A New Pastor Finally Appointed

I wrote last month on the lose of one of our pastors in a near by town. He had to leave the ministry because of moral falure to the point that he can never be restored to ministry in the Church of God.
Finally after a month the church has a new pastor. A young energetic minister who I believe will quickly get the church back up to speed and to winning souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a little perturbed. Number one I felt the State Office took to long to name a replacement pastor for this church. Number two the one they appointed was my executive pastor. So now, even though this church is blessed, I have a vacant spot on my ministerial team. It will take someone with a lot of energy and get up and go attitude in a replacement I know God will send us someone to take his place. I am sure that God is going to bless him in this new endeavor. This will be his first time being a senior pastor. So pray for this church!
I receive a call from the state offices this morning wanting an address for the father and mother of the fallen minister. After a month maybe they are going to reach out to them and minister to them. They also served the Church of God many years as pastors. They are loved and appreciated so much and are just one of the many who are hurting because of the moral failure of their son. We are praying for Samuel and Mary that God will bless them greatly in their retirement years. Please keep this family in your prayers. They really need it.
I hate to sound like a broken record but I just can't believe the greed and selfishness of a minister who will indulge his own lustful desires to the point that it destroys so much having to do with family and the church. This happen way to many times.

Another Fellow Minister Has Fallen.

On November 28 I wrote about all the ramifications when a minister falls because of moral failure. It has happen again. This time it was a minister in a town right next to my town. It is a very sad situation. He will never be able to be licensed again in the Church of God. Much worse he has lost his marriage, his church of loving people and all the years of confidence that others had come to have in him.
It was like a funeral when the letter of resignation with the reason was read to the congregation. They loved him so much that they were willing to try and work something out. However, under the bylaws of the church that was impossible.
The next day was a terrible day when two seperate trailers were backed up to the parsonage one to be loaded for him and the other loaded for his wife and daughter. The heart break with a wide range of emotions was very visible to everyone. The wife and daughter had NOTHING left but their cloths to pack in the trailer. No home to go to. No relatives to accept them; just nothing. I also felt so broken as my wife and another of the ladies from our church went to clean the parsonage for them because the wife was not physically or emotionally able to do it. We tried to show them all the love we could but the brokeness was so hard for them. I did receive an offering in my church for the wife, ($1596.90), to help her until she could some how put her life back into some kind of order.
HOW CAN SOMEONE BE SO SELFISH I keep asking myself? That for their on lust and physical pleasure for a few moments in a life time could be so overpowering and cause the break up of a home, a church and many families. Pray for this family! It hurts to see a fellow minister fall and bring about such distruction.

Proposed change in Exhort rank of ministry

It will be a grave mistake for the General Assembly of the Church of God to make the Exhorter rank of the ministry the responsibility of the local church. There are more law suits brought against the church in the removal of exhorter license than all others combined. If the State and General Offices cannot handle all the law suits how in the world will the local church handle them. It will mean a run on local churches and pastors to give exhorters license to any and everybody that comes along. At present the canidate for exhorters has to graduate from cims and mip plus have a background check done before being tested for license. In my opinion the reason for passing this responsibility on to the local church is to get rid of the possibility of law suits on the State and General Offices of the Church of God. Putting it really simple: don't vote for this to take place. It will be a giant step backwards for the church.

Storm of discussion to hit Church of God General Assembly

For those of you who keep up with such things know this. The worlds oldest Pentecostal denomination is on the bring of division and split. The Church of God General Assembly, which is the highest rule making body of this church, will meet in August. There is a great cry going out for finiancial openeness by the General Headquarters. However, it does not yet appear that this will happen anytime in the near future. It seems to steam from the resent new building of three new buildings at the General Headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee. It is my understanding that the construstion was suppost to be limited to $10 million dollars. However, with cost over runs it went far beyond that amount thus money was taken from any and every department source they could find. There are many who are questioning the legality of doing this with out the approval of the ordained bishops. It is causing quite a fire storm that could cause a lot of problems for the current leadership who remains closed mouth as to how this was done. Even though the minutes of the General Assembly requires that any bishop in good standing with the church can receive a finiancial accounting of all funds upon request this policy is not being followed. Therefore, a lot of bishops are taking up the cause to find out why the secret involved.
There is a simple answer to the delemia! Let the leadership, executive committee, follow the General Assembly minutes and release the wanted finiancial information. So simple yet so secretive and all is determental to the future of the denomination.

John McCain not a Conservative!

The more I hear John McCain the more I am convienced he is not a true conservative. How could you be Mr. McCain when you are espousing all kinds of programs that will only bankrupt the nation even more than it already has been done. While I applaud your matilitary career and feel badly for you suffering and injuries that in and of it's self does not qualify you to become President of these United States.
You are no different that Obama when it comes to using the clergy when it works to your advantage like you did with Dr. Hagee and Rod Parsley. Once you have used them for your purpose, winning primaries, you throw them aside as used meat for any and all. You will rue the day that you wacked their generous backing and then turned your back on them. They both are highly regarded in the christian world and carry great weight on home people vote for.
I can say for myself that I will be listening very closely to both John Hagee and Rod Parsley and might I say taking some ques from them as to how I should cast my vote.
Some words of advise: make amends with these men. They can help you.

I'm Having a Hard Time With My Vote

I am having a hard time making up my mind on my vote. I suspect thousands more are just like me. I just can't find a real conservative on the ticket. O did I say I would not vote democratic not matter who was running. So that kind of leaves me with all these republicans that and to liberal for me. Even though John Macain won in my state it was not with my vote. I voted agains all of them by voting for someone I knew could not win. Just because I am a christian does that mean I am obligated to vote for a former preacher. I don't think so! I have been down that road when I was young and voted for Jimmy Carter because he was a christian. Now I know that was a bad vote.

Do I vote a certain person becaused of economic issues. The economy is always going to be up and down so I don't think that is a good measure to vote by. When you don't have any more money than I have it makes even less sense.

I cannot bring myself to vote for someone who believes in killing babies even though all the other issues may line up. So do I just not vote? I don't think so! I will vote republican but who I vote for is up in the air. That is where I think a lot of you are also. So answer my question...who do you vote for with all these hang ups. God help us if Hillary wins!! God seems to be our only hope. But how do I vote for God? I will do a lot of praying and searching before I step into that little box to cast my vote when the time comes. Again, God help us!

When a pastor falls

In the world of the church it is always sad when a pastor has a moral failure. This happen recently near where I live. A very good preacher and pastor fell into the waiting arms of a woman other than his wife. I not only destroys the effectiveness of the church, that pastors ministry but also destroys the life of the wife and the children. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MIND OF THAT PASTOR? In the process of the act or acts does he ever stop to think what he is doing to so many people especcially his family.



The wife: Where this wife was in the limelight of a great number of people (in this case several thousand) now she only wants to hide, not be seen or answer a phone. She has to tell the children something as to why their father is no longer at home. Why they are not attending church where they always have and having people pouring love into their lives. The income is stopped in most cases so how does she put food on the table and take care of all the other things that a loving husband once helped with. Where she was once the FIRST LADY of the church she is now the last. Her mind is going in a million different directions. Did her husband, the pastor, ever think of what he was causing as he enjoyed his moments of indiscreations in a hotel or an apartment somewhere?



The Church: Here are thousands of people who put all their hopes and dreams into every word, demostration, and act of faith that this man preached. Do they look for another church? Do they just quit church in doubt and unbelief? Do they hang in there hoping that it will all work out in the long run? Or is their faith crushed to the point that they stop praying and doing all the other things that would help them dig their way out of the doubt and dissappointment.



The mom and dad: Our boy was reaching the top ranks of noteability of preachers. He had his own television program, billboards everywhere, spoke in national conferences, spoke and hosted on the largest Christian Television networks in the world. Surely our boy did not lose all he had going for a trist with another woman? Our hearts are broken into a million pieces.



Yes, he has gone to a counseling center for restorestation but what about all the rest of us. Who is going to help us recover from such a far reaching hurt. The answer is simple but it is also very hard. Just trust in God to lead you through and out of all the hurt. It is very hard but it can be accomplished with much prayer and talking it out with people of like faith. Try not to hate the pastor or his wife. That is the wrong direction. Let the love of Christ be you main place of release from the hurt come from. Just remember this is not the first time a pastor has gone into moral failure and sad to say will probably not be the last time. So pray, love and keep yourself in church. You will come out of this with your faith in tact!