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Here’s a news brief I came across that really stood out.
In it, the CEO for Continental Airlines admits that his company in the past was racist and refused to hire black pilots. Past racism, in and of itself, is hardly surprising. What is surprising, however, is the candor of Continental’s public confession and the public amends it made to set things right.
It is rare to see anyone anymore who is willing to publicly admit to public sins, mistakes and improprieties — especially among our leaders. In this case, I was very impressed by what Continental and it’s CEO did, and hope this can be an inspiration for us all.
As I’ve previously ministered in other parts of the world, I’ve been alarmed at the growing influence of the so-called “prosperity gospel”.
The prosperity message is simply the latest incarnation of the historically persistent “gospel of self” that’s been a blight on the Church since the beginning. Going back to Simon the Samaritan in Acts 8, there’s always been those among us — with gifted personalities and beguiling, mesmerizing spirits of seeming sincerity — who pimp the gospel for personal gain.
Such God pimps have become a dominant force overseas — much more so than in America (where they nonetheless have a significant but I think shrinking foothold). John Hagee, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and other self-promoting, heretical TV preachers are all over the airways outside the U.S. through TBN and other so-called “Christian” media peddling their seductive gospel of “self”.
Of the seven spiritual gifts listed in Romans 12, the last — and I believe the most powerful but least appreciated and most abused — is mercy.
As I watch and sense what God is doing with an emerging new spiritual generation, I see that their dominant characteristic is mercy. I also have begun to realize that God wants to use “mercies” (those with the primary spiritual gift of mercy) as catalysts to unleash additional gifts in others. That, in turn, will bring this rising generation to new pastures where God’s presence can dwell among us.
This doesn’t mean everyone in this new spiritual generation has mercy as their dominant individual spiritual gift. But as a whole, they nonetheless seem to collectively exhibit the main motivations of mercy — which are a deep, personal craving for the presence of God and for genuine intimacy with others.
As a result, this rising generation has little interest or patience with the moral and cultural wars of my generation, or with our prevailing hypocrisy as we tried to fix everyone else but failed to exhibit God’s presence in our own lives. Nor can they understand the isolation, loneliness and lack of authentic community among older Christians.
New Covenant Fellowship in Manassas, Virginia, started out as a great church twenty-five years ago under a gifted pastor who’s since left. Under the current “pastor/elders” (the term they choose for themselves), massive numbers of additional people have left as the church sinks into cult practices and cult doctrines. As a result, attendance has plunged from thousands to barely thirty adults on Sunday mornings.
- The senior “pastor/elder” has been secretly enriching himself with around $200k annually from church funds for a sizable salary, a generous housing allowance, numerous benefits and various other perks amounting to somewhere around a million dollars in total
over the last several years — despite the tiny size of the congregation and the fact that he doesn’t even work at the church but works for an unrelated organization. When his self-enrichment was exposed, he denied it and claimed to have taken only a small fraction of the true amount. - He has personally acquired and gained wealth from numerous investment rental properties purchased with funds taken from the church. He also has been employed nearly full time for many years — and earns a significant income — from his separate employer. Nonetheless, he has tried to manipulate his shrinking congregation and justify his self-enrichment from church funds with false pleas of poverty.
- He misled his congregation for many years by claiming that New Covenant Fellowship was a “church” so he could induce them to donate their hard earned money, yet failed to disclose that there are no organizational documents — such as a constitution, bylaws or anything else — required to establish the church’s legal bona fides. Read the rest of this entry »
“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.” — Martin Luther
I am sensing more and more the need for authentic community in our churches.
When community starts taking hold (beyond an emphasis on Sunday “church” services) and we start getting involved in each other’s lives, major issues typically arise as we start to learn more about one another. Often, ongoing sins and improprieties begin to come to light — maybe even among our leaders.
How do we handle pastoral failings, especially when they go beyond merely personal sin and involve an abuse of position or trust which harms the church and hurts others?
