail, but when they succeed, they fail anyway, as their new "ministries" die away under them.

How do you know if God has really called you to be a leader? If you say that you feel His call, others may say that they feel the opposite way. And that helps us to see the solution: you have to learn how to recognize God's call.