THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER

This past a couple of weeks has been a sad week for many Christians in America.  You, who keep yourselves abreast with the news, must have heard that a relatively young pastor of a mega church on the East coast has fallen into sin.  There are thousands who flock to hear him preach every week and there are thousands more who follow him on social media.  I can only imagine how devastated they are upon hearing the revelation.  This pastor has since been fired.  

Having lived long enough I have seen pastors come and go—some by their own volitions, some by circumstances beyond their control, and some by their own doings.  Among those who have come and gone by their own doings are those who have been superstars in their ministries.  Usually they begin ministries as servants—and people treat them as such.  Slowly they ascend to stardom—and people treat them as stars.  Unfortunately, they do not intentionally refuse to be treated as stars; they happily welcome it as God’s bountiful blessings.  Some even make themselves superstars.

There are no superstars in the Kingdom of God, not even stars.  There are only sinful servants.  By setting them to be superstars, they are setting themselves up for moral failure, as C. S. Lewis correctly observes, “The higher, the more in danger.”  The danger is lurking more intensely by virtue of the fact when we believe that we are superstars, we forget that we are, in fact, plain and simple sinners.  And when we willfully forget that we are sinners, we dangerously forget to be holy.  Rightly 1 Peter 1:15 reminds us, “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”  Be holy in ALL we do; not in some, but in ALL that we do.  We do not get to and should not pick and choose when we will be holy.  He does.

Pastor Paul