I have been following the story of Ravi Zacharias since it broke. I was among those who breathed a sigh of relief when the allegations against him in 2017 were put to rest. One who said, “Of course they were false. That can’t be.” But in the wake of the dozens of other “godly” men who fell before him, there was a niggling doubt. What if…?
And then the confirmation hit the media – it was all true. Not only was it all true, there was so much more beneath the surface of those allegations; decades of abuse and predatory behavior against women. The final report can be read here. Be sure to have a vomit bucket nearby.
This one hit different, for me anyway. I’m a sucker for brilliance and eloquence. I didn’t know Ravi personally, but I have been to listen to him in person, and I have been challenged and inspired by every single message I’ve heard from him. But the other reason this one hit hard for me is that my son is also a sucker for brilliance and good logic. He went through a pseudo-atheist/agnostic period some years back, and Ravi’s apologetics were some of the only “religious” talk he could stomach during that time. He couldn’t help but listen and be challenged in light of Ravi’s solid arguments. I know that my son is representative of millions who argued themselves into faith through Ravi’s phenomenal ministry.
And it was that. There are millions of souls who will call heaven home because of his ministry. This is the mystery, isn’t it? Because the abuse of women that has been confirmed as true was not a 2019 event. It was YEARS, decades even – all while he was brilliantly proclaiming the Truth about Christ and lovingly leading many to Jesus.
It’s hard to wrap one’s head around.
I am writing today to 2 specific groups of people; 1) men and women in spiritual leadership, whether a church, a ministry, a nonprofit, a mission agency, or just a group of people, and 2) those who both supervise or are the direct subordinates of those leaders – board members, elders, church councils, vice presidents, CFOs, COOs, or any other position directly under a leader.
The instances of spiritual and sexual abuse among ministry leaders have become so frequent that we are becoming numb to the hurt, the shock, and the horror that comes with them. We can NOT afford to give in to this dulling effect. It is incumbent on us as leaders in the work of the Kingdom to see these examples, really, truly SEE – with all of the gore, and ugliness, and X-rated description – and take heed. We must!
Why?
Because if we don’t, we will be the next article in Christianity Today. Or worse yet, the cover of People magazine.
We need to let our hearts be broken by these “fallen” leaders. Their stories can make us bitter, or they can do what every horrifying example of godly people wracked by revolting sin in the Bible was put there to do – hold up a mirror for us to gaze into. Because none of us are very far from that treacherous cliff. But watching the example of others, and crying out to God for mercy – for them and for us, can be a guardrail against that fatal fall.
As leaders, we need to read these stories and respond with sober-mindedness. The time is passed to respond with sorrow, or contempt, or horror, or disbelief. We need to use these stories as case studies. We have to learn to be epidemiologists in the quest for answers to these viruses that ravage the Kingdom. We must find out the causes, and the mode of transmission, and the means of prevention, and the cure. If we keep turning a blind eye, or a crying eye, or a haughty eye to these deaths, the virus spreads and mutates and the Kingdom is fatally blighted.
As I have read the final account of Ravi’s grievous misconduct (the legal word for sin), I have tried to glean some things we can use in ministry leadership to take steps to prevent the same fate from befalling us.
First, I have a few necessary observations and comments:
- Being smart about God and being holy for God are not the same thing.
- Speaking the Truth and being transformed by the Truth are not the same thing.
- Every leader is capable of a fantastic fall. Never fall into the deceitful trap that you – or the leader you admire – are exempt.
- What Ravi did against women he did against the Image of God in those women. And it was heinous and evil. This is what David meant, when he repented of his sin against Bathsheba (rape) and her husband Uriah (murder), when he said to God, “Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Of course he had sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah, but the sin of sexual exploitation and rape and the sin of murder are heinous primarily because they are violations of the very image of Almighty God, inexorably carved and breathed into those human beings.
Now, I want to address leaders. These principles and cautions apply if you are a CEO of a ministry, the president of a missions agency, the pastor of a church, or any other type of leader in a ministry context.
- Be serious about your own transformation.
- Be sure that as a leader, especially one who speaks the Word of God, you are deeply and intentionally engaged in being transformed by the Word of God at a soul level. Information will never change a heart. We must constantly seek to be transformed by the Word. We cannot keep our spirituality in our heads and mouths. It must flow from the depths of our transforming souls.
- Know your weaknesses.
- If you don’t know your own weakness, or you think you’ve got those wrapped up tight – you are in danger. The first thing you should do is engage in some deep heart work. Get a counselor, go to an Enneagram workshop, ask your spouse, ask your team members. And you must allow them to be brutally honest with you without any repercussions of any kind. However you need to do it – KNOW your weaknesses.
- Build guardrails.
- Once you know your weaknesses, intentionally devise safeguards and strategies that will keep you as far from that line as you can be and still do your job. Build in accountability structures at your ministry. Give your computer and phone passcodes to a trusted colleague who has integrity. Keep all of your personal and ministry finances completely separated. Travel with trusted partners. Do whatever it takes. And if your current ministry necessitates you violating those boundaries in some way – find a new job. Your heart’s position with God is more important than the work you do for God.
- Never, never, never allow yourself to feel entitled because of the sacrifices you make in ministry.
- If you ever think that your ministry owes you so much as an extra T-shirt or a first-class airline ticket because of all that you have given up in the service of it – you need a heart check.
- Your sacrifices are made for Jesus and Jesus alone. Never for an entity – whether you founded it or got hired by it.
- Jesus owes you nothing. He gave you His life. Anything short of that is still lacking.
- If you cannot do what you do out of deep and utter gratitude for all that was done for you, you have overstayed your welcome and you need to move on.
Now, not to give Ravi, or any other leader, a pass, but he did not fall on his own. The people around him who were tasked with stewarding HIM as a leader failed him – and failed the Lord. This goes in 2 directions – those who are specifically tasked with supervising him (the Board of RZIM), and those who were immediately under him. It has been documented that those under him who had concerns raised flags and were maligned and berated for doing so. That too was a leadership failure. The Board (though no one knows who they are, because RZIM does not release their 990s publicly – another flag) has owned their failure. The letter they released is beautifully written, and hopefully will be beautifully followed.
For those who surround leaders and work under them, you too have a responsibility. The work of the Kingdom is OURS – not “theirs.” No one is “better” than you in the Kingdom. The Kingdom doesn’t work that way. If you are in a ministry that holds up the leader as a demi-god – you need to run. Fast! If your leader is untouchable – get out. If your leader is arrogant, and you have done all within your power to call that out, and no one is listening – find a new leader. But before you do any of that – do the Kingdom a service and call. it. out. Will you suffer? Maybe. Actually, probably. But it is the right thing to do. And the Kingdom needs those who will love the sheep enough to call out wolves dressed in wool.
Meanwhile, for ministries, churches, nonprofits, and organizational governing bodies, here are a few preventative steps you can – no, you MUST – take to safeguard your ministry, and those who lead it.
- Have robust Board training
- Boards must be trained to kindly and gently and persistently – and then forcefully if necessary – ask questions of the leader they steward and know how they are doing. They must guard and guide the heart of the leader as much as they do the mission of the organization. If you don’t believe that’s the Board’s job, I would recommend you ask a member of the RZIM Board their thoughts on that now.
- Boards must be unreservedly committed to upholding their whistleblower policy. (If there is not one, that is a bigger problem.) Staff under the leader must KNOW that they can raise concerns about the leader and that they will be seen and heard and protected, if necessary. And while the tone of the organization and the Board must be one of reconciliation and restoration, they must also be ready to dig in for Truth and righteousness if needed.
- Ensure solid financial accountability
- Make sure you have an accountant who couldn’t care less about hurting anyone’s feelings if something funny is going on with a weird “discretionary” fund.
- Make your financial reports public. Always.
- Have the highest level of financial review possible and appropriate for the revenue level of the organization, and make that available to the Board and the public annually. And someone on the Board who knows a lot about finances MUST study that document and the financial statements of the organization thoroughly and in detail.
- Monitor travel and have solid policies regarding leader travel
- If a leader travels a lot and insists on always having a particular person (of any gender) travel with them who is not a spouse – ask more questions. If you don’t get sufficient answers, deny the privilege and see what happens.
- Have written travel policies about where ministry personnel can stay, with whom, for how long, etc.
- Blow the whistle when you know it’s needed.
- First, it should go without saying that every organization should have a whistleblower policy, and everyone should know it, and be able to trust it.
- If a leader responds with rage or undue resistance to a question that is posed about their behavior, or other areas of accountability – this is a red flag. If this person is your supervisor, it is your right, and we might argue your duty, to blow the whistle and go to their Board.
- Give leaders safe places to get help.
- Churches and ministries have to make it easier and more acceptable for flawed humans who are in leadership to receive help. If every sin or flaw that a leader recognizes in themselves will result in the loss of a job, we have created a culture where hiding is required and vulnerability is punished. Whether a leader is caught in sin, or confesses sin, or has just recognized his or her propensity toward an area of weakness, there have to be appropriate pathways to healing for them. This is lacking in the ministry culture and we have to address this need.
Some final thoughts (that may not be popular):
As horrific as Ravi’s sin was, and as deeply grieved as I and many other Christian leaders are about the fall of another colleague and mentor, I am convinced that Ravi knew Jesus personally and was in relationship with Him. (I suppose some might question that, with reason, but I am not God, so I’m going with charitable presumptions and an understanding of the deception of a human heart.) Despite his sins against women, and against his own ministry, he knew the truth and believed it. But he was blind to his own faults and unwilling to repent. I had a friend that used to say, “sin makes you stupid.” Indeed, this incredibly smart man was astoundingly stupid with regard to his own heart.
Thus, it is not lost on me that Ravi is now with the One he preached and led people to for so many years. God has now welcomed Ravi into his arms and he is fully forgiven. This is mercy – the mercy that triumphs over judgement. (James 2:13) Justice for Ravi’s heinous crimes against women, and against the Church, the Bride of Christ, was meted out on Calvary 2000 years ago. Does that grate on me a little? On you?
It really does. That is an unpopular thought in the midst of #metoo. But we are people of the Truth. And that Truth is the same for me and you as it is for Ravi – for which I am grateful. That same mercy is inexplicably extended to each of us who are in Christ – for every single sin we’ve ever committed, large and small. I imagine the scene something like this, as Ravi stepped out of his cancer-ravaged body and into the presence of God.
God – hand outstretched: “Son, you really screwed up…”
Ravi – head down, tears streaming: “Father, you are right. I am so, so sorry. I deserve to be damned.”
God – looking to the right at Jesus with an inquiring face: “…?”
Jesus – stretching out his nail-scarred hand: “I paid for that.”
God – looking on Ravi with compassion: “Welcome. Your debt is paid. You are free. You are mine.”
And that will be the reception I get as well. And you. And all who are covered by the blood. It is a severe mercy, one that cost our Savior much. It is worth pondering deeply.
But while we are here, we are charged with living as the light of Christ. As ministry leaders, that light shines farther and brighter than others, and thus the quality of that light must be carefully guarded and maintained. We owe it to ourselves, to those we lead, to those we serve, and to the One who called us, to do all in our power to lead well and not tarnish the Name we bear. Let us learn from those who have gone before us – from those who lived well, and from those who failed. There is much to be learned from both. And by the power of Christ in us, and a steadfast commitment to living transformed and authentic lives, let us live faithfully – until Christ comes again, or takes us home.