In “Pentecost2017,” Stream editors share personal stories of the ways their fellow believers have changed their lives. Here senior editor Tom Gilson writes about a church he loves, that went through every struggle possible — and came out alive.

I could start with Hurricane Isabel flooding the community and part of the church I used to attend in York County, Virginia, before we moved to Ohio. But that wasn’t much, really, not in comparison with what came later.

I could mention the church member responsible for guiding construction of a new sanctuary, who was caught and convicted for embezzlement. Or the $4 million debt on that addition, which ended up being quite a burden, since had we counted on continuing church growth to pay for it — and the church quit growing right about the time it was finished.

If I left it there, I’d barely be getting started. The Lord’s words to the apostle Paul apply to churches, too: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And a church like mine can say as Paul did: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9).

The Church’s Weaknesses

Our much-loved youth minister, Danny, got involved in an emotional affair with another woman he’d dated before his marriage. The issue was significant enough that he had to step down from leadership. He and his family continued to attend our church, though. Then one morning a few months later, at age 35, he woke up coughing — and died. We still loved him. The pain on all of us was incredible.

We hired a new youth pastor, who came in doing all kinds of creative, dynamic ministry, both in teaching and in outreach. He had erratic moments, though. That worried me, and I told him so. I had no idea what would be coming later.

Anyway, not long after he got started at our church, our senior pastor took a hard look at the church’s lack of growth, and realized he’d taken us as far as he was able. It was time for him to move on, he told us. And with that he resigned.

That left us with quite a leadership vacuum. Worse than that was the conflict that erupted when our personnel committee granted him a generous severance package. “What?! He bailed out on us with $4 million in debt?” Church members were angry, and they made it known. Personally, I thought he had been a fine leader, he’d made a wise decision to leave at the right time, and the severance benefit was well justified. Not everyone agreed.

That kicked off a crisis of distrust with the current leadership. At one church-wide meeting a member said, “We don’t need the staff to lead us. We can do it ourselves at these business meetings.” The church was on the verge of splitting.

I haven’t really started yet.

Meanwhile …

Meanwhile our former senior pastor had asked me to pick up on an accountability relationship with one of our members, a friend of mine, who was dealing with a pornography problem. What this friend hid from me — but the police found out — was that it was a child pornography problem. I haven’t seen him since he was arrested.

The church’s lead secretary had to be let go. It was an unpopular decision — though well advised, for those who knew the reasons behind it. Her husband was a lead deacon and her son was one of the pastors. You can imagine how well that went over.

One Wednesday evening in the summer of 2009, our interim pastor opened a church meeting by informing us, “Our youth pastor, Jack, is under investigation by the sheriff’s department. He’s been ordered not to have any contact with minors.”

Jack was taken away in handcuffs the next morning. He’s now serving a long sentence in federal prison for what I’ll call misbehaving with minors. I’d rather not have to say what the verdict really was.

Now I’ve gotten started.

Weak, Exhausted, Confused

The church was still in the middle of what we had thought was a leadership crisis. Then we found out what a real crisis was like.

We were weak. We were exhausted. We were confused. We were angry at Jack, and we were in grief. We were in a damage control situation where every one of us (some much more than others) was on the damaged list. Looking back I’d say it was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in my life.

So where does a story like that end? Let me answer by flashing forward to today. Less than an hour ago, my wife — who didn’t know I’d be writing this — told me how much she wished we could be in that church today.

Just over a year ago, we visited the church one Sunday morning. I felt a love for my friends there like no one else on earth. That included people I hadn’t been hung around with much when we’d attended there. Frankly it was like being battle buddies. We’d been through hell together. Together. We’d made it through.

I’ll go further back, to the summer of 2012, near the end of our time living there. We had hired a new, permanent senior pastor, and we were moving forward in good shape. The church had recovered significant health and strength, and though it had shrunk some, we were growing again.

Mission Accomplished

The two pastors who had led us through these struggles had both accepted calls to be senior pastors at other churches. I spoke separately with each of them, saying, “Do you feel like I do? For me it feels like, ‘Mission accomplished. Thank God for that! But man, that was hard. I’m ready to go do something else now.’” Both of them said yes, that was how they felt.

It really was hard — especially for them, but also for us who were lay men and women helping lead through this trauma. But the mission had been accomplished. The church not only held together, it was arguably stronger than before. Our reputation in the community had actually grown, as people around us saw both our grief and our honesty in dealing with our failures and our pain.

Not every church would have survived even half of what we went through. There are reasons we made it.

We got good help, especially at the time of Jack’s arrest: a seasoned crisis manager with a pastoral heart, who helped the ministerial team catch up with themselves emotionally and focus on what needed to be done.

We remained honest. We didn’t hide from our internal conflicts. We agreed to a policy of appropriate transparency with the news media following Jack’s arrest.

In spite of divisions in the church, there remained a core of leaders who were committed to each other.

Above All, Scripture

And above all, those leaders remained committed to following Scripture as our guide to handling conflict and making decisions.

I vividly remember one key moment when one of the more divisive church members spoke up in a church-wide meeting, saying, “We don’t want to end up like that other church nearby that went bankrupt and closed its doors. We’ve got to save this church. Our first priority is to save the church!”

The following Tuesday, at the regular weekly men’s breakfast, one of our leaders got up and responded to that. With passion in his voice, he reminded us, “We don’t need to save the church. Jesus Christ has already saved the church! He died to save the Church. It’s in His hands. Our priority is to keep on following Him.”

We didn’t make it through by “saving the church.” We made it by following the One who saved the whole Church. His grace was sufficient for us. His power was displayed in our weakness.

So today I agree with my wife. Given the opportunity to move back there, I’d do it in a minute. I love that church.