From the Pastor’s Desk (134)
Apostle Paul makes a very shocking comment about the members of the Corinthian Church.
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11)
God’s church is not for perfect got-it-all-together people. Instead, it is for hopelessly miserable misfits of society who have lots of issues in their lives. That’s why church ministry is a messy business.
As I often share with you, if church is a place where only good and perfect people are allowed to come then I would not even be able to come near the church let alone serve it as a pastor. The same is true for all of you. You are messed up just as I am! That’s why we are perfect candidates for church membership.
This, however, is what I love about church ministry. It is a place where sick people, weird people and messed up people are invited to come and helped to be transformed by the power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. No words can describe the feelings that I get when I see people changing by the power of God. And what a great privilege it is for me to watch and witness the transformation of people on a regular basis as I visit your house churches and interact with many of you!
God always meets us where we are. But because He loves us so much, He doesn’t leave us alone. Once we receive Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and become God’s children, He does whatever it takes to make us more like His Son Jesus. This means He does a lot of teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in and through His church. God’s children are flawed and imperfect, but they are on their way to become more like their Savior and Lord Jesus.
However, what do you so with a person who is a member of God’s church who is perpetually being dishonest with his own church family? We talk to him/her to see what the problem is and address the issue following the guidelines spelled out in Matthew 18. But what do you do when the person refuses to respond and cooperate with the church leaders who represent the church and are responsible in matters like this? We have no choice but to inform the whole congregation, take the person off of our membership list and sever our relationship with him/her praying that he/she would come to repentance and ask for forgiveness from God and his church family.
Last year, Chris Mystery suddenly disappeared from his house church and New Life Fellowship for several months. Many people, including myself and his house church shepherd, Eric Chu, made numerous attempts to contact him to see where he was and if he was safe. He never responded to any of us. Then, just recently, he appeared again.
We are writing to inform you that, last month, the Leadership Team confirmed that Chris Mystery has a warrant from Harris County for his arrest. The warrant is from 2004 for failure to register as a sex offender in Harris County.
Both his house church shepherd and one of the Leadership Team members confronted Chris about the warrant and encouraged Chris to turn himself in. Chris was also removed from serving on the Membership Team. Chris has informed one of the Leadership Team members that he will not be returning to New Life Fellowship. He refuses to turn himself in, and refuses to speak with the Leadership Team about the matter.
The New Life Fellowship Leadership Team has determined to exercise church discipline and to remove Chris Mystery as a New Life Fellowship member. We are informing you as members at New Life Fellowship of this situation. If you come into contact with Chris, please terminate your contact with him and inform the local authorities. We are not aware of any incidents involving our members while Chris has been attending New Life Fellowship, which has been at least since 1999. If you have any questions or additional information about this matter, please contact Pastor Eric.
Please remember that we are not taking him off of our membership list for the crime he committed but for his refusal to listen to the Leadership Team and comply with the law. Again, I want us to know that church has plenty of space for those flawed sinners who want to come to the light but not for the ones who pretend to be living in the light while insisting to remain in darkness.
We pray that through this church discipline he will understand the serious nature of church membership and desire to come back to our fellowship with honest repentance.
Your pastor,
Eric
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