When Your COVERING is un-covered

“Bob, Ann? Hi, I’m Stan. I am the new director here at Solid Rock Ministries. I understand you   both are pastors and currently, “shopping” for a ministry covering.

Well, rest assured that here at Solid Rock we “got your back”. We know how important it is to feel safe, secure and to not lose an ounce of sleep when it comes to having the proper, suitable spiritual covering, and moreover the satisfaction of again, and I cannot emphasize enough that when it comes to any issues whatsoever that may arise in your life or ministry endeavors that We Got Your Back! Rest assured!

“I have attempted to formulate an acronym, but ‘WGYB”, unfortunately, doesn’t roll off the tongue very eloquently”. At any rate, we are so very pleased that you Googled us, and made time today to come and visit with us to explore the possibility of Solid Rock becoming your ministry “covering.”

Well, you and I both know that this is not exactly how the scenario goes, but unfortunately in this “fast food, hunger games”, times that we are living in, many believers feel the need to be “covered”. I’m not too sure that this car salesman approach that I illustrated for new recruits is a far cry from reality.

Before I continue, please allow me to throw in this little precursor. I am not in any way challenging you if your established core beliefs are to be under a spiritual covering.

That is 100%, your choice. My goal here is to illustrate to you what I have personally encountered to be a common thread amongst many believers who have placed their trust, loyalty, gifts and talents in the hands of those who literally, “washed their feet”, and vowed to , protect them, honor and watch over them, but sequentially, violated their responsibility to hold fast to the vows that they subscribed to. 

Just because you may not be aware of how often this occurs, does not make it any less valid, and I am certainly not “throwing out the baby with the bath water”, and in any way inciting that this is a one size fits all condition. I am more than confident that there exist many brutally integrous ministries that conduct themselves and carry out this mission with kid gloves.

But what happens when the lines become blurred, and this undertaking is compromised?

When in some instances, the very ones that are to shepherd the flock lose sight of their assignment? When the one who calls the shots have had a bead on one of the sheep as a result of jealousy, Insecurity, narcissism and a host of other character weaknesses?

In an effort to adhere to perhaps a misunderstood or implied upon spiritual principle, we place our souls on the altars of mere mortals, with the belief that they are in some way superior, and possess the ability to become a quasi-government, granting them the authority to move the chess pieces of our lives and ministries oftentimes in less favorable positions to satiate their own hidden thirst to control.

This in no way purports that the sheep are without blemish, but when their speckle is magnified to pursue an agenda that is tainted with delusion, deceptive measures are often employed to gain yardage which can in many instances produce defamation, gossip, slander, casting of false aspersions, misleading and aligning and gathering others into an evil troupe that no longer has the best interest of the individual(s) in mind, but instead making use of gaslighting and other malevolent techniques, in an attempt to make the person begin to question their own sanity.

Make no mistake that as challenging as this scenario may be for you to come to terms with, grasp and absorb, they do exist. I have personally met more than a handful of persons who have had to endure this, what I make no apology for in referring to as straight up, “spiritual tyranny.”

Allow me to widen the lens just a skosh, so that you might gain a clearer perspective, and/or possibly even personally relate to? For now, the actual individuals will remain anonymous.  

I will only present to you a synopsis of what led to the uncovering of our covering.

This event took place over the course of about six months. A battery of emails, text message screen shots, phone calls and word docs went back and forth over the net, the likes of a Wimbledon match. As this bout ensued, the evidence presented was impermeable, affording our covering leader a succession of opportunities to come clean and bear responsibility for the un-godly actions that he had administered. It was truly unfortunate for him, because there already existed a negative scorecard revealing at least one other incident where he refused to man up, take ownership, and be an essential vehicle and conceivably bring about a positive resolution with all parties involved.

Instead, before retiring to his “Ivory Tower”, he takes a sinister bow in his unrighteous posture and exclaims that everything was swept under the proverbial rug, and he will never take responsibility for what he’s done. Well, this might be a more realistic portrait and translation to the eloquent words that are rolling off of his tongue, still dripping with globules of deception and delusion.

Although we can very easily conjure up an assortment of rationales, it is profoundly sad that this screen play is nothing shy of depicting how it can be the very raison d'etre, of an individual who cracked the door open, allowing duplicity to take the driver’s seat, and become its hostage.

The spirits that run amok in the garrison of deception are awfully slick and slippery!

But certainly not a contender by any stretch to the one True Spirit that is the Chief cornerstone.

It is only by intentionally leaning in, and relying on His leadership, resisting the urge to employ any mere human tactics, that we will arrive on the shores of Victory!

Perhaps, like many of you, our experience in the church ecosphere over the last three decades have displayed to us more than a handful of wounded leaders. A number of them still writhing in their unresolved pain hurting others as a result of their own hurt.

Which brings to mind the ol cliche that, "hurt people hurt people".

This undoubtedly may not come as a surprise to you, and I remain quite confident that a large majority of us know of this malady experientially.

A covering according to webster is:

 “a thing used to cover something else, typically in order to protect or conceal it”.

So, what happens when that covering is removed?

Would it be fair to infer that whatever is underneath is now exposed, and no longer protected and concealed?

And what if the COVERING are the very ones who remove themselves intentionally and expose those whose feet they washed and vowed to protect, in order to carry out an evil assignment?

What if what was waiting topside for them was a dark shroud of slander, defamation, gaslighting and casting of dark aspersions, to name only a few that were crafted by the very hands of the COVERING?

Well, I am not your judge or jury, but I present to you the aforementioned questions as a means of perchance provoking your thoughts and eliciting your story on how your  covering, may have been uncovered?

The "epilogue", cannot be penned at this time, due to the fact their inaction to produce requested evidence or bring proper resolution to this matter will now be introduced to our Judicial System with the hope that under that canopy, what we consider to be simple questions might be answered in a more expedient fashion. In the end, we recognize that walking together again may not be realistic but sweeping things under the rug and believing that it is the most favorable way of defining resolved remains a misnomer.

“God is no respecter of persons, and without injustice there can be no Justice”

 John Paul Jackson