Skip to main content

saddened

this week has been one of controversy in my small town. those of you who read this locally will know in great detail what i'm talking about, for others of you i'll try to be as clear as i feel i can...

let me start with a bit of background.....

early september i attended the leadership retreat from our church. i serve as the leader of children's ministry. at this retreat we watched a video called transformations. the video is a series of communities that have experienced transformation from spiritual strongholds to spirit-filled communities. at this retreat the leadership was greatly moved to start praying through our community strongholds and finding a way for the christians in our town to come together. one of the strongholds was the racism we have. our community is a fast growing hispanic one - that we fail to embrace in any way. the week we returned we were asked to participate in community wide prayer by a latino pastor!! God was definitely moving...so long story short..our church has been in great discussion about the strongholds in our community and meeting to pray that these would fall!!

well, we are starting to see it happen. although differently than how we most likely expected, but exactly how it should start. with christians being exposed in sin. i don't mean this badly, but evangelicals around the world are starting to believe the lies that the strongholds aren't holding in churches, but churches everywhere are filled with pornography, adultery, racism, pride, arrogance, etc... we all have sin, it is a matter of it coming to light and being dealt with.

one young teacher at our school was sadly exposed this week for just that. he was forced to resign his position as teacher and bball coach. i went to school with this man, his father coaced before him, and he is very much a christian. he just fell, very much like many other christians we know. and while i agree that he must pay those consequences one thing in all of this really bothers me: why is it he must pay so strongly for poor internet choices when some teachers, administrators, and other coaches have had adulterous affairs with each other, tell crass jokes, or other unethical things? should we turn the other cheek when it happens outside the classroom. i mean what kind of role model is that??

growing up in this town, attending the public school here i have some firsthand knowledge of affairs, yet they were excused and even accepted and have kept their jobs. i understand there are most likely strict guidelines concerning internet use at the school, but why can we not demand those in like positions to live ethically? or have we gotten so lost, even as christians (i say this in the general term) on what is permissable and what is not?

my heart breaks for this young man, his wife, his 2 little girls and the extended family. he admitted he has a problem and is seeking help. i pray for him. one thing we need to all remember before we pass judgement too quickly: it could very well happen in our own happy christian homes!!!

so as the strongholds become exposed i pray for God to move in remarkable ways. i pray this would be the beginning of a purging of our churches and a revival in our community. i pray that while we prayed this we would rise up and take the challenge God is placing before us - how will we respond????

Comments

Anonymous said…
I too am so saddened...yet I also see God moving here...Sin is being revealed and lives will no doubt be changed. I hear the comments flying around even in the community where I work (away from our little town) and I hurt for all involved. Thanks for saying it so eloquently Chris.
October 12, 2007 at 1:58 PM
the pastor's wife said…
i was shocked, not by what he did (some statistics say 70% of men view that stuff), but by how it was handled! we are praying for them, too. so sorry your town has to experience such blatant hypocrisy in their school system. yes, we want sin exposed and lives changed, but NOT like this. love ya, sis.
October 14, 2007 at 9:56 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

me, on politics

i despise politics. i never liked it, but i married a man fascinated with it. a man who wanted to be part of it all...and was, briefly. boy were our eyes opened... anyways...it seems like this election has several hot button topics. one of which is universal healthcare. my cousin started a blog called politics for mom and there have been several heated debates going on. i was reading several comments on healthcare. and frankly i was bothered! now, i don't know that a strict universal healthcare is the answer, but i do know that we have now doesn't work for the average person. here is our story.... hubby worked in a small business - 3 employees at the most that i can remember. we paid 1/2 our insurance..until it came to the point where our half each month was twice what we would pay if we were on our own. but for the owner it saved him money. so he agreed to cover ours in full. we were very grateful. i also know at times, that because of the healthcare cost, it was a struggle f...
9 comments
Read more

from the kitchen...

chicken bruschetta bake if you know me, you know my great distaste of tomatoes. i usually pick the tomato chunks out of my sgetti sauce. yes i just called it sgetti!! i eat all the chunks of my salsa, except the tomatoes. but over the past few years i've gotten a bit brave and will eat small pieces of tomatoes in fresh salsa and in this dish as well. i hadn't fixed this in probably over a year. but a few weeks ago i pulled out my recipe file to find some old favorites. i found this and realized i had everything in the pantry. that's a deal!!!!! i did have to switch out the diced tomatoes because my can was crushed instead. i prefer the diced but this worked just as well. the kids loved the chicken, but not so much the topping. this was great as leftovers, too. i ate it for lunch the following two days. 1 can. (12.5oz) diced tomatoes, undrained 1 pkg. stove top stuffing mix for chicken (i use aldi brand) 1/2 cup water 2 cloves garlic, minced 1.5 pounds skinless...
4 comments
Read more

life with izzie b

so i'm out of town right now and this time with my friend izzie b (names have been changed to protect the people we know). we are actually at a conference that is rocking my world, but we are two crazy girls alone in a big city. anyways.....she is a weird person. she likes car rides and she likes to watch the sunrise while riding in the car so we started our trip at 5:30 AM!!! 5:30 AM friends...ugh. but we had a non-eventful trip and honestly it wasn't so bad. i'm weird so i had packed us ham and cheese sandwichs. we stopped several times to get out and walk. we stopped for gas somewhere a bit redneck and they sold mostly fireworks. lots and lots of fireworks. that place also had some kind of super duper blue light hand dryer. it was honestly a bit freaky. then we checked in and found we had a smoking room. it was quite smoky and so we asked for a change. no luck, but the nice lady offered to bring up an odor remover machine while we were at the conference. um....
4 comments
Read more