Healer


Recently michael guglielmucci has confessed to having lied about having cancer.  For those of you who don't know him, he is an Australian Pastor who wrote a song called "healer". 
It was very successful in the Church and the Australian charts.  His father is a prominent Christian in Australia also.  Many people were moved by his story of being diagnosed with terminal cancer to the point of giving money.  In the last few days he has been interviewed by a prime news channel in Australia to say that the reason for his fraud was due to a long life of pornography addiction. 

Since this has all been exposed Christians around the world have had several reactions to the story.  Some are quick to point to grace, others are praying for him, and some just feel really ripped off and lied to.

Other than feeling really sick about it, it brings about a whole exposure of another kind that actually makes me quite hopeful.  It exposes the celebrity culture that our Church seems to condone, and perhaps raises the questions about accountability and relationships within the Church.  I believe that whilst we are busy DOING Church, we forget to just BE Church.  To love each other, to spend time with each other, to get to know one another beyond our giftings, abilities, and contributions.  Perhaps if Mike had a buddy who just went fishing with him on the weekend, maybe just maybe as simple as it seems, the real sin could have had a place to be revealed.  The real hope lies in striving to have deep relationships with each other, and with God.  To hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us about this stuff.  And to have the courage to get involved in each others lives, warts and all. 

Whilst I have heard one too many leadership messages in my life, the message of Accountability has somehow gotten lost in our quest to DO Church.  Perhaps its time we got back to basics. 

Powerful post. I agree that accountability is so key and I've experienced a massive acceleration in my own spiritual life this year by have someone I trust to be accountable to. It's not that our accountabilities should be condemning us when we fail to live up to God's standards, but out of love and through grace they guide and direct us, exposing what we may fail to see in our own lives.
i have to agree with you Se and i have been thinking along the same lines as you this week.

our responsibility to each other is really important. accountability is not easy to market to males, though! maybe 'keeping it real' is more like it :)

the news about MG has made me think about my relationship with my family and my mates. after all, these are people who are also the church - God's people.
am i open and honest toward them?
am i trust-worthy enough for them to be honest to my face?
and maybe the biggest question - am i honest to God's face?
Accountability is some of it, but I think that the problem is really bigger than that - it's our whole view of sanctification.

We tend to think that people get changed into being more like Jesus in quite a faddish way. It's either continuous prayer, or its SERIOUS bible study / Exegesis, or good preaching, or it's a deeper work of the Holy Spirit, or it's to pray for the Holy Spirit to be poured out, or it's using repentance and prayer as a tool to get God to do things etc... The list goes on.  Just ask a couple of your Christian friends what sanctification is and how it works, then you'll see.

Problem is either the conservative nor charismatic answer to sanctification is actually working terribly well. Many people are dissatisfied and feel that it's more about what they are doing rather than what God is doing. That's a problem, and it should be to people who know that others are meant to look at their lives and see God at work.

I think Dallas Willard is quite a fresh voice in all of this. He advocates a sanctification that seems much more balanced. He calls it Spiritual Formation. There are 4 talks on www.bethinking.org that go into more detail.
I agree mmmmm, yes sure sure.  Perhaps you should check out this for more info on what we have discussed.