Falling

A number of years ago at my home Church there was a controversy. Exactly what it was is not important except that the minister was involved. This minister had come in to our Church and done some fantastic things. Life in the Church was becoming better, more unified. The Church was growing and all seemed to be going well. Each week there would be powerful preaching from the pulpit with teachings that benefited many people.

One thing that sticks out in my memory is that this minister would frequently preach on morality, unity and relationships. How to act amongst each other, how to act in the world and how to act like Jesus. Yet in the end this minister did something that was not moral, caused upset and discord and caused fractures. The repercussions still rock our Church to this day and has impacted many lives in a negative way.

At the time I was shocked, horrified and disappointed. But most of all I felt let down. I felt that this person who had taught me so much about the faith had tore the foundations out from under me. I allowed their actions to affect my relationship with God.

I had fallen into a trap that many Christians do, we raise our ministers, preachers and leaders on to pedestals. We make them into semi-idols who we look up to and try to emulate. But only disaster lies down this path. Any Church leader is only human and as such as prone to mistakes, sin and falling as anyone else. By putting them on a pedestal we are setting them up to fall, and to fall further. These people are no better than us, there is nothing special about them except that they have been called to God's service. Being called as a minister does not make you a better Christian, it does not make you immune to sin.

All people are going to let you down at some point, that is part of life we have to deal with. We can not control other people's actions but our own reactions to events are under our control. We should remember the teachings of Jesus, to love each other and to be tough on sin but gentle with the sinner. We should do everything we can to help those who sin, those who fall short, because we don not know when it is that we may need the same help from them.