"You have to work hard to offend Christians. By nature, Christians are the most forgiving, understanding, and thoughtful group of people I've ever dealt with. They never assume the worst. They appreciate the importance of having different perspectives. They're slow to anger, quick to forgive, and almost never make rash judgments or act in anything less than a spirit of total love . . . No, wait--I'm thinking of Labrador retrievers!" David Learn, 1998

Monday, March 12, 2012

Grace Grieving 26: "I had nothing to do with that!"

Some victims of Grace for our Wall of Remembrance date back two decades:

     The Pied Piper had told Jerry and me that he "had nothing to do with" the dismissals, soon after he was called to be our senior pastor, of a series of pastors and other church leaders, including the head of Women's Ministries (let's call her WOW-1).
     He wasn't the one, Lou said, who scuttled AWANA* and the extremely effective and popular Captain Kids' Daycamp program, which brought many children to Jesus Christ--and through them, whole families. He wasn't the one who laid an ax to the root of our Grace Bible Institute, which had made a Bible education possible for inner city pastors--or severed the financial lifelines to our missionaries.
     Lou told us, "I had nothing to do with that! The elder board did that and told me not to tell."
     When I recorded his response on Glimpses of Grace (#3, The Pastor Who Came to Stay), we believed him. We believed Lou had told us the truth, that he had been falsely demonized for something he had no part in and that the elder board had gagged him so he could not defend himself against the resentment of the congregation.
     Since then we have talked to eyewitnesses and realize what Lou told us--to our faces--was a lie. He had everything to do with these cuts and losses. The orders came from his mouth.   
     I would think those who were elders at the time would take a dim view of his blaming those orders on them.


Note: AWANA is a Bible-based, Christ-centered program for children. The word AWANA stands for "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" and comes from the Bible verse, II Timothy 2:15: "Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The goal of AWANA is to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ, and to train them to serve Him.
     When Awana was disbanded, one of Pastor Lou's children reportedly said their dad considered Awana "mindless memorization."
    

1 comment:

  1. My prayer is that the elders who are monitoring this blog would have their eyes opened to the truth and realize that they, too, will be required to give an account of their own actions to God, Who is not fooled.

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