Learning from Church Failure Without Losing Hope

This is a difficult article for me to write.

Recently, news broke that Philip Yancey, Christian author, thinker, and voice I've long respected, confessed to an extended affair at age 76. The revelation troubles me deeply. Not because I'm surprised that leaders can fall (we all know we can), but because I want to understand the factors that led here. Not as voyeurism, but as stewardship, that is to learn what we can so others don't follow the same path.

Perhaps someday Yancey will help us understand. Until then, we know this much: moral failure is never a single choice. It's always a confluence of numerous factors, unhealed wounds, relational drift, and small compromises along the way that opened doors for the enemy of our souls to win another battle.

Lord, help us learn from this wounded brother rather than shoot him, as the church so often does.

The Church Has Always Been Messy

I've worked with more churches than I can count. I've started them, led them, shepherded them, consulted with them, coached them, and challenged them across various denominations and theological traditions. Often, I was the one pointing to critical changes needed for God to be honored by His body. And more times than I can count, I was rejected, sometimes even labeled the “antichrist”.

I came to see many churches as flawed beyond repair.

Then I read Acts again.

The book of Acts chronicles the birth and early years of the church with startling honesty. There's no whitewashing. No spin. Just the unvarnished truth about people and events, recorded with remarkable lack of judgment. Consider just the first fifteen chapters:

• Ananias and Sapphira lying to the apostles and dying on the spot (Acts 5)

• Grecian widows complaining about discrimination in food distribution (Acts 6)

• Peter essentially tells Simon the magician (a believer)to go to hell for trying to buy influence (Acts 8)

• Jerusalem believers confronting Peter for taking the gospel to Samaria (Acts 11)

• John Mark abandoning Paul on his first missionary journey mid-trip (Acts 13)

• Crowds trying to worship Paul and Barnabas instead of God (Acts 14)

• Sharp theological disputes over circumcision which divided the church (Acts 15)

• Paul and Barnabas were in such bitter conflict over John Mark that they split up (Acts 15)

  
  

Leaders quitting under pressure. Discrimination. Theological differences. Strategic disagreements between key leaders. Lying. Hero worship. Charlatans. The first-century church dealt with it all.

And that's just the first half of one book.

Who Am I to Be Frustrated?

Reading Acts with fresh eyes humbles me. Who am I to be frustrated with today's churches when God has been dealing with these challenges from the beginning? Imagine how frustrated He must be. Yet for two thousand years, He has worked despite flawed leaders, broken structures, and mistaken beliefs.

The fact that the Church exists today is itself a miracle, evidence of His presence and His power in our world. No other human organization could survive the people problems, cultural differences, and changing environments across millennia apart from divine providence.

The Standard Still Matters

Even with this historical perspective, I still hold Christian leaders, including myself, to a higher standard. Scripture tells us to (James 3:1). There are real consequences when leaders compromise righteousness. People get hurt. The gospel gets obscured. The mission suffers.

But here's the paradox that gives me hope:

God's church has always functioned through imperfect leaders. Always. And God has worked powerfully anyway, not because the leaders were flawless, but because He is faithful.

This doesn't excuse failure. It doesn't minimize the damage sin causes. But it does remind us that the mission is bigger than any one person's fall, and that God's grace extends even to leaders who fail spectacularly.

May we learn to grieve moral failure without losing sight of God's faithfulness. May we extend mercy without lowering standards. And may we remain sober-minded about our own vulnerabilities even as we press forward in hope.

The Church is messy. It always has been.

But it's still His Church. And He's not done with it yet.'

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