Courage

Decades ago, the principal of the Christian school where I taught complained that a student was cheating in most of her classes and the teachers wouldn't do anything about it. That afternoon, I caught her with the textbook open during a test.

In the nightmare that followed, the church leadership united in blaming me. Why? The student's father announced that he was going to sue, and I watched in amazement as the entire leadership quickly turned against me.

I have heard enough similar stories from former Christian school teachers that I feel safe in saying that the great decline in Christian schools is largely due to the failure of leadership to stand up to parents. In fact, the failure of many Christian churches to grow is the result of leadership failing to stand up to church bullies.

I'll be posting a couple times a week from a Bible study on "courage," and comments are welcome.

Was Barnabas Right? Part 11

Folks, I'm not even sure that this next story is true. W.E.B. Griffin has written a successful series of historical fiction novels about the US Marine Corps. Using inside information and tales from veterans, combined with actual history, he has assembled a fascinating series of Marine tales.

After Japan had invaded China, but before they had bombed Pearl Harbor, the US, Japan, and Italy all had Marines stationed in China. The Christian Missionary Alliance had a base, and the director's wife was promiscuous, even with US Marines. A new young missionary arrived, and she seduced him the very first night. They got caught, and the husband made him sign all kinds of confessions that would destroy his ministry if revealed, and then they covered it up.

Remembering that THE STORY MIGHT NOT BE TRUE, I would have advised the young man to get back to the US by any means he could, report everything that had happened, get a secular job, and get out of the CMA. Two pastor friends here agree with me except for the last part. Bypassing their doctrinal differences, they see no need for him to leave the group.

How would you have advised him?

Was Barnabas Right? Part 10

Re: Barnabas Was Right--or was he?

Marty became pastor of a small rural church and within a few years had built it into a successful Ruckmanite (King James Only) church. He started a successful Christian school, and one day a problem student reported seeing Marty kissing an unmarried woman teacher.

The two denied it, the church ruled in their favor, and several months later, Marty and the teacher were caught in adultery by Marty's wife. Resigning in disgrace, Marty wanted to return to the ministry. He got into difficult, non-Biblical questions about how many natures Jesus had, and used his knowledge of this non-Biblical subject to present himself as a knowledgeable Christian leader.

Learning that some teachers at his (former) Christian school opposed bringing him back as pastor, he sent letters threatening to destroy their ministries if they didn't stop. At least one teacher read the letter out loud at a church business meeting. He also sent similar letters to some people in the church.

Marty still covers his trail. He currently advertises himself as a successful Christian leader, while omitting the part about adultery.

Was Barnabas RIght? Part 9

Jim Bakker (Yes, I spelled it correctly) was an extremely wealthy and successful television evangelist when he had an affair with Jessica Hahn in 1980. His ministry continued to proper, but seven years later, he came under investigation for fraud. Among his various crimes was using donations to pay off Hahn's blackmail demands.

While in prison, Bakker made a major turn-around, confessing his guilt (although some people feel he was more guilty than he admitted), and currently runs a much-smaller ministry. But Bakker really did stop his fraud. He really has kept himself clean. God doesn't object to His children going to prison; He objects to the sins that got them there.

When Bakker eventually did produce real repentance in prison, God didn't get him out the very same day. He had to go through a period of spiritual growth before God, Who can do anything, got him out. When a Christian goes into major sin, there can still be consequences that repentance doesn't remove.

Was Barnabas Right? Part 8

In the 1970's, while Jack Hyles was pastoring the largest church in the world, his son David was running large youth conferences and was a highly sought-after speaker. When I was in college, I worked for David, who had a stupendous personality and was always surrounded by admirers.

Unknown to me, he was having frequent sex with teen-age girls, and his youth department promoted his friends who were involved in David's sins. Dave would demote or fire hard-working, Godly college students who were getting results, and put his ungodly friends in positions of authority where they took the credit for the success of the Godly students.

Years after I graduated, the sex scandals blew up badly enough that Dave couldn't lie his way out of them anymore. Faced with the prospect of having to work at an honest job, Dave "repented," Hyles declared that the Holy Spirit had restored Dave, and once again he became a successful Christian speaker.

When a large church in my city was considering bringing Dave in as a speaker, I stated publicly that his repentance was fake, and that I would tell anyone who would listen to me that Dave was still a sexual predator. A Godly deacon confronted me about how I could KNOW that Dave's repentance was fake, and I explained the Biblical commands to go back to those you have wronged, and how Dave was disobeying all of them.

Months later, when new sex scandals with Dave Hyles broke out, that same deacon was thanking me for having spared his church from public embarrassment.

Was Barnabas Right? Part 7

In 1988, Assemblies of God televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a prostitute. Unable to lie his way out of it, he finally confessed. When he had been ordained, he had agreed to the AOG regulation that if he were caught in immorality, he could not preach for two years, and then could only return to the ministry if the AOG leadership permitted him to do so. While the Bible does not give such a command, it clearly does command that we are to keep our word.

Claiming that it would hurt his ministry and that the AOG was too harsh and unforgiving, Swaggart broke his word and returned to the ministry. Three years later, he was caught again with a prostitute, and he announced that God had told him to tell his followers that it was none of their business.

If you cut through the hype and read a neutral article on Swaggart at Jimmy Swaggart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you'll see that he had lived a life of self-sacrifice for a long time. Was his first repentance real? I don't know, but based on Proverbs 2:19, I had known back then that he could never be trusted again:

" None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life ---"

Was Brnabas Right? Part 5

I received some interesting input on a Christian forum:

Folks, when someone fails a test they get an F, if someone messes up in Bootcamp they get set back, this is reality for crying out Loud. If we truly repent then God will forgive us for the sin and we are not condemned to hell for it, but to assume that we can go on in the world of humans as if nothing has happened is absurd.
Any christian leader who is found to be in a serious sin should be a leader no longer because those who lead are an example. If the person repents and over a period of time is proven to be faithful and the particular sin a thing of the distant past then leadership could again be considered.
Today we have nutty stuff, leaders caught in serious sin who continue to lead by asserting that God called them and God forgave them so they should be allowed to continue to lead...that is pure nonsense. Question: why would any christian leader who fails as a christian leader believe that God would want them to continue as a leader? The requirement of a leader according to the bible is to be above reproach, if they commit something that is a serious reproach them they no longer qualify. Of course they can be forgiven by God and still serve the Lord...but not as a leader.

Comments?