Faithfully yours - Surviving the crash

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Published on Saturday, April 16, 2016

By Neil Strohschein

The Neepawa Banner

The world of Christian ministry is littered with the corpses of failed ministries and discredited preachers. While each is a tragedy in its own right, some were predictable. Three things brought people like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Mike Warnke and others to the brink of disaster.

The first was control. Everything in the ministry revolved around one person. He or she was the driving force, the host and teacher on the TV program and the “prophet” whose word was law and whose ideas (outlandish as some were) were instantly implemented. There was no control by a governing board. It simply “rubber stamped” whatever the “prophet” proposed.

The second was contracts. In a recent sermon, Mike Warnke talked of the pressure he faced from those who produced his recordings and videos. “In order to keep my position as the top Christian Comedian in America,” he said, “I had to record at least one new album a year. And I had to be funny in order for the albums to sell. But God hadn’t called me to be funny. He had called me to preach the gospel.” He readily admitted that his contractual obligations (writing, recording and promoting new material) got in the way of doing what he had been called to do.

The third cause of most ministries’ downfall was cash. It takes a lot of money to buy TV time, maintain a headquarters with dozens of paid staff and travel from place to place for concerts or conventions. And then there is the ever present temptation to use ministry funds for elaborate homes, luxury cars, private planes and other perks and justify these expenses by saying “I’m doing a good work for God and I deserve these things.” 

But as these men found out, what one man builds another man can destroy. And in each case, the man was a reporter who got wind of some inconsistencies in their lives, did a little snooping and then wrote a story. The revelations were different, but the outcome was the same. The men listed above saw their ministries collapse and their personal integrity suffer significant damage.

Bakker was imprisoned for fraud. Warnke’s production company pulled his products, leaving him with no income. Swaggart saw his church, Bible College and ministry dwindle to the point of near extinction. Did they deserve the treatment they received from the media and other branches of organized religion? Some would say they didn’t. Others would argue that they should spend the rest of their lives digging ditches. I am not about to pass judgment on these men. They are God’s servants and to their own master they stand or fall (see Romans 14:4).

What I admire about each of them is that they survived the crash. They sought and found God’s forgiveness. But the way ahead, for each of them, was a long road of healing, recovery and restoration. They are still on that road and will be until the day they die.

These men learned that the wages of sin (death—Romans 6:23) can be erased in an instant. But the consequences of sin never disappear completely. We may well spend the rest of our lives living with and in some cases dealing with the fallout from our failures.

There is, however, hope for all of us. God’s grace is sufficient. He will give us the strength we need to face the consequences of sin with courage and dignity, to overcome them and to rebuild a life and a witness with which God will be well pleased.