The question in the discussion section of the lesson on biblical leadership I was reviewing in a manuscript by an aspiring new author asked, “Is the blameless standard too high for Christian leaders? The question tickled, teased, taunted and tantalized me. I wanted to share my response to him on this platform.
“My Dear Brother, considering the latest news about the resignation of a beloved and notable evangelical leader, pastor, preacher and author, this question has encouraged much reflection and introspection, I agree that the standard should be high. But I also believe its height is unscalable by mere mortals. There is no church leader that does not pale in the shadow of the standard’s perfection. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Yet, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). “Blameless” is a bridge too far, a mountain peak too high, a valley too wide and a river too deep for any church leader or for that matter, any child of God to cross, ascend, grasp or attain.
The Fourth Chapter of the Apostle Paul’s compelling treatise on Christian ministry, Second Corinthians begins in verse 1 with these words, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart”. Read on and in verse seven Paul says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not us”. We are fragile, flawed, and finite! Like Gideon’s army, we do not win by our own ability or aspirations but by the power of God. It is why God receives the glory for everything and anything we accomplish in life and in ministry.
After forty years and counting as a pastor, and twenty-two years as a law enforcement chaplain, I can tell you unequivocally that ministry and mercy are Siamese twins. You cannot authentically, experientially or vocationally have one without the other. David, the shepherd boy and someday King of Israel, was an adulterer and murderer. Yet God declared of him and only him that he was, “a man after God’s own heart.” He wrote in Psalm 138, stanza 8, “The LORD will perfect that which concerned me; thy mercy, O LORD, endureth forever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.” In this compelling passage, David diagnosed the dynamic that is at work in each of us. Blamelessness is an ideal we pursue and not a reality we achieve. We stand in awe of it like the sculptor Michelangelo stood in the shadow of the massive statue of David he sculpted. Those in Christian ministry, to use pastor and author, the late Dr. Henri Nouwen’s metaphor, are “wounded healers.” We serve in the perilous place where life intersects ministry. There, we bind up the wounds of others as we bind up our own.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians after declaring the uselessness of earthy achievements, status and accolades,
‘“. . . that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:10-14).
No wonder the Apostle Paul begins most of his New Testament epistles with some reference to grace and mercy. He knew that perfection or blamelessness based on our own good intentions or self-effort is unachievable in ministry whether leadership or laity. We achieve it only in those moments when we are filled with the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18); what I call SQS or Status Quo Spirituality. God pursues and perfects us as we, to use pastor and author A. W. Tozer’s description, “pursue holiness.” That pursuit is never-ending. All of us in the church from pool to pulpit, and from pew to porch are standing in need of prayer. And those of us who lead, we lead in the frayed and faulty space between brokenness and blamelessness.”