🚨My quick (unedited) takes for Christians and atheists👇🏼🚨

✅ None of us are good not one. All humans fall short (Roman’s 3:23). Just because you have a platform doesn’t mean you have a special power that others don’t.

✅ It’s a time to examine yourself.
Identify your blind spots. Humbly seek purity. Recognize that if people found out what you just did the other day, they might be surprised too. Remember, the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment. But there are others whose sins will not be revealed until later. 1 Timothy 5:24

✅ Yes, leaders have greater accountability and responsibility. That’s why many people don’t want to lead. When called into this role there is a greater perseverance and pursuit that should drive us. Our walk actually becomes harder. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”

✅ We shouldn’t be too surprised.
Just because someone sins does not mean they aren’t saved. Nor does it mean their teaching, service, prayer, or any other gift was not genuinely good and effective. This doesn’t reflect that our faith is weak, it shows how strong the pervasiveness of sin is.

✅ For people who think this is another reason to avoid church…
Christianity is not about what people do. It’s about who God is. We’re all hypocrites.

✅ For people who don’t believe in Jesus…
This should be a greater reminder of how bad you need a savior. If stronger believers who know the Truth of God’s word and the wretchedness they’ve been saved from can still default to old patterns, how will you ever be reconciled and restored from mere relative truth and folly.

✅ It’s another reminder to stop seeking experiences and encounters.

Just because a church is bigger…
Fancier…
Has a more professional worship team…
Has more organized programs…
Has a more dynamic speaker…
Has more people in the pews…
Doesn’t mean they have anything you don’t have. Don’t let these surfacey things be a measure of a so-called stronger faith.

The same Holy Spirit is within all Christians, in the same dose, no matter where you are at. God can be worshipped powerfully whether you’re quiet or hootin and hollerin. Evidence of strong faith is seen by fruit of repentance and fruit of the Spirit 24/7, 365, not just for 90 min at a church service, with a crowd, in a specific environment, without any context.

Seek Jesus, not a human person, place, or thing.

✅ Be careful to follow people
You are all anointed as believers. 1 John 2:27. All have different gifts and may be filled stronger at certain times, but the anointing (HS) is the same and remains.

✅ What is said and done should always be tested by Scripture and the Spirit. And your fallback and reference should always be these two things, not what teachers say.

✅ Speakers can sound really good on stage. You have to see past the great emotional level changes and delivery. We are all human. We put our pants on the same way you do. We all have messes and issues and dysfunction. A good speaker will be guarded to make that known, to not fabricate stories, to not talk down, to make it a “we” thing not “you” thing.

✅ A leaders job isn’t to motivate you to change by fancy speeches and service productions. The Word and Spirit of God alone will do that.

RECAP:

1. Be reminded: No human is perfect. We stay locked in on the only One who is – Jesus.

2. The Spirit is the one who is strong. The flesh is weak.

3. Be encouraged:

-You might be super quiet and humble…
-You might not pray out loud or talk out loud or make noise out loud…
-You might be in a small group, in a small setting, in the dinkiest of worship environments…
-Yet you can still be one of the strongest evangelists, disciples, doing amazing things for the kingdom, and experiencing the fruit of the spirit like no other. 🤷🏻‍♂️

4. People may disappoint. The Lord never does. When He truly brings you to church, people can’t push you out.

God Bless,

Coach Theo