Opinion: When spiritual leaders fail, look to God

By Vanesa Brashier
Editor and publisher, Bluebonnet News

Every time another minister falls, another church faces scandal, or another victim finds the courage to tell their story, I hear the same heartbreaking words.

“I don’t go to church anymore.”

“If that’s what Christians are like, I don’t want any part of it.”

“I’ve lost my faith.”

As someone who has spent decades covering the news, I understand why people feel that way. When those who stand behind a pulpit betray the trust placed in them, the damage reaches far beyond the walls of a church. Victims carry wounds for years. Families are divided. Communities are shaken and those who have spent their lives trying to follow Christ are left trying to explain actions that cannot be explained.

Recent events here in Liberty County have weighed heavily on my heart. Seeing ministers accused of horrific crimes is painful for everyone who believes the church should be a place of safety, healing and truth.

This isn’t the first time I’ve struggled with something that happened inside a church. Many years ago, while I was pregnant with my first child, a visiting minister who called himself a prophet asked to pray for me. Instead of offering comfort to an expectant mother, he spoke words that no parent should ever hear.

He declared that my baby would die in the womb. He went on to say that if the child survived, the baby would die before the age of 3 unless I remained faithful to that church and attended every service.

I was stunned. I remember walking out that night knowing one thing with absolute certainty. I would never go to church there again.

For years, I wrestled with what had happened. I questioned how anyone claiming to speak for God could use fear to manipulate a young mother. Leaving that church came at a cost. Some relationships changed, but through all of it, something remarkable happened.

I never lost my faith in God. Not once. Instead, I lost faith in people. That may sound cynical, but it wasn’t. It was one of the healthiest spiritual lessons I have ever learned.

As a Christian—and as a journalist—I have never believed faith requires us to ignore wrongdoing inside the church. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Loving the church means loving the truth enough to confront sin when it exists. No one is above accountability, though sometimes accountability takes much longer than we would like. Reporting the truth isn’t an attack on Christianity. Hiding the truth is.

People, even those with titles, pulpits and congregations, are capable of making terrible mistakes. Some abuse authority. Some seek power instead of humility. Some say things God never said.

God is not like that. God never threatened my unborn child. God never used fear to keep me in a church. God never demanded my loyalty to a particular congregation. A person did.

There is a difference.

As it turns out, the “baby boy” that prophet spoke about wasn’t even a boy. God blessed me with a beautiful daughter. Today she is grown, happily married and the mother of three wonderful young men who call me Sesa.

Every birthday my daughter celebrates reminds me of God’s faithfulness, not that man’s prediction.

The Bible has never hidden the fact that people fail. Peter denied Jesus. Judas betrayed Him. The Apostle Paul repeatedly warned believers about false teachers. Human failure has been part of the church since the church began.

But there was one constant – God never changed. When someone wearing the label “Christian” sins, it doesn’t change who Jesus is.

When a pastor falls, it doesn’t change the cross. When a church disappoints us, it doesn’t erase God’s promises. If you’ve been hurt by a church, I am genuinely sorry. If you’ve been wounded by someone who claimed to speak for God, my heart breaks for you. I have been there.

But don’t let someone else’s sin rob you of the relationship God wants to have with you. Don’t confuse the failures of His followers with the character of the One they were supposed to follow.

My faith has survived not because every Christian I’ve met has lived up to God’s standards. They haven’t. It has survived because my faith was never meant to rest on a pastor, a denomination or a church building.

It was always meant to rest on Christ.

People will disappoint us. Churches will sometimes fail us. Even those we admire can fall.

But after all these years, one truth remains as certain to me as it was the day my daughter was born healthy and whole – God has never failed.