Kelly Sibthorpe

Amanda, thanks for posting this. Allow me to reflect a little.

I was a young, newly ordained Pentecostal Minister with the PAOC (Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada) and in the midst of planting a new church when the news of (for those of you who may remember) Jimmy Swaggart's downfall broke. It was the late 80's at the time. Jimmy Swaggart was one of the leaders of the Evangelical movement at its height. I had visited Swaggart's "Worldwide Ministry Centre" in Baton Rouge, Louisiana just 4 month prior to his collapse. One of my seminary professor's had been invited to teach Church History at Swaggart's seminary in Baton Rouge and during my visit there we enjoyed a marvelous meeting. I recall my former Professor saying, "I'm so excited to be working in this seminary, the heartbeat of world missions". Swaggart's seminary was the choice of Evangelicals on their "way up" in status as preachers. He was an icon of conservative Christianity at the time and was voted one of America's greatest orators by Time magazine. Myself and many of my Pentecostal ministry colleagues had built a pedestal so high for Swaggart! When I had to face my congregation the Sunday following the breaking of the scandal, I was devastated. In reality and after much prayer and reflection, I realized that this gigantic personality had insidiously risen in my own mind above the humility and beauty of my Saviour Jesus Christ. An idol in the form of a man and his ministry had taken up residence in my heart. I then made a vow, because of the hurt and misery suffered to never place any leader or personality on a pedestal ever again. That promise has served me well and has allowed me to focus on Christ himself. Of course, we do recognize those gifted as the doctors and researchers among us who lead us by the Spirit through their published works and research, but never should we elevate them to personality cult status.

Another lesson learned was that the hundreds of thousands of "ordinary", ordained pastors, evangelists, missionaries and volunteers who serve Christ faithfully day in and day out in different denominations, without recognition are the unsung heroes of the faith. Ordinary, faithful servants laboring for the Kingdom and God's glory who will hear the words, "well done good and faithful servant". Let us of course mourn the downfall of yet another "Big Name" and through it learn to support, pray for and encourage the unsung leaders of the faith. Yes, some of the ordinary leaders do and will fall, leaving messes to clean up. Let us though remember it is but a small minority of all the workers in the church that deceive the flock while the majority are faithful and true to their calling, never needing undue recognition for their work, save support, love and encouragement from their congregations.

Hi Paul,

This resource is particularly helpful especially after reading the just released report to Synod!

Much to talk about and reflect upon. As we seek to formulate a more healthy response to the sexually marginalized in and around our churches, may we also seek to pull certain logs blinding our spiritual eyes, while no longer straining at gnats. Funny, those words of Jesus were not quoted anywhere in the new document?

I'm an ordained, white male in his early 60's, married to a respected, ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament with a great track record in CRC parish ministry. I have come full circle from complimentarian to egalitarian in my view of women in authoritative office. Their right to authority within multiple powerful systems structures, whether church, government or family, continues to be thwarted, undermined and in the case of Yoho's brutal comments to a powerful woman, rudely maligned. 

The old boy's club continues to be alive and well in government, church and family. Lord have mercy on us. Jesus plainly raised, in the case of his earthly ministerial context, brown-skinned  young women from his mother to Mary Magdalene to egalitarian status with all during his ministry on many different occasions, so many women in fact, that all the stories could not be told, just the most obvious, plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face, striking ones. Why do older white men fear the loss of power to such intelligent, thoughtful and gifted people?

Put the shoe on the other foot and have Ocasio-Cortez call Yoho a:  $*^%^&$ bastard and then imagine what would have happened...Joe Biden is about to call to his side a powerful woman to her role as potential vice-president and possibly one day, president of the United States. May she be given all the dignity, respect and honour she so rightly deserves.

Thanks for the article and opinion expressed regarding worship. The human voice is the ultimate created "instrument". The other created beings, angels continually use voice to praise their creator as evidenced by scripture. Songs and hymns and spiritual songs obviously are sung by human voice as the chosen and primary musical instrument of choice of scripture. Whenever the corporate human voice during worship is drowned out by supplementary instrumentation, loss occurs as you have so well described. I have read your post several times trying to understand what is going wrong in your corporate worship setting that is creating the loss of connection in worship you're experiencing. It sounds to me like volume and musician insensitivity. Permit me, as a worship drummer to comment. During corporate worship, any instrumental play is meant to enhance and support congregational worship, unless you are attending a concert, where the gathered people have the intention of listening to music being played. It sounds to me like your worship team and your sound technicians are not trained well enough in the art of worship. 

There is nothing wrong with modern instrumentation like electric guitars and drums and amplification. When played and managed by skillful people who are well trained, worship can be enhanced and guided by modern worship leaders and bands. Like any aspect of public worship, the leader and musicians need to be trained to understand why they are up front in the first place, i.e., to lead God's people into a meaningful worship experience where the human voice is encouraged to be used to God's glory and the people's edification. This same problem you describe occurred when the pipe organ was introduced into 1000's of churches in Europe and North America in the late 19th century. Pipe organists enamored with their new amplified sound, often played them too loud, drowning out the worshippers who had just left the tuning fork and piano behind for this audaciously decibel-enhanced instrument. The worship wars that occurred over the introduction of the pipe organ were devastating to many congregations at the time with churches being divided over the issue of the the "devils's instrument" drowning out the worshipper's voices!

One of the main road-blocks to great worship is proper musical training. Good musicians, who are trained properly to play dynamically, meaning to understand the intent and purpose of a song, enhance the worship experience. Using their musical training to create the emotion intended from the musical score using volume and pitch control creates the atmosphere and feeling needed for worshippers to properly engage their voices (the emotion you described in the worship setting where you felt connected to those around you). As a drummer and percussionist, I enjoyed this type of training in an orchestral big band setting. As percussionists, we were trained to be the rhythm section of the band, keeping time and enhancing the sound of the brass players (the equivalent of the human voice in a big band). I never seek to overshadow worshippers by playing the drums too loud. You may be referring to some drummers today who were trained to play loud rock and metal styles, who unfortunately bring this training to worship and are unable to play dynamically. It's really not the drums that hurt but the drummer behind the actually benign instrument.

Most worship teams are not "professionals" as you have referred to them but fellow worshippers and church members offering their musical gifts on Sunday mornings. If they are overshadowing the human voice then further musical training in worship play is needed to sensitize them to what they are trying to accomplish, just as a pastor needs training in order to preach well week after week.

Drums and guitars are here to stay. Perhaps you can challenge your council to help provide the framework for the funding necessary for your worship team to learn to play more sensitively in order to allow the human voice to shine and be the pre-eminent instrument in your services. As a worship drummer, myself and my band mates listen for the voices as we play and delight as we hear them in concert praising God! its wise to invest in your musicians, so they receive the proper training they need to play worship band properly. Expecting a "garage band" musician or untrained or inexperienced youth guitar player or drummer or an untrained sound technician to pull off meaningful worship is a demand too high. Complaining about loss of quality in the worship experience is an unfair criticism for those who find themselves in front of 100's of people on Sunday morning if they were not required to train properly for the job in front of them. Much time in practice and money for training is required to achieve the desired corporate worship result you describe. Covenants and standards for those expected to produce the quality of music that worship demands should be put in place to insure that everyone, including the worship band feels connected in the worship experience.

Thanks for sharing your journey in growing awareness.

God has graciously poured out healing love upon you.

Being mindful of the evil that exists around us is one of our responsibilities as Christ followers.

The Parable of the Weeds as told and interpreted by Jesus Christ is particularly helpful in understanding the presence of evil, even within the doors of the church. We know it is there and it does not come from our loving Father, yet we live with the possibility of evil affecting us until the day of Christ's return. The end of the parable relates to the gathering of the useless chaff to be dealt with along with the harvest of wheat to be blessed in God's forever presence. I think you may have had a little foretaste of God's forever peace to bring healing and relief from your experience of evil.

Be well!

Thanks for the excellent summation of the challenges faced by spouses of clergy.

Just a gentle reminder that there are now approximately 100 ordained women in the denomination, many with male spouses. These clergy marriages are a newer relational phenomenon that is not well understood or supported. I have benefited from attending several conferences sponsored by Sustaining Pastoral Excellence. Interestingly enough, an attempt was made several years ago to hold a male pastor's spouses conference. It failed to launch..

I do find that many of the points you outlined are challenges of mine as a female pastor's spouse.

Peace,

Kelly

Thank-you for your support. I am thankful to God for the healing that has taken place. This was a single incident that did not morph into a serially abusive situation as has happened with Boy Scouts and sports teams.

Not a small number of hockey players have come forward in the past 10 years who have reported serial abuse from coaches and authority figures where there is a power differential. A few have taken their lives and most are substance abusers with severe depression. One of the saddest cases is that of NHL professional hockey star, Theoren Fleury . Theoren was serially abused by his coach, Graham James for several years while he was in minor hockey. Fleury has overcome his addictions and won a criminal case against James and now advocates for boys who have suffered sexual violence.

Dare I say it? I'm wondering about the Cadets programs over the years in our denomination? How many boys are suffering in silence with addictions and depression or have taken their lives due to abuse there? I must bring it up and I am not afraid to raise the question. I know I will get push-back on this and my prayer and hope is that the statistics in our denomination for serial abuse against boys is far less than the known averages.