So Many Church Christian Leader’s Falling

Over the years of ministry and church planting, Rachel and I would attend ministerial meetings from time to time. Most of it was directed towards leadership development. Rachel use to wonder if something was wrong with her in our early days of church planting as she felt she did not have much vision. I would always try and encourage her that she did.

I personally over the years had learned some useful tools through teaching, books, and experiences that helped in developing vision, strategies to help us get to where we needed to be, budgeting, and breaking things down into manageable timetables and achievable goals. I found what worked and what was not for me. Rachel and I would talk and plan together and shared in every aspect the ministry, but looking ahead and dealing with these kind of details was more my strength than hers.

As she became more comfortable with herself, I remember once being at a conference where there was scheduled a brainstorming session. She said she would skip out. I told her she needed to be there, but she said she would pass (which was unusual). She said she did not feel she connected into that zone of ministry and also felt it was just people trying to do something in their own efforts. If it was a prayer meeting, she would be there in a heartbeat!

In that moment I learned something about Rachel, myself, and most of the church. Call it a “revelation moment.” Those principles I had learned and applied had helped in the ministry (and to be honest, they were tools but not my main focus), but I saw more clear than ever, Rachel actually had GREAT vision. She was 100% in the moment. She loved God. She loved her husband and children and invested heavily in them. She loved to disciple people. She loved sharing Jesus with people that did not know Him. She invested daily into these areas, and things were being built, line upon line and precept upon precept.

This is not to take away from the need for planning and vision, but what Rachel understood was that there was One thing that mattered more than all else, and that was God, and He worked with us in this reality called “the present.” She also saw that this thing called vision and leadership had worked its way up the “importance ladder” a lot higher than it should be. Churches and ministries could be built on “clever” more than Jesus, and centered around certain individuals too much.

These past few years we have been living in the reality that so many that have perfected vision and strategy and growth within the church have been involved in scandal after scandal. I get that we are all are capable of scandal and I do not have the weight of the responsibilities these people have carried, but I started to wonder in greater measure that day Rachel made that statement, how much of what happens in ministry is of the flesh and how much is connected to God? How surrendered are we? How much do we really know Him?

The exposure of these “hidden sins” we are seeing is not just about sin being brought to the forefront. If that is all you see, that is just the surface issue. It goes deeper than our morality. It is a reflection of how hard-hearted and independent of God we all can be when it comes to God. How many times did Jesus expose hardness of heart, not just of the religious leaders, but of His disciples? Do a search in the gospels of how many times Jesus rebuked His followers for unbelief and hardness of heart. How many of us who consider ourselves disciples are resistant to God in so many ways?

When I see so many fall for their places of influence and ministry, my first thought is usually fear. Not dread. Fear of God. If am not careful, that could become me. It could be any of us.

Years ago I read 2 Chronciles and underlined every reference to “heart” and “seeking God.” There was always a connection between the direction of the nation of Israel or Judah and their king, and the condition of their hearts. There is so much teaching on practical things we can do to stay protected and set boundaries to keep us from falling, such as accountability partners and not being alone with the opposite sex, but as these situations have proven as some of these people had all those things in place, if our hearts are not right and our main desire is not to seek God with all of it, overtime that likely could be any of us.

Rachel had her struggles like anyone else, but she had a simplicity, passion for God, and discernment that she lived that is rare…and she lived that consistently since I have known her. She didn’t care what people thought if she saw it interfered with her relationship with God. When I struggle in an area in my own life…it is not circumstances, it is my heart. And I believe that is what God is wanting to address in these days, if we will have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. It can be easy to love the ministry and God take second. That is what is coming to the surface. Misplaced love and no longer a healthy sense of the fear of God.

We can all use continual evaluation of our personal relationship with God. Most often it was in seasons of success that the kings heart of Judah and Israel grew hard. It is an example to us all, that we need always seek God and lean into Him, and keep putting Him first…it is an everyday thing!