Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach - 1Timothy 3:2 (ESV)
Carl Lentz: 'I'm Not a Disgraced Pastor' - Charisma News
The word disgraced means to have fallen from favor or a position of power or honor; or to be discredited. If you look this word up in the dictionary there would be a picture of disgraced former pastor Carl Lentz. Mr. Lentz once held a position of great power and honor. He was the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC and was considered the pastor to the stars. He has obviously fallen from this position. He is obviously discredited. There is no doubt or question to anyone sane, that Carl Lentz is DISGRACED. Lentz however is on a personal revival tour and Charisma News is the vehicle to deliver him back to the Charismatic masses. His first stop was when he became an advisor to a mid-west mega church. Now that he has successfully accomplished this with minimal blowback, he is graduating to a Podcast and the first thing he has chosen to do is try and rehabilitate his image by declaring he is not actually disgraced. Let us reason once more through the above link beloved.
"Carl and Laura Lentz's self-imposed isolation from the public eye is now officially over, as they have launched their new podcast, "Lights On" and are starting it off talking about their journey thus far. A lot has been thrown at the couple over the last few years"some warranted, some not"but one thing that Carl Lentz addressed in their very first episode is this: he is not a disgraced pastor. "Every headline, typically would say, 'disgraced, disgraced pastor,' or 'pastor falls from grace, falls from grace, disgraced pastor,'" Lentz recalls. "What's funny about that is, God bless those people, they don't understand grace. Because you can't fall from grace. You fall into grace. "It didn't make any sense to me. And I'm not mad at the tabloids who write " 'disgraced pastor.' Disgraced? You don't understand what grace is. The opposite of grace. Grace is mercy and favor and forgiveness that you do not deserve but God gives it to you anyway. So if anything, I fell into grace. And if people could stop writing headlines like that, I would appreciate it because it's inaccurate"disgraced pastor," he adds." - Charisma News
Ok, first of all, their isolation was not "self-imposed." It was imposed because Carl Lentz seduced the family babysitter into a years' long affair in the same bed he shared with his wife. Oh, and then had another affair, which he got caught in. Aww shucks, God bless Mr. Lentz but he does not apparently understand English or the bible. He is trying to play semantical word games to avoid the obvious. When we say someone has fallen from grace, or is disgraced we think of the definition above, not the actual definition of grace in the bible which is a different conversation. That aside, let us also focus on how Lentz is mangling the bible, which is what he used to do before he fell from grace. There are no examples of biblical folks who fell from grace? Seriously? How about Esau? How about Uzzah? Want New Testament examples? How about Sapphira and Ananias? Let me be clear. Carl Lentz is a disgraced former pastor. That speaks to his profession, as a pastor - not his salvation. He is trying to bring in his personal salvation into criticisms he is properly receiving for failing as a pastor! As for his personal life, God's grace is certainly available for everyone right up until the point our life is required of us. If you do not seriously repent of your sins, you can bet that you will not be falling into grace when you stand before Christ.
'Lentz continued, showing that this was a subject very important to him, as though he is holding onto the Lord's grace with both hands and refusing to let go. Because without the forgiveness of the Lord and His great grace, we would be hopelessly condemned to eternal death separate from Him. "I'm not a disgraced former pastor. I am a human being that made huge mistakes. Mine were public, everybody got to see them," Lentz says. "And now, I'm a human being that's trying to rectify my life and make wrongs right and to live completely differently. But disgraced, I am not. I'm more filled with grace than I've ever been. Did I fall from grace? Absolutely not. I fell into it. And I'm really grateful for that."' - Charisma News
Listen beloved. If this sordid tale forced Lentz to genuinely repent then hallelujah. I am not buying it because instead of working on their lives, Lentz and his wife appear to be trying to get back into the grift game of Charismania. Having sex for years with the babysitter of your children in your wife's bed are not mere "mistakes." They are not mere "wrongs." They were sins and egregious ones. I know that Lentz spent his pastoral life minimizing sin from the pulpit to the Oprah show but continuing to do so with his own sin worries me that this may be more performative than sincere. Did he fall from grace? Absolutely. Do not be fooled.
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