Learning from the rest
I read a really terrifying blog post this morning. It requires a little context in order to understand why it is so scary.
As most of you know I feel like God is calling me to work for the Church (notice the big C here), more specifically I feel like God is calling me to teach in the church (notice the little c here), therefore probably becoming a pastor. I understand that I’m still young, I still have decisions to make in my life and lots of hard work ahead of me to get to that point, but I really feel like the Lord is calling me to a life of vocational ministry in the church. I also have some really good friends who fall into two categories, either a) they are already an ordained teaching pastor at a church, or b) they are working towards that as a goal, some closer than others. So the culture and ideology of being a pastor is a very big part of my life, at least in this season of life it is.
So with that context lets get to the story I read about. The blog post I read came from Micheal McKinley, who is a pastor for Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling VA, and a blogger for 9 Marks, a ministry and resource for pastors. Recently Mike posted on a man whom you might have read about in the news recently, Gary Lamb. Gary was a church planter, blogger and the pastor of a huge church in Georgia where he ended up having an affair and divorcing his wife. Since his divorce he has recently remarried and is planting another church, which is another story and post for another day, I’m onto something else here. And just for the record, I don’t agree with what Gary is doing, any of it really.
Mike writes;
“Since his story has broken, Lamb has been receiving emails from many (italics are mine) men in ministry who are cheating on their wives, and so he is uniquely positioned to speak to the question of why pastors have affairs. Even if you don’t agree with him on a lot of things, there’s a lot to be gained from his insights on this matter (as someone once said, wisdom isn’t learning from your mistakes, it’s learning from the mistakes of others). His four observations:
Most pastors struggle with some sort of insecurity.
Most pastors have no accountability.
Most pastors live their lives serving everyone except their wife.
The church has made pastors into rock stars rather than regular men called by God.”
Wow, those four points are really scary to me, especially since I am pursuing a career in pastoral ministry and as statics go, I’m 90% sure I’ll be married at some point (of course if you asked me that percentage is probably a little higher right now) The fact that Mike said, many men in ministry are cheating on their wives has whole heartedly scared me. I want to, in subsequent blog posts, attack these four observations and give some biblical ground as to how some of these can be avoided, how the power of the gospel should be enough for pastors (and everyone else), what Christ has done for us addressing these issues specifically, and if you are a pastor or on your way there that these observations shouldn’t discourage you from wanting to follow that path.
The point is that there is hope, we shouldn’t feel lost or doomed if we are currently on the path of pastoral ministry or in it right now, Christ spilled his blood for instances like this, and we have to remember that we are broken, even the “rock-star” pastors are broken, and if we look into their lives long enough we will find a sin (not that we should always be looking for someone’s sin, just know its there).
how about tickle torture?
So as i was browsing the Internet before dinner, a routine i look forward to everyday, i came across an article that made me sit up (i was laying down before). The title of the article read Churchgoers more likely to back torture survey finds i was shocked so i read on. Thankfully the article was short and to the point. The point being that 54% of Protestant Christians who attend church one or more times a week are more likely to justify torturing terrorists and that 42% of people who seldom or never go agreed. The poll later to go on and say that a little over 6 out of 10 Christians justified torture where 4 out of 10 non-affiliated persons would justify it. I don’t get it, I’m confused, where does this line up? I don’t agree or justify torture, i think its inhumane, I’m at my church multiple times a week. I don’t know if i have any friends who go to church regularly and would justify torture, maybe i do and i just don’t know that. I mean this isn’t something i bring up at the dinner table, or over my latte (i hate lattes it just proves the stereotype) at Kaldis while reading my bible and a christian book. I just don’t understand where they got these numbers! Its appalling to me, aren’t we supposed to practice forgiveness and loving our enemies and neighbors, i don’t understand how torturing people does that. When was the last time you twisted your moms arm until she said “oh yeah i can tell you love me!” So lets just work on loving one another and if someone comes around asking you to take a survey on torture, think about what you are saying, and remember to love your neighbor.
Attempted Elucidation 