Reputations Are Overrated

I am sure that when you read the title to this blog you probably almost lost your cookies. "What do you mean reputations are overrated?" "To people that do not know me, my reputation is all that I have." Yes, that is correct. As individuals we need to keep our reputations as clean and spotless as possible. As a Church (universal) we also need to do all we can to keep a clean rep. We must do our part to stay clean and show the world that the Church is a great place for them to find love, peace, acceptance and salvation. But when the Church's rep seems to go bad, don't fret over it so much. What happens in another part of the country or world with another pastor or Church leader is not the fault of all of us and we can't beat ourselves up over it. One hypocrite or act of hypocrisy does not make the entire Church and our message hypocritical.
In the wake of the recent fall of a Church giant the natural tendency is to worry about the reputation of the Church and how it makes us look. And to a degree this is a valid concern, however where is our faith in God? We preach and teach God to be an all powerful, "can do anything" God, but when tragedy hits the Church we start thinking, "Oh no! What can we do to restore the reputation of the Church?" "I can't believe this person has given 'them' such a weapon to use against us!"
Maybe we need to remember a couple of things:
1) Isaiah 54:17a "no weapon turned against you will succeed"(NLT) God is making a promise to Israel here. He is promising that they will be returned to glory and that their enemies will not defeat them. God will protect them and take care of all the weapons the enemy throws at them. God also says something interesting at the end of verse 17 when He says, "These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me."(NLT) This tells us; all servants of the LORD, for all time will fall under His protection from these weapons. So, yes we may give Satan weapons to use against us, but what good is it going to do him? Now, that is not to say that we should be care-free and give him all kinds of weapons to use, that would be stupid. He will find a way to use the weapons we give him. He will use them against the very people we are trying to reach for God. If these benefits are for those who serve Him, then those who do not, are left wide-open. So out of love for them, please let's stop giving Satan weapons; as for the Church, it will stand and will be protected. For those who try to pin this kind of behavior on the entire Church, they tell lies and in verse 17 we also see that those who lie against the Church will have their day in court and will be brought to justice, God's justice.
2) The first Christian Church did not have a good reputation. They were branded as a bunch of criminals by society and were hunted down and killed. I know that there reputation was because they were doing the work of God, or was for a good thing. I also know that the reputation we get when these things happen is for bad reasons, and there is a difference. However, in either situation we are talking about the Church's reputation to society and in each incident we had a bad reputation to society. In the early Church, God worked through that rep and the Church grew exponentially. Now, am I saying that a bad rep is a new Church growth strategy? Of course not! But if God can work through their bad rep, He can still work through our bad rep.
I am in no way saying that when these things happen it is OK and that we should not worry about our reputation. We should concern ourselves with it before we make mistakes because to those who do not know the Church or God, our reputation is the only thing they have to know us by. So, we have to do all that we can to keep our reputation clean. Run away from the temptation to sin and honor God with all that you do, say, and think. What I am saying is that when things happen that is out of most of our control, don't worry and get a defeatist attitude about it. God is going to protect His Church. His Church will survive no matter what. Do you remember what He told Peter about the Church vs the Gates of Hell? We are going to win! So, don't waste too much time worrying about restoring the Church's rep, leave that to God. Time spent doing that is time away from the mission of reaching the lost for Him and discipling the believers.
This should be comforting to the Church and to the individual who fell. All is not lost. God is still in control. No man made the Church indestructible and no man can tear the Church down. Stay focused on our mission, and "Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10 (NIV).