Since Pastor Charles Jenkins has admitted to an eight year adulterous relationship with another man’s wife, it is our humble prayer and hope that he would voluntarily step down from leadership at Fellowship Chicago in order to undergo counseling, and heal his relationships with God, with his family, and with others he has offended and hurt. We at BCNN1.com believe that if he voluntarily and humbly steps down from any Christian leadership position and focuses on his wife and children for at least four years since this adulterous relationship lasted for so long—over eight years—we believe he and his family are young enough to come back even stronger for the Lord than they are now. We all know that if we handle bad situations like this right, and humbly submit to the Lord and to biblical authority, the Lord specializes in turning an extraordinary mess into an extraordinary message. But a humble sit down and going away for a while must happen first so God can do His work. However, if Pastor Charles Jenkins tries to push ahead, like so many pastors caught in scandalous situations try to do, he will only make things worse for himself, his family, and his church family, he will never fully recover, and this situation will continue to bring shame upon the name of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ in general, the Fellowship Chicago church, himself, and his family.
In the meantime, instead of gloating, gossiping, shaking our heads, or feeling self-righteous over this matter (by the way, not because we have not done evil ourselves, but only because we have not been caught yet), below are four things all Christians ought to do regarding this matter. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Galatians 6:1 states, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” In light of these Bible verses, Christians ought to:
1. Pray for Charles Jenkins and his family, that they would stay together, work through whatever issues they have with Godly counsel, get their children out of this situation and focus on raising them for the glory of God, for their children will be their greatest legacy.
2. Pray for the Fellowship Chicago church family that they would recover from this unfortunate situation and continue to do the good work that God is using them to do in Chicago with or without Pastor Charles Jenkins.
3. If Pastor Jenkins resigns, we encourage you to purchase the song “Awesome” for yourself and your family and friends so that the Jenkins family can be supported financially in a huge way while they are going through this difficult time of healing. We as Christians need to learn to separate the good works that God uses people to do from their bad behaviour. For example, King David, a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery, killed a man, and lied about it until Nathan, the prophet, said “thou art the man”. Yet, most of us read something out of Psalms by David each day. The Apostle Peter denied Jesus Christ three times, yet He is one of our favorite Apostles and we read what He wrote in the Bible on a regular basis. So, we want to encourage you to purchase the song, “Awesome” by Pastor Charles Jenkins from iTunes because, indeed, it is one of the most awesome Gospel songs written in years. If Pastor Jenkins never does anything else great, and we believe he will if he handles this situation in the proper way, he did that great for the glory of God.
4. Confess and repent of any ongoing sin in your own life. God gave Pastor Jenkins eight years of “space to repent” of his adultery, but he chose not to do so, and God allowed it to be exposed to the world. Let this be a warning to every preacher and to every Christian who thinks they can get away with their secret sin. God will allow the same thing to happen to you if you do not take advantage of ‘the space God gives you to repent.’ Revelation 2:21 says, “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.” The Bible also says in Numbers 32:23, “..be sure your sin will find you out.”
Ultimately, our goal as Christians should be for God to get the glory out of this unfortunate situation and for Christians to be reminded to live holy lives in an unholy world so that we as redeemed sinners can tell lost sinners about the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so they can be saved from sin and hell for the glory of God.
BCNN1 WP 