New Ministry and New Unknowns
About 8 months ago Sara and I moved to New Madrid after receiving a unanimous call to pastor New Madrid Baptist Church (NMBC). We had made a few moves in ministry already so we knew what to expect in some areas, but there are always unknowns... And it's the unknowns that make life interesting.
I spent 10 years or so as a youth pastor, and a couple of years planting a church from scratch, but I had never pastored an established, traditional, church. Although I grew up in churches a lot like NMBC, and saw my dad pastor churches a lot like NMBC, every church is different and leading this church would require personal stretching and growth on my part.
Modern Church Leadership
Although every church requires a different type of leadership, the universal requirement is that you lead biblically. I am not using the term biblical leadership, to mean adopting the style of biblical leaders or even leading like Jesus. For me this term is more about leading according to biblical precepts and principles. This is probably the moment when you're saying "Well, duh Cary!" But hang with me for a minute...
We live an era of unprecedented access to information and technology. We also live in a era where you could fill your bookshelves with nothing but communication and leadership books. Many of these leadership books are written by experienced, Godly, men and women. I have learned a lot from these men and women of God. But unfortunately all this access can distract us from leading according to simple biblical principles.
A Big Unknown
A few months into my time as pastor of NMBC, we noticed a significant discrepancy in the church's books. Our investigations led us to an unfortunate discovery that involved a church member who, at that time, had unchecked access to the church's finances. When confronted, their confession was quick and heart-breaking. Obviously the church needed a massive overhaul in the area of financial accountability and responsibility--that was long overdue, but relatively easy thanks to some gifted church members.
But we also had the issue of how to deal with a church member who had been stealing from the church for two years. Understandably there was much anger, disappointment, frustration, you name it. Here I was, a couple of months into my tenure as pastor and I was saddled with dealing with this incredibly difficult situation. Some people wanted to file charges and seek prosecution, some I'm sure would have been fine to sweep it all under the rug. Neither of those were acceptable options to me. I knew that God's Word admonished us to avoid taking other believer's to court and I knew that the law of Christ meant forgiveness.
Leading Biblically
I knew what I needed to do--what our church needed to do. It was unconventional by many people's standards, but it was biblical. We must call for repentance, seek restoration, and encourage retribution--then we must forgive unconditionally. I (we) did (and are still doing) just that. We confronted this church member with the sin and called for repentance. This didn't happen immediately, but within a couple of months we saw this member of our church family stand before the body and publicly confess their sin, express their repentance and ask for forgiveness. We have forgiven. We have even received the beginnings of financial retribution being made.
Sounds Easy Enough...
Not really. We could have called the police, and let the prosecuting attorney sort it all out--that would have been easier. Then we could just write this family off--that would have been easier. We could shake our heads, plant bitterness in our hearts and hold on to unforgiveness--that would have been easier.
Easier... Maybe... But damaging beyond what we could imagine. I knew that choosing a path of prosecution would lead to unforgiveness and bitterness. I knew if we did not handle things biblically our church might never recover... In the roughly six months since we made this heart-breaking discovery of sin within the body of Christ we have witnessed people finding forgiveness like they never imagined. I have had members drop by my office to share how they have found forgiveness in their heart and given it more freely than ever before. We have people in our community who are still somewhat dumbfounded at our response to the situation--But they have seen true, Christ-like, forgiveness in action!
My Conclusions
Let us never get to the point that we have accumulated so much "wisdom" in the modern church that we no longer depend on biblical principles to guide our leadership. As I shared this story with a fellow-pastor, he marveled at the outcome so far. He commented that "This never happens in churches, usually the guilty party never shows their face again!" My response was simple, "I guess I didn't know any better, so I just depended on Scripture." (I hope that never changes.) And if we will lead biblically, we will reap the fruit of leading biblically: restored people, changed lives, transformed church and communities.
