A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." - John 13:34-35 (ESV)
It is stunning to watch how churches no longer care to be subtle about how unbiblical and unchristian they are. Like we saw recently when a Gateway Church member was forcibly removed from the church at gunpoint for daring to speak out against the child predator Robert Morris and what appears to be gross corruption regarding hundreds of millions of dollars in tithes. This week we do not even have to turn to Charismania or the NAR for this week's examples of abuse. Instead, we travel to Little Rock Arkansas, and Immanuel Baptist Church. IBC has been embroiled in controversy for some times now. It seems they had a child predator for their Director of Children's Ministry. Patrick Miller was charged with Second Degree Sexual Assault involving an underage girl in his ministry. Now, that is bad enough but we can give grace because we often cannot tell if someone is cleverly disguising who they really are. The problem however, is the church leaders did not bother to tell the church itself for seven years. When responding to this horrific breach of trust, the Senior Pastor, Steven Smith, said that he wished he had told the church sooner about these crimes. Do you think? Even though Miller pled down the charges, two more victims have now come forward.
But wait! There's more! In April of this year, a student ministry volunteer, Reagan Gray, was arrested on charges of First-Degree Sexual Assault of a high school boy in her ministry. Smith emailed the church claiming Gray had been removed from ministry. The problem is that after "church mandated counseling," Gray was reinstated to her youth leadership role! Did you get that? Does counseling matter at that point? Why in the world would you allow someone charged as such to return to any ministry, let alone student ministry? This further exposes the rot inside the apostate church today. There is no common sense. These is no concern about taking care of the sheep. I understand why Smith is confused. Every time a church leader fails and falls the FIRST thing everyone in leadership talks about is restoring them to ministry. The hell with the safety of the sheep. The hell with the church's witness for Christ. The brand protects its own at all costs. If Mike Bickle's victims had not included two minors, he would probably be restored already.
As bad as these two stories are, they are not the punch line unfortunately. It seems that as a result of these horrifying scandals, the church decided to draft some bylaws. Good idea. What is not a good idea is to beat your sheep into submission because you are a hireling instead of a pastor. In the new proposed bylaws is the following caveat, backed up by a threat of discipline including forfeiture of membership:
"Church members are expected to avoid making statements to the general public, media, or via the Internet with intent to breach Church business confidentialities, injure the reputation of the Church, or disregard Jesus' imperative to love one another" - Julie Roys
So good that you have properly diagnosed the problems and determined that the fault lies with your sheep, who had NOTHING to do with the abuses or the cover ups. This is simply vile and disgusting. Let's be clear. Sexually assaulting minors is never "church business" or "confidentialities." What injures the reputation of the church are morally bankrupt pastors who think nothing of hiding child predator crimes for seven years and returning youth abusers to ministry after some kind of lame "counseling." What does not injure the church is the truth. The sheep are the church, not the leaders. This stifling of their free speech regarding their own church is despicable. This is born out of the purpose driven church heresies that have taught a generation of pastors that their individual fiefdom belongs to them instead of the sheep. Steven Smith does not own Immanuel Baptist. It seems like it is high time Smith is blessedly subtracted.
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