When Leaders Fall

My interest in this topic has been inflamed by the headlines. Consider the news you have heard in just the past few years. The Wartburg Watch calls the list of fallen leaders a “conga line.”

• Brian Houston (Hillsong, Australia)
  Peter and Laura Toganivalu, (son-in-law, daughter)
• Carl Lentz (Hillsong, Australia)
• Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church, Seattle; Trinity Church, Scottsdale, AZ)
• Pete Wilson (Cross Point Church)
• Perry Noble (NewSpring)
• Mike Bickle (International House of Prayer, Kansas City)
• Randy Free (Cedar Cross Country Church, Alvarado, TX)
• Jerry Falwell, Jr (Liberty University, Lynchburg,VA)
• Scott Sauls (Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville)
• Tony Evans (Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas)
• Robert Morris
• Ravi Zacharias

No doubt, there are names which have been left off the list unintentionally. If we would expand the timeline a bit, we could add names like Bill Hybels, James MacDonald, and Jim Bakker. Hidden sins among respected leaders. What do we make of it? How are we to react? Why does it happen?

But this is not just a problem of leadership within the church. From the corporate world to the arena of politics and everywhere in between, misguided decisions, unethical behavior, and a lack of accountability to anyone causes devastating effects. There is no adage as true as “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Think about some of these scandals.

•  Enron
• Theranos
• Volkswagen Emission Scandal
• Uber
• Wells Fargo

Selfish choices, deceit and deception, and a lack of moral integrity permeate the board rooms at the top. Why is no one driven to do the right thing? What should we do when leaders fall?

The first “preacher” scandal I remember being aware of what the television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Swaggart was accused several times of having paid prostitutes for sexual favors. His church, his ministry, and his denominaton issued conditions of disciple. Swaggart, in a tear-filled but somehow, insincere apology given live on one of his television broadcasts, expressed repentance and asked for forgiveness. The next week, he acted like nothing happened. Whenever he was pressed, the tears miraculously reappeared.

The second “preacher” scandal involved another television evangelist. This time the name was Jim Bakker. In 1966, Jim and his wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, began working at Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in Portsmouth, Virginia. The network had an audience in the low thousands at the time. The Bakkers contributed to the network’s growth by hosting a children’s variety show called Come On Over that used comedy and puppets.

Due to the success of the children’s show, Robertson called upon Bakker to hose a new prime-time talk show, The 700 Club, which gradually became CBN’s flagship program. The Bakkers left CBN in 1973 and joined with Paul and Jan Crouch to form the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in California. TBN’s focal program was called Praise the Lord (now simply called Praise). This partnership lasted only 8 months when a rift between Crouch and Bakker occurred.

While with TBN, the Bakkers moved to Charlotte and launched an east coast version of Praise the Lord. Within a year, Bakker founded the PTL Satellite Network and debuted The PTL Club. Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Bakker expanded the reach of his ministry. He expanded this ministry to include Heritage USA, filled with hotels, restaurants, and a theme park. Viewer contributions were estimated to exceed $1 million a week. The theme park became America’s third most successful theme park behind a pair which bore the Disney name.

Two scandals would bring down the PTL ministry. In 1987, Bakker was accused of sexual misconduct by church secretary Jessica Hahn. These acts led to his resignation. Illegal misuse of ministry funds eventually led to Bakker’s imprisonment. His initial sentence of 45 years was reduced twice. Because of parole, Bakker ended up serving about 5 of the 8 years he owed. He was released owing a $500,000 fine and about $6 million to the IRS.

But the scandal that touched my life involved Bill Hybels. Hybels is the founding and former senior pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago area. The church expanded to include several campuses, becoming one of the first “mega-churches.” Even as late as 2018, the church had an average attendance of 24,000 people.

Hybels’ Willow Creek Association created leadership material for Christians. The Global Leadership Summit was an annual event featuring sessions from some of the world’s greatest leadership stories. Hybels authored a number of Christian books.

I met Hybels twice at conventions. A handful of his books still occupy space on my bookshelves. We attended a Sunday morning worship service at the main Chicago campus. Through the technology of streaming, I twice attended the Summit’s leadership conferences.

In March of 2018 the Chicago Tribune published an article detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by Hybels spanning decades. Hybels denied the allegations, but at least three leaders of the Willow Creek Association resigned because of the fury. In April of 2018, Hybels revealed that he had planned to retire in October of that year but was resigning immediately because he did not want to be a distraction to the ministry. Over the next six months, more allegations would surface, some of which became impossible for Hybels to deny.

Of the three scandals, Swaggart continued his broadcasts and his ministry throughout the turmoil. Bakker was released from prison in December of 1994 and began new ministry broadcasts about 5 years later. His current show predicting events surrounding the end times has been harshly criticized by Christianity Today. Hybels stepped away from leadership in 2018 and has been out of ministry leadership since.

Why do Christian leaders fall? Do their bad decisions and sins make their faith hypocritical? Does sin negate their faith altogether? Is continued leadership inappropriate? Is their Christian testimony ineffective?

Over the next several weeks, let’s dig a little deeper into what happens when leaders fall. Perhaps we can find some words of wisdom and advice from the Scriptures. We will look for lessons to be learned, for reasons why leaders fall, and talk about the process of redemption and restoration afterward.