Recently claims have been made in evangelical media that Steve Lawson was not a pastor, elder, or even a member of the local church where he was preaching weekly when he was removed from all ministry due to revelation of an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman who was not his wife. If true, as Michael Grant has pointed out, this is a damning indictment of the (ongoing) problem of celebrity preachers, hired guns, in the evangelical and Reformed world. Men with big names and a large following are platformed by churches and organizations that have no meaningful authority to discipline them. These congregations or parachurch organizations can remove them from teaching positions when disqualifying sin is discovered, but they cannot discipline the unrepentant or disqualified person in a biblical and ecclesiastical way.
We have seen this before. A man commits disqualifying and egregious sin, but because he is not a member, or removes himself from membership in a local, independent church, he cannot be effectively disciplined. How can the church excommunicate someone who is not in communion? They can, and should, mark and avoid those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine (Rom. 16:17) as well as note that person and do not keep company with him (2Thess. 3:14), but they cannot remove him from their fellowship since he is not part of it. The Church exercises discipline over members of the Church (Matt. 18:15-17; 1Cor. 5:9-13).
Some in my own camp of more traditional Presbyterianism will immediately say, “This is why ministers should have accountability to higher courts of authority.” Yes, and amen. But that system only works if the members of it agree to abide by it. If members of that judicatory, in this case a church court, do not bring charges and demand accountability of the offender, then he might as well be independent of its authority. When the good old boy network protects those who are offenders, or seeks to deal with problems by a campaign of gossip and slander rather than transparent and biblical action, the system of justice remains ineffective at addressing sin in the camp.
Church discipline is, at the very least, designed to reclaim the offender (1Cor. 5:5), protect the Church from error and pollution (1Cor. 5:6), and vindicate and manifest the honor of Christ (1Cor. 5:7-8). When a man falls into grievous sin, it is a sin not to discipline him. That should begin with admonishment and rebuke, but if he will not hear the correction of his brethren, he must be dealt with more firmly. To leave him in his sin, uncorrected, is neither loving him nor the Church nor the Savior of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Steve Lawson was not a guest preacher; he was the regular teacher, the “Lead Preacher,” in a congregation to which he did not belong and to which he had no meaningful accountability. Even a hired gun in organizations that operate downrange have standards they are required to maintain and are subject to formal disciplinary action if they deviate from those protocols. The Church is not a business that simply deals with sin by termination of service. The Church is an organic, covenantal fellowship. Serious sin must be dealt with accordingly, not simply by firing a man from a job but by separating him from the life of the spiritual Body to which he belongs and by which he enjoys union and communion with Christ.
A man is only as accountable as he chooses to be. Our own congregation has seen people avoid discipline by fleeing the church or jurisdiction and seeking refuge elsewhere. It can be difficult to know what to do in these cases—it is easy for people outside the circle of knowledge to sit in judgment of the elders and assume the proper action is obvious—my own comments are not meant as an indictment of the Trinity church elders or those who are seeking to hold Mr. Lawson accountable right now. The point is that accountability requires meaningful connection and submission to authority. If even a member sometimes refuses to participate in or abide by a disciplinary process, how much more difficult (or impossible) is it to hold accountable a non-member who is simply functioning as a temporary, contracted resource, i.e. a hireling.
Churches are to be led and fed by pastors who preach, not preachers who refuse to pastor. It is perfectly appropriate for a church’s leaders to sometimes bring in a guest speaker or teacher who can edify the congregation with an outside perspective, but the ordinary instruction, the weekly and daily nurture of the flock must be carried out by men who are under authority and who are connected to and responsible for the people whom they serve. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you (1Pet. 5:1-4). This not only means that the system of celebrity preachers must be rejected and dismantled but also that churches served by “Lead Pastors” who preach but never shepherd the flock should also mend their ways. If your pastor does not know you, visit you, and pray for you, if he is only a teacher and not a shepherd, then you need to plead with your elders to address an unbiblical and unhealthy system.
The blessings and privileges of Christ are received and enjoyed in connection with the Body of Christ. As St. Cyprian rightly affirmed:
“The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterous; she is uncorrupted and pure. She knows one home; she guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one couch. She keeps us for God. She appoints the sons whom she has born for the kingdom. Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother. If any one could escape who was outside the ark of Noah, then he also may escape who shall be outside of the Church.” –Treatise I: On the Unity of the Church 6 (ANF 5.423)
John Calvin echoed the same sentiments by titling the first chapter in Book IV of his Institutes: “OF THE TRUE CHURCH. DUTY OF CULTIVATING UNITY WITH HER, AS THE MOTHER OF ALL THE GODLY,” and observing: “to those to whom he is a Father, the Church must also be a mother” (Institutes IV.1.1). Every believer has a personal relationship with Christ, but no one ever has a private relationship with the Lord. You cannot belong to Christ and be (indefinitely) disconnected from the Body of Christ, the Church. To claim otherwise is to admit that you are an appendage of the Body that has been amputated and lies on the other side of the room. It is possible for a true believer to be separated from the Body for a time, but that is an emergency situation requiring rapid attention and deliberate reattachment.Every man in authority is first, and foremost, a man under authority. Accountability exists not only when there is meaningful connection and responsibility but when that relationship is acknowledged, embraced, and its authority submitted to. A man who only chooses to submit to authority when he finds it convenient is not accountable to authority at all; he is an authority unto himself. It is frightening to be in sin outside of the Body of Christ. The Church deals with erring members as a loving mother correcting a wayward child, but those who are outside God judges (1Cor. 5:13). If the Church will not (or cannot) deal with disobedient Christians, the Lord will, and that, frankly, is a terrifying thought. Lord, keep our hearts humble, and deliver us from evil.
