Last week, two very prominent influencers within the Christian community made very public statements on the status of their faith.
Joshua Harris, a former pastor and author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, indicated that he no longer considers himself a Christian.
Marty Sampson, a writer and singer for Hillsong, announced that his faith is on incredibly shaky ground, after deleting an Instagram post that indicated he was “genuinely losing his faith.”
I do not know either of these two guys. I am genuinely heartbroken over where they currently stand, and my prayer is that God will draw them back to faith.
What I have to wonder, however, is something I heard JD Greear indicate he heard from Paul Tripp several years ago in the wake of several notable pastors enduring very public falls: the lack of peer community is one of the primary reasons for the falling of a pastor.
What is meant by that is this: while those pastors may have worked around people and had friends, no one in their life had the authority to look them in the eye and tell them “What you are doing is not good…and it needs to stop. Now.”
I don’t know any of the details of how Marty Sampson and Joshua Harris have ended up on their respective journeys…but I have to wonder if there was anyone close enough to them to keep them from sliding away. Was there anyone in their lives who, when they began questioning the foundations of their faith, was their to hold on to them, to pray with them, to talk with them, to encourage them, and to point them back to who Jesus is and the truthfulness of His Word?
Or were they all alone with no one to help?
I don’t know the answer. However, the thought demands that we all ask ourselves this question:
Who’s keeping you from drowning?
Who is in your life that is close enough to see when things are going off the rails? Who is it in your life that you can talk to, that will pray for and with you? Who is it that is in your life that you’ve given the authority to say “What you are doing is not good. Your thinking pattern is way off. You need to make some corrections.”? Is there anyone- or are you simply trying to do this alone?
It would be sheer arrogance for any of us to assume that we are above falling. The old cliche is true: “Except for the grace of God, there go I.” God’s grace alone is what keeps us secure and keeps us from falling- none of us are strong enough on our own- which is exactly why God commands that we pursue intentional relationships with other people.
Pastor Mark’s message from this past Sunday was so important in this. He read from Hebrews 10:23-25, which says this:
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
How do we hold onto our hope in Jesus?
By gathering together. By encouraging one another toward love and good deeds. That demands relationships!
And Scripture clearly connects holding onto the faith with relationships with other believers. Relationships that are up close, personal- and so personal that you can’t fake it.
Will that guarantee we won’t fall away?
No- but it gives us an exponentially better chance at running the race well and finishing well than if we are trying to do it alone. And frankly, trying to follow Jesus in isolation is nothing more than playing spiritual Russian roulette. In isolation, I believe it’s not a matter of if you’re going to fall, but when.
The bottom line is this: we need each other- and we need each other close so that- when we feel like giving up or begin to make unwise decisions- there is someone there to spur us on and bring us back- to keep us from drowning in the waves.