In God We Trust?
Leadership Lessons Book-by-Book – Lamentations
Within the past 24 hours I’ve heard some disturbing news. I’ve heard stories like these before but every time I hear them, my heart sinks a little. It shouldn’t be this way. Two pastors, one on the mainland and one local, have had to step down from their positions because of an impropriety. The first situation has been reported on various news agencies. Pastor Tullian Tchividjian, the grandson of Billy Graham, has resigned as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He said his wife had an affair and in response to his wife’s actions, he sought the friendship of a woman and that turned into an affair. The second situation is not as well known as the events are unfolding and facts are still being gathered. The pastor did something wrong, he submitted his resignation, and the board accepted it.
For both these pastors, there will need to be a time of healing. They will need to go deep with God to get to the root of their sin and prayerfully, in a few years, they will come out on the victory side. For the churches they pastored, they will also need to go through a time of healing, and prayerfully, find a pastor who can help with that healing. The sin of these pastors will have a lasting effect for years to come. They are both in their early 40’s and there is 50/50 chance they will finish well, depending on their response, repentance, submission, and transformation.
As I’ve studied Dr. J. Robert Clinton’s thoughts on barriers to finishing well, here’s something I’ve observed: leaders in transgression find the temporary pleasures of sin outweighing its damaging consequences. The satisfaction of sin becomes the all-consuming goal but little thought is given to its side effects. The only time serious thought is given to the repercussions of sin is after the deed has been done. But by then, it’s too late. The sin has been committed and the leader needs to face the music. They failed to step back, take a breath, trust God, and walk away from the sin.
Maybe you have felt what I have felt whenever you read about a leader who has sinned. You scratch your head and think, “How did this happen?” or “They’re a leader, shouldn’t they know better?” or “What were they thinking?” A prophet who lived 2,600 years ago, may have thought the same thing.
It is thought the prophet Jeremiah was the one who penned the book of Lamentations around 586 B.C. as Jerusalem was falling to the hands of the Chaldeans. He has a front row view of the destruction of his cherished city as well as the beloved Temple, the one that Jewish people would journey many miles to in order to offer their sacrifices. Now it was gone, all gone. The columns, the basins, the instruments…all broken. If there was any value, it was taken to Babylonia; if it wasn’t worth anything, it was thrown to the ground.
How did all this happen? If you were to rewind the tape to the actions of the leaders of Jerusalem in 2Kings and 2Chronicles, you would see that they trusted foreign gods rather than Jehovah God. They chose to follow the ways of other nations. How many times does it say a king did evil in the eyes of the Lord? The number of bad kings outweighed the number of good kings: 20 to 8. When examining the leaders, Jeremiah writes, “Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future” (Lamentations 1:9). The leaders did whatever they wanted, turned their backs on God, without thinking of the consequences of their actions. They lived for the temporary pleasures of the present.
Jeremiah continues, “Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities” (5:7). The sinful actions of evil kings rippled down to several generations. Those generations had to bear the consequences of actions that were done decades earlier.
These leaders had a chance to do what was right. Prophets were sent by the Lord to warn the kings that they had to shape up or the people would be shipped out. But the evil leaders chose to continue in their ways and Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of the holy city, the city that should have been a symbol of what happens when a nation trusts the Lord.
Today, people are less trusting of churches and its leaders. A recent Gallup poll says that only 42% of Americans trust the church, while there is greater confidence in the military (72%), small businesses (67%), and police (52%). Why has this happened? It’s hard to trust the church when leaders, like the two I described above, don’t trust God. These two leaders chose to do things their way rather than God’s way, and the result is a ripple effect of mistrust. They chose temporary pleasures over what would bring God the greater glory.
If we want the church to become a symbol of what happens when the people of God follow the Lord, we need leaders who will follow hard after God, and not live for temporary pleasures, believing that as leaders walk in obedience, it will have a positive ripple effect for future generations. But it’s not just you as a leader who needs to follow God, all Christian leaders need to do this, because when one goes wayward, it affects all other leaders.
Questions to Think About:
• If you are in a situation that is not pleasing to God, what will happen if you continue on this trajectory? Do the temporary pleasures seem to outweigh its damaging consequences?
• What do you need to do to protect your heart and actions, so that you stay above reproach?
© Gary Lau 2015
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