The news of the downfall of a major Pentecostal Christian leader in Australia has most of the Christian community abuzz. And given that the story has been splashed all over the secular media, it certainly has non-Christians talking as well. For those not in the know, it concerns Pastor Mike Guglielmucci who has just been found to have fraudulently claimed to have a terminal illness.

I know nothing about the story except for what the media has been saying about it. Here is how an article in Thursday’s Australian begins:

“He preached to thousands about his terminal illness and tugged at hearts with a hit song. The problem is the pastor wasn’t dying at all. Michael Guglielmucci, who inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer ‘battle’, has been exposed as a fraud. Guglielmucci, whose parents established Edge Church International, an Assemblies of God church at O’Halloran Hill in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, now is seeking professional help. Earlier this year, Mr Guglielmucci released a hit song, Healer , which was featured on Sydney church Hillsong’s latest album. The song debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA charts. It since has become an anthem of faith for believers, many of whom are suffering their own illness and were praying for a miracle for Mr Guglielmucci, who has claimed for two years to be terminally ill. In one church performance that has attracted 300,000 hits on YouTube, he performs his hit song with an oxygen tube in his nose. It appears Mr Guglielmucci, who was a pastor with one of Australia’s biggest youth churches, Planetshakers, may even have deceived his own family.”

Assuming that this is more or less an accurate account, how does one respond as a believer? We already know how most non-believers will respond. They will simply be further convinced that the Christian church is full of fakes, phonies, hypocrites and charlatans. They will simply see this as yet another example of a religious person using his influence to get rich quick, or to build up his own ego.

And they will be largely right in these assessments. Far too often Christian leaders have been in the ministry for all the wrong reasons: for financial gain, for making a name for themselves, to build up their egos, to control and manipulate other people, and so on.

And far too many Christian moral failures have given the church of Jesus Christ a terribly bad name. So in one sense, all we can do is repent, confess our sins, and desperately try to lift our game.

But there is more to it than this. The good news is, for every well-known Christian leader who blows it big time, there may be a hundred, or a thousand, or many thousands, who do not blow it, who are not bringing shame and reproach on the church of Jesus Christ.

Another truth in all of this is the fact that all of us are sinners. Sure, Christians are sinners who have been saved by grace, but we are still sinners. With the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are meant to be daily transformed into the image of the Son. Christian justification is just the first step. The rest of the story is lifelong sanctification, where we seek to die to the old man and put on the new man.

We are all capable of blowing it big time. But it need not be this way. A key lesson to be learned from all of this is that every one of us believers needs to be in some sort of accountability group, where we can be really honest with a handful of other believers. We need to keep short accounts, and to be honest with ourselves and others. The journey is too difficult to be undertaken on our own. We need each other.

We need to meet in regular accountability groups where we can confess our sins, share our weaknesses, and seek prayer and support. Sure, many believers are already in small groups. But far too often these are mere social affairs, where coffee, cake and small talk make up the bulk of the meeting.

What are needed are groups where people are encouraged to be transparent and honest. And it needs to be in an environment where each member can trust the others to keep things confidential, and not to be self-righteous. As I said, we are all capable of big time moral failings. It is only the grace of God that keeps us on the straight and narrow.

But God works though his people. He uses others to help us become what we are meant to be in Christ. That is what the Body of Christ is supposed to be all about. We cannot make it on our own. We desperately need the help, love, support and encouragement of others. And we also need their rebuke, chastisement and warnings, when and if needed.

Now is not the time to be soft on one another. It certainly is not the time to be soft on ourselves. The heavenly Father chastens those whom he loves (Hebrews 12:1-13). And we are called to encourage each other, warn each other, challenge each other, and seek the best for each other.

We have perhaps had way to much cheap grace and mushy notions of love in the church. We certainly have bought in to the world’s notions of acceptance and tolerance. But biblical love is not mushy or sentimental. It is hard as nails, yet soft as the heart of God.

Perhaps these very public fallings from grace are God’s way of seeking to wake up a sleeping church. Judgment must begin with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). We have perhaps been too slack, wishy-washy, and lukewarm. It is time to get serious with God.

We must get serious, for the glory of God is at stake. If the term seems too theologically nebulous, let’s just put it this way: When we blow it big time as believers, how does the reputation of God come out? Does he look better in the eyes of the world, or worse?

We should all be concerned about God’s reputation. We dare not bring further dishonour and shame on his name. It happens far too often already. Let us all resolve to press on in Christ, and let him have his full work accomplished in our lives. We dare not settle for second best. That is simply too damaging to the name and reputation of the Lord we claim to represent.

For those who want further insight into this whole case, one Pentecostal Pastor who his much closer to the action has some very helpful thoughts here, along with many comments: http://markconner.typepad.com/

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24216087-5006787,00 .html

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/08/23/on-christian-leadership- failures/

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The Pressing Need for Integrity

On a regular basis media reports highlight some politician, celebrity, community leader, sports star or high-flyer falling from grace. Whether through drugs, sex, dishonesty, abuse of power or corruption, there seem to be constant stream of cases of well known figures being brought low by some sort of scandal or intrigue.

The sad thing is Christians are not immune from such situations, and they too are prone to such downfalls. This is doubly scandalous. Followers of Jesus are meant to represent their Lord, and such major stumbles bring disrepute on Christ.

Indeed, in the past week or so, two high-flying Christian leaders have fallen from grace: Todd Bentley in the US, and Mike Guglielmucci in Australia. Both cases have received a lot of media attention.

However, these moral and spiritual collapses need not occur. While we do not achieve perfection when becoming Christians, we do receive the residential power of the Holy Spirit to help us become transformed into the image of Christ. So we are not left alone in the process of sanctification and spiritual growth, but are endowed with God-given power.

Key to this is the issue of integrity. The dictionary definition of the term speaks of soundness, or the state of being complete or undivided.

The Christian walking in integrity is not two different persons: one in the public eye, and another in private. There is no divisions between what the believer does Sunday morning and what he does the rest of the week. That is because he has a singleness of heart and focus.

Other words for integrity include personal purity, dedication, and holiness. The believer who has integrity is someone who is holy, or set apart for God’s use. He is dedicated to his God, and he recognises that his inner life must reflect that of his Lord.

And like all aspects of Christian living, the way it works is by putting God first, and by living in his presence. When we see God for who he really is, we cannot remain the same. Isaiah had a life-changing encounter with God as described in Isaiah 6. Confronted with the presence of a holy God, he could only say, “Woe is me, I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips.”

The only way we can really know ourselves is to first know God. Consider the response Jesus gave to the question, “What is the greatest commandment?” He replied by citing two Old Testament passages: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31; also, Matt. 22:37-40; Luke 10:27).

The first part of his response comes from Deut. 6:5. It is part of what is known as the Shema, a passage which all good Jews recite as a daily prayer. The word “shema” is the Hebrew term for ‘hear”, which is the first word of the famous passage (Deut. 6:4-9). The first two verses of the Shema read as follows:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The idea is, because the Lord is one God, we should love the Lord as a unified being. The various words like heart and mind simply mean that we should love God with the totality of our being, with our whole person.

There should be no part of us that does not love God. There should be no division in our person. Every part of us should be united in our love and devotion to God. Jesus said this is the great commandment. We are to be totally sold out to God, and love and follow him completely, thoroughly and fully.

That takes us back to the term integrity. There is no part of us that should not come under the Lordship of Christ. We should not be divided in our loyalties to God. We should not be double-minded or duplicitous. We are to be all or nothing for God. No half-hearted measures are allowed.

That realisation should impact on everything we do: the way we do our taxes, the way we spend our time at work, the things we do when no one is looking, the words we speak, the thoughts we think, and the actions we perform.

A much more accessible definition of integrity is this: what do you when no one is looking? Let me illustrate. Some years ago there was a major blackout I believe in New Zealand. I do not recall all the details, but a major city was without power for quite some time: maybe even more than a week. It is in such situations that we find out what people are really made of. Evidently crime rates skyrocketed all over the place. When people thought they could get away with things under the cover of darkness, they went for it big time.

You see, the veneer of civilisation is very thin indeed. Just as soon as law and order is weakened, our true natures come to the surface. And most people who normally act as decent citizens show their true colours when the opportunity arises.

Of course it should not be that way for believers. Whether in the full light of day, or the darkness of night, we should be consistent and one in our thoughts and actions. We should not be divided but whole. We should be people of integrity.

And again, that integrity will really only become a part of who we are as we spend time with the one true God, who is holy, pure, majestic and righteous. As we spend time with such a God, his character rubs off on us, and we become more and more like him.

The world desperately needs to see people of integrity, people of character, people who are of one mind and spirit. With God’s help we can be that kind of person.

There are already too many casualties in the church. Too many believers have fallen from grace. Enough is enough. We must press on to be people of integrity, who love our Lord with every fibre of our being. That is the great commandment, and that is what we are called to do.

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/08/24/the-pressing-need-for-integrity/