Peter's Shame

We all fall down. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). To deny our propensity to sabotage Christ’s reputation is a sure prescription for failure. Peter, who demonstrated bravery in his attempt to defend Jesus with his sword, would later find himself as sermon fodder (for the next 2000 years) as the one who denied Jesus in his hour of need. As a matter of fact, the Bible is really a story about broken human beings who fail morally and spiritually in spite of their faith and best intentions. Some like Peter make great comebacks, and others like Judas run away from God’s restorative grace.

I’m disappointed to share that Kyle McCarty will no longer be on staff with Ginghamsburg as the adult music director. As you may have read or heard in the media, Kyle will be incarcerated for three months to one year in Utah for a theft he was alleged to have committed while working for another church. When we hire staff members at Ginghamsburg, we are very careful in our hiring processes to try to select the right person for the mission. We conduct team interviews, run national background and credit checks, make multiple reference calls, hire the Gallup organization that created the Strengthsfinder tool to do a 45-minute interview assessment with the candidate, etc. Even with all of that, it was never brought to light as we evaluated Kyle and other candidates that Kyle had worked at the Christian Life Center church in Layton, Utah, nor did the pending legal case surface. And, Kyle failed to disclose those in the resume and application he submitted, no doubt hoping, naively of course, for a fresh start at a new place for himself and his family while a legal process of many months played out. Not surprisingly, those were secrets that couldn’t, and shouldn’t, be kept. On Christmas Eve, an attempt was made to extradite Kyle back to Utah to ensure the legal case would be resolved once and for all. Shortly following, we placed Kyle on a 30-day paid administrative leave so that he could immediately make plans to return to Utah to make things right, however that might play out, AND so that we could track down and assess all of the details.

We will immediately begin the search for the right music director. In the meantime, we serve a God who can redeem all things for the greater good.

I am reminded of a saying that I heard as a new Christian 40 years ago: “The Church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.” The depth of God’s love exceeds the scale of our ability to fall. We can never fall far enough to find our way out of God’s restorative love. We can only refuse to yield ourselves to God’s recovery process. The Baptist pastor Will Campbell, author of Brother Of The Dragonfly, served churches in the segregated south in the early 1960’s. His people openly criticized him for his proactive work for civil rights. This Christian pastor found church people actively working against him while non-Christians and atheists were working alongside him. One of the men working with Pastor Campbell was murdered while sitting at a restaurant counter. An angry reporter who professed to be an atheist wanted to know how Campbell could give himself to such a religion. “Tell me in ten words or less what Christianity is about.” “Ten words or less?” Campbell replied. “Well just this: we are all bastards, but God loves us anyway.” Thank God for amazing grace!

Please join me in praying for Kyle and his family as he pays a heavy price for these failings and that God will redeem it ultimately for the good of both Kyle’s family and our Ginghamsburg Music Ministry.

God bless…