A sobering reminder - we're all human
I get lots of newsletters, both through snail-mail and email, from churches all over the country. I use them for encouragement, ideas and just keeping up with my friends serving the Lord elsewhere. Today, however, brought a sobering reminder of keeping myself pure.
Gary Lamb was pastor of Revolution Church in Canton, GA. A strong church with a bright future, Gary appeared to be a guy who had it won. Appearances are often deceiving. On Sunday, he notified his church he had been involved in a 6 wk affair with his personal assistant and was therefore resigning immediately from the church. Wow.
What it speaks to is this: don't focus so much on what others THINK as much as you do on what God KNOWS! If God's not pleased with your life, does it really matter what others think? If you're living in disobedience to God, does it matter if you've found success?
Perhaps Gary struggled with a complex of feeling superhuman. I'm especially culpable to that, as most pastors struggle are: the idea that somehow, because we're superhuman, we don't need the same kinds of things we tell our congregations they need. As if we impervious to needing our days off, or family time, or a date night or our vacation time. We come to believe the entire kingdom of God hinges on our capacity to keep up the charade of "everything is fine." Satan would like for us to think that so we wind up falling. Don't think for a minute Satan won't attack and do so as viciously and destructively as possible. Pray for me. Pray for Duane and Kern. Pray for our deacons. Pray for our friends leading churches elsewhere. Pray for Gary Lamb and Revolution Church. Pray for each of us to find purity and holiness that keeps us humble enough to remember it's about God and his kingdom - not us.
Gary Lamb was pastor of Revolution Church in Canton, GA. A strong church with a bright future, Gary appeared to be a guy who had it won. Appearances are often deceiving. On Sunday, he notified his church he had been involved in a 6 wk affair with his personal assistant and was therefore resigning immediately from the church. Wow.
What it speaks to is this: don't focus so much on what others THINK as much as you do on what God KNOWS! If God's not pleased with your life, does it really matter what others think? If you're living in disobedience to God, does it matter if you've found success?
Perhaps Gary struggled with a complex of feeling superhuman. I'm especially culpable to that, as most pastors struggle are: the idea that somehow, because we're superhuman, we don't need the same kinds of things we tell our congregations they need. As if we impervious to needing our days off, or family time, or a date night or our vacation time. We come to believe the entire kingdom of God hinges on our capacity to keep up the charade of "everything is fine." Satan would like for us to think that so we wind up falling. Don't think for a minute Satan won't attack and do so as viciously and destructively as possible. Pray for me. Pray for Duane and Kern. Pray for our deacons. Pray for our friends leading churches elsewhere. Pray for Gary Lamb and Revolution Church. Pray for each of us to find purity and holiness that keeps us humble enough to remember it's about God and his kingdom - not us.
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