Predatory Preachers

I received this notice today of an upcoming special and I think everyone needs to watch it.

PREACHER PREDATORS: INVESTIGATING CHILD SEX ABUSE IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCH

JIM AVILA REPORTS ON ABC NEWS’ “20/20,” FRIDAY, APRIL 13

Child sex abuse by Catholic priests has been headline news in recent years, but is the same abuse happening within Protestant churches? In a six-month investigation, ABC News’ “20/20″ found preacher predators in every corner of the country, including several affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) — the largest Protestant denomination. Jim Avila’s exclusive report airs on “20/20,” FRIDAY, APRIL 13 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

Avila’s reporting finds that the SBC, an organization of 43,000 independent churches and 16.3 million members – has an overall structure that makes it difficult to police preacher predators. One example includes a profile of a SBC pastor who abused kids in Kentucky and then moved on to do the same to eight boys in Missouri before he was finally sent to prison. In an interview with Avila, the SBC president concedes that there is a problem with tracking predators.

“20/20” lists numerous SBC preachers who have been convicted or charged with child sex abuse, including pastors still identified on the SBC’s own website of ordained ministers.

Avila also interviews a preacher who admits, in his jobs as Southern Baptist preacher and teacher in East Texas, that he molested more than 40 boys. For the first time, Ken Ward speaks publicly about how he manipulated families and churches as he targeted and molested children in his care, and how the church is actually a magnet for predators. “I wanted them to love me and that was part of the strategy,” Ward tells Avila. He also gives insight to parents about how to spot a predator.

The Importance of A Vital Sunday School

“Where evangelism has been the heart of the message and the work of Sunday School, church buildings have been crowded, people have been baptized, money has been given. Through the years Sunday Schools that have been positively evangelistic kept on growing. Sunday Schools grow fastest when the fires of evangelism burn the hottest.” —J.N. Barnette, The Place of the 
Sunday School in Evangelism

“The problem with non-evangelistic Sunday Schools is not the program itself; the problem is the failure to use the program as an intentional evangelistic tool.”

—Dr. Thom Rainer, 
High Expectations

“Sunday School is the foundational strategy in a local church for leading people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for building Great Commission Christians through Bible study groups that engage people in evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and worship.”

—Bill Taylor, Sunday School  for a New Century

Equipping U Sunday School Conference

Set August 7th aside to attend the Equipping U Sunday School Conference in Crossville (time and location TBA).

Equipping U Sunday School Training Offers:

• Practical experience from trained professionals with a heart for ministry
• Encouragement and fellowship with other Christian leaders
• The tools you need to be successful in your ministry
• Confidence to lead your Sunday School class
• Fresh ideas and new approaches
• Peer learning opportunities

This is an opportunity for everyone involved in Sunday School (as teachers, etc.) to grow and learn.

Skipping Worship

From time to time people who attend Sunday School skip worship.  You know what I mean.  They attend Sunday School but as soon as it’s over, they leave.

Why people do this is not much of a mystery.  People leave before worship because they simply don’t want to hear what it is that God would have them hear in the Scripture and the Sermon  It’s not because worship is boring.  It’s not because the pews are too hard or the Sanctuary is too hot.  It’s because, though they profess to be faithful and wise they really are not either.

The author of Hebrews writes “do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as has become the habit of some.”  Yet in spite of knowing that verse, and knowing that worship is the place where God’s word and will are proclaimed, some deem it of little value and treat it with contempt.

Sadly, such persons raise children for whom worship is not important.  And once worship loses its value, so does Church, and eventually God.

Let me be blunt.  Even, perhaps, painfully blunt.  If you are the sort who skips worship, the only ones you are hurting are yourselves and your children, who are learning from your example that God isn’t as important as lunch, or “doing what I want to do.”  Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind.  You really do reap what you sow.  If you sow faith and practice in your children’s lives you reap faith and practice.  But if you sow worship skipping, please, oh please don’t be surprised when you reap children who have no use for God.

Thought of the Day

If faith were your job, would you be fired for poor performance?