IN DEFENCE OF OUR CHRISTIAN LEADERS

IMPERFECT VESSELS?

By Kay Elegbede

Of Hank Hanegraaff----> and his attack on many of the known Christian leaders, here is my thought on that:

Several years ago, I read something very revealing about the state of man and the work of God in the preface of a very popular bible. I am not sure now if its Dakes,Thomas Henry or Scofield bible but the word in the preface of this particular bible in reference seems to be "one size fits all " in its argument.

After the authors and thePublishers of that bible explained the deep and painstaking work that they did over the years to produce that beautiful bible, they humbly submitted that should any person who is more learned in the translation of the original tongue find any mistakes in their work, they would appreciate it if such a person will offer correction to it, as we are all "laborers together with him".

That statement in itself is good enough for me. But then they went further by saying something that I have since made the cornerstone of my walk with God since then and that is, " throughout the ages, God has always used and relied on imperfect men to carry out his work on earth". Indeed there has never been a perfect man, except our Lord, who has ever walked the earth. Therein lies the solution to our inferiority complex at doing the work of our Lord.

All men are imperfect in their ways. We strive for perfection and even then we stumble several times on our way to nothing near the perfection that we seek. And who does God continue to use to do his work on earth? You and I despite our imperfect nature. The more we fully comprehend this fact, the more we will humble ourselves before God so that Gods power will manifest itself in our weaknesses as Paul found out in his walk with the lord.

Having laid this foundation, let us then use this fact to take a critical look at the men of God Like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Paul Crouch, Morris Cerulo and others mentioned in the piece by Hank. We shall see how easy it is to find fault in any man of God no matter how successful they may appear to be for we are all imperfect men carrying on the work of God on earth. You do not even have to look too deep to find some fault in any man that walks the earth, be they men of God or men of the devil. The faults are just there to see for those who choose to look for them.

So the question now is this: Is Hank right to point out the faults of his fellow christians even if he thinks they are in error ? I don't think so. Is there any truth to some of the things he is saying ? Certain things are correct if you group genuine Christian leaders with the crooked ones and then paint them with the same brush which is what Hank did in his piece. Indeed many things said by Hank are way off the mark and not necessary. I can understand why some of the Christain leaders are mad about his piece but you can expect more attacks to come anyway.

I have often thought the most difficult job in the world is pastoring. You deal with all kinds of human beings with all kinds of problems from diffrent backgrounds with different temperaments. You cannot fire them from your church like you will do in a secular job. You get to deal with them very closely and all kinds of issues will come to the surface because that is the very reason they have come to church anyway. Your only tool is the word of God and you better know how to divide it in season and out of season or else you will have a whole lot of crisis and mess on your hand pretty soon. You are an IMPERFECT VESSEL PUT IN CHARGE OF THE MOST IMPERFECT CREATURES OF GOD ON EARTH -THE MEN AND WOMEN IN YOUR CHURCH.

With this picture in mind, think about those men of God who have thousands of members, who appear on TV. I happen to think those men are one of the most miserable men on earth because their burden is not as easy as we are wont to think. Yes, there is limelight involve in this. They get to be known by many people and have certain privileges. Well, with those come awesome responsibilities and its difficulties and problems that is beyond the scope of this discussion here. The fact is they pay a prize for that too. Not to even talk of Gods dealing with them in their abode as all men who have been close to God and have ministered extensively will tell you. After those flashy appearances and dynamic preaching's that we see on TV, there are periods of chastning and feeling of inadequacies that God do place on men of God by his own doing after those seemly glorious moments. Those who are full time pastors can bear witness to this. Maybe that is what Paul was talking about when he talked about " a torn in his flesh ", I don't know.

How could you you preach a dynamic sermon with everyone on their feet clapping for you and praising God for your life and then you went home and jump in your bed and then begin a period of inadequacies and feelings of unworthiness and emptiness inside. Often times you find yourself back on your knees asking God to deliver your soul and to forgive you for your own faults even though you just got the most accolades that any man would hope for. I thought I was the only one who used to feel this way before untilthe great Pastor John Avanzini confirmed the same thing on the air one day stating it exactly like I did here and then I knew this must be widespread among men of God and indeed anyone who gets out there to sincerely do Gods work.

I dare say if you have never experienced this before you probably have not been out there doing the real work of God because this will come with ministry (small timer ministry or big timer ministries). The chastning of God goes hand in hand with the work of the Lord.

What am I getting at? I am saying God will judge his own men himself and not us who should throw stone at them by highlighting their faults and bringing out their errors. Those are issues that deals with each individuals walk with his Lord. Do we now turn a blind eye to the faults and sins of our Christians leaders ? Of course not. Any leader is primarily acountable to God here on earth and in heaven. This we know for sure. Also, the fact is, a godly Christian leader must have done the prudent thing anyway by placing himself under certain authority for which he is accountable. They are those who are entrusted with watching over that leader, be it Benny Hinn, Copeland , Paul Youngi Cho and others who must submit to those authorities whenever they call them to order. We don't get to hear of this part often do we?. Those christain leaders who choose to just go on with their lives and ministry without "watchmen" over their lives, do find trouble waters ahead of them sooner or later anyway.

In the church of our Lord, we therefore, WATCH over each other and not WAGE a "campaign of catalogs of academic exposiae" of each others faults. Hank should let the watchmen do their job or be accountable to God for their own actions. Enough of his attacks already.