Imperfect Pastors

Unless you live under a rock, you are aware of the problems and turmoil going on in the local church in Ladson and its former pastor, Dale Richardson. . 

Emotions are running a wide range of feelings in the community as well in the affected congregation. Betrayal and anger is right up at the top of the emotional rollacoaster ride.

Let's step back for a moment and consider what has happened. We need to realize that several factors, perhaps more, have come to play in this situation.

First we as members of a congregation tend to put our clergy and elders up on a pedestal ... that they can do no wrong. Yes we even make and treat them as gods with direct lines to the Almighty.

Bad news folks, really.

We expect our clergy to have all the answers and to be on call 24/7. Their personal and family lives play second fiddle to our expectations or demands we place on our "pastor", after all, this is his or her calling ... right?

Wrong, our pastors and elders are folks just like you and I, having all the same feelings, hopes, goals and desires each of us have. The reality is, we are all on the same playing field. However we throw a curve ball into the works of those who felt a spiritual calling from God to serve.

I have been there. Believe me, when I tell you, that being a member of the clergy is no picnic. You are attacked from both the spiritual side and the physical side caused by the demands of the "ministry." To top it off, Satan is there constantly looking for crack in our armor, that he may weasel in and plant seeds of destruction.

Scripture tells us we are to "put on the whole armor of God." Armor is used for protecting oneself you see and in this case both physically and spiritually. It is one thing to put it on and another to maintain it. One does not have to be long in the ministry to start to fall into the trap that we are invincible, basking in all of the "perks", the praises of our people both in the church and beyond.

Several times I've been called a "saint" in the community where I served. The reality of it is, I was far from being a saint. Yet, in all honesty, I liked the attention, the comments, TV interviews and news articles, that were surrounding me. It felt good, really good.

You see, Satan was starting to weasel in through a crack in my "armor," drawing me more and more away from the calling God had put on my life and replacing it with my building the "kingdom of self."

Know what? My Heavenly Father let it all happen. That's right. He did it to teach me that the maintenance of my armor was very, very poor. In fact it was nonexistent! In the middle of the night, after I had given a presentation and received a standing ovation and fly very smug with myself. He brought me face to face with that reality of my straying from the flock and my Shepard.

My whole being broke apart. I found myself in tremendous — almost uncontrollable anguish and weeping, crawling out of bed, to the living room seek my God on my hands and knees and asking for His forgiveness as a sinner saved by Grace.

Dr. Gary Chapman said it best, when he penned a devotion on, "He must become greater; I must become less" (John 3:30):  

"We've seen it happen many times. A leader's messages get large numbers of people stirred up, and it seems like he's the head of a great movement of God. But as the auditorium seats fill up week after week and the TV ratings skyrocket, something happens. He gets full of himself. It's less about God and more about him. Self-indulgence and sin are only a step away, and suddenly the nightly news is chronicling his fall.

That was not the way it was with John the Baptist, a preacher who attained the popularity of a rock star two thousand years ago. As rustic as was John's appearance (wearing an animal-skin robe), as challenging as was his message ("Repent!"), and as inconvenient as was his location (the desert), the people loved John. "The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him" (Mark 1:5). Many wondered if he might be the Messiah (see Luke 3:15).

John never let others' expectations carry him away. He knew that his God-given role was to point to Christ (see Mark 1:7). He got out of the way so Jesus, not John, could be glorified."

I identify with those words. But it is not easy to get out of the way. Glory, praise and honor is a hard taskmaster to let go of.

We — you and I — have the wonderful opportunity to change the problems that our neighborhood church is going through and the negative effect it is having on our community and beyond.

You see dear friend, God calls us not to be perfect but to struggle with obeying his maintenance manual, the Bible. To etch into our minds and heart His direction of love and forgiveness for each of our lives. Prayer, frequent prayer, is the key to spiritual wellbeing. Not just on Sunday for an hour or so, but each and everyday that He presents to us, opportunities in work clothes. It is important, it is vital, it is crucial.

He has chosen us, imperfect vessels to work through, to reach out to a world that is turmoil a world of people who have no direction, a "what's in it for me world." As the song writer penned we need to "reach out to the perishing, care for the dying." God, let it begin with Me."

Our Heavenly Farther, we as your imperfect people, lift up to you the folks of Freedom Free Will Baptist Church. We know, because you told us, that nothing happens by accident but according to your Plan of blessing for each of us. Father, we lift up to you our fallen brother, Dale Richardson, to you as he resides in jail, his whole world smashed at his feet. We pray that you, as only you can, minister to him, encourage him to look beyond the problems he has created and find and accept your forgiveness and the dawn of a new opportunity to serve you.

We lift up to you, Heavenly Father, his family — his wife of 26 years and his daughters. We can't even comprehend what they are going through. Hold them tightly, we pray, loving them and building them up, sustaining them, as they walk with you through this seemingly hopeless valley of darkness.

Bless the folks of this church that they may heal from the wounds that cut so deeply. I pray from the ashes may your glory once again be present in a greater and stronger way of your love manifested for all.

We ask this in the mighty name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.