What a day…

It’s been a tough day.  There are some subtle factions forming in the church.  There is a faction that is promoting extending grace, forgiveness and restoration to our pastor, but what they don’t know is exactly what he has done.  Thank God the board have decided to have an all church meeting and lay everything on the table.  I had to xerox documents for the state ministry to go over today and it appears that our pastor spent $300,000.00 of money that had been donated to his bogus ministry from 2002 through 2004 when this situation was first discovered by our board members.  And that’s not counting the over $30,000.00 that he charged for personal items on the church Amex card. 

I do believe in forgiveness and certainly have forgiven this wonderful teacher, preacher, man who has been there so often for so many.  I don’t believe, however, that he should return to pastoring right now.  I’m not thoroughly convinced that he shouldn’t face some legal consequences either; I’m just glad that is not my decision to have to worry about.  What I really hate are the rumors that our acting pastor is trying to take over the church.  This poor woman was working when our pastor was being given a salary and the parsonage and not showing up, going out of town (and eating out, staying in nice hotels, golfing all on bogus mission money).  She is now taking on responsibilities and stresses in the church that even the most experienced pastor would find trying.  She is not as charismatic or charming as the Pastor, but she is much more sincere.  She is not as flashy a preacher — that is truly his gift, but she is much better than most preachers.  She works hard.  She has her flaws but she is completely devoted to God and to following His word.  It’s a sin that people are trying to trash her and nobody would know better than I do about where her heart is and what her character is.  I’ve known this woman for about 20 years, even before she found this relationship with God.  She looked up to our pastor as her spiritual father and mentor and probably loved him more than anyone except his wife.  This whole experience has been devastating to her and yet she has her eyes focused on Jesus because, if nothing else, our pastor taught us well.  He taught us who to follow, who to look at, and that Jesus is everything — no human.