I came across a sad story the other day. It involved another Christian leader who had got himself into a major mess.
Why does this happen?
No doubt there are lots of different causes. Love of money, sexual immorality, false teaching and so on. But I think the downfall of many leaders is caused by something else. And that something else is ambition.
Archippus was commanded to complete what he had begun. The Greek verb means to “discharge fully.” A job half-discharged is of no more use than a gun half-discharged.
It’s important to finish if only because that’s what God does. We are to carry his character. It’s also important to finish because it shows we are people of our word. We will do what we have promised, no matter what the cost. And it’s important to finish because God gave us a full destiny, not a half one.
We long for miracles. But there is a price to be paid. Let me try to explain.
We sold our house last week, but only after a battle.
This has been a consistent theme for us. On our first home, the private financing was deliberately pulled by a disgruntled church member after we had signed the papers to buy it. We were saved by a miracle. We had to place an unconditional offer in order to secure our second house, and had only weeks to sell our first home (or face bankruptcy - again). We had another miracle.
“But our church isn’t anything like that!”
I was having coffee last week with a young man new to our church. He was asking about our history. And I was telling him about the ups and downs, and how long it took for the church to take root. At the end of my description, those were his words.
And I agreed. I replied: “You’re right. This is a whole new church.”
