Jason Allen said he came to the Tuesday night service of the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting with a burden — a burden about how one day everything can look “clean and upright” with a Christian leader and the next day the leader may be out of his ministry post.
But for grace
“I see ministries imploding and I see ministers imploding,” Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, told the crowd at Eastern Shore Baptist Church, Daphne, on Nov. 12. “To open your social media feed all too often is to be scandalized by the next pastor or minister or notable layperson who has fallen into scandal.”
Every Christian leader could be in that boat at any time were it not for the grace of God, but Allen said he believes more pastors and leaders are at risk of the “fizzle out” than the “tragic flame out.”
Preaching from John 15:1–11, Allen said the fizzle out can happen when your devotional life withers and you aren’t abiding in Christ, enjoying His love and bearing fruit. For pastors in that category, the freshness of the word of God has “long since passed” and the urgency for evangelism left years ago, he said.
“We are called to guard our own hearts and to protect ourselves morally and spiritually, to be men and women who are given to the first things of following the Lord Jesus Christ, lest our ministerial gifting take us places our character cannot keep us,” Allen said.
The idea that Christians’ secret sins are like landmines just under the surface should “jolt all of us to renew ourselves to faithful and fruitful discipleship,” he said.
Stakes are high
Much is at stake, he said. “It matters for you, your ministry, your family and your life.”
Allen said the call of Christ demands that Christian leaders guard their hearts. To do that, he urged them to cultivate a desire to grow in Christ so that their passions are aligned with His passions.
He also challenged them to invest their lives in enjoying the “unmatched experiential love of a father and son” and not to get caught in the “barrenness” that can lie in busyness. From a place of rest, Christians will bear much fruit that will bring glory to God because God as the vinedresser will lift them up, prune them, dress them and shape them, he said.
“The glory of God is at stake in your ministry,” Allen said. “The more visible a ministry we have, the more expansive the platform, the more heightened the stewardship. That is why the more opportunities God gives us for influence in the Kingdom, it should make us shiver in our shoes because we know that the more calamitous our fall would be for the reputation of God in our communities.” (Grace Thornton)
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