“But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” – Genesis 4:7

I am so deeply disturbed at this week’s news about Philip Yancey. Another well-respected Christian leader falls from grace. And these falls are huge, not just making a splash but devastation and waves and ripples that will not quiet for a long, long time.

Yancey’s work has always stood apart for me in the “as good as it gets” category. Brilliant, incisive, deeply human and underscored with – I believed – authenticity and integrity. One of my great treasures, as an author myself, is the encouraging and complementary letter he sent after reading a couple of my books.

I am not going to join the social media free-for-all (featuring anger, derision, hate and the airing of obviously unresolved personal issues) that has been flooding the comments sections below postings of the news of his long affair.

But I am going to comment on something too many Christian leaders forget, a truth that is, I believe, the answer to concerns surrounding the so-called demise of Christianity in Western culture.

Don’t tell me, show me

Christianity at its heart works very much like that rule English teachers impress on students when it comes to good writing: “Don’t tell me, show me.” In other words, it is one thing to preach, to teach, to sing or to write (Yancey has sold more than 15-million books), but what really makes a difference is how we live into and live out the Good News Story.

Think about the math: 15,000,000 books – one affair. Which side of the equation is having the most impact on Philip Yancey’s Christian Witness?

We live in what has been dubbed, “The Information Age.” Yet Christianity in North America has declined during this time, even though our facility to share the message (via print and voice and television and Internet and social media and more) has multiplied by leaps and bounds.

Why? Well it is exactly this, isn’t it. Christianity does not take when all we do is TELL the message. What really needs to happen is for Christians – especially these high-profile leaders – to actually LIVE the message.

When we fail to live the Good News then, for all practical purposes, there really is no good news. This is why the latest fall/fail is, in every respect, bad news for the good news. And that, my friends, makes me sad.

This begs the question, “What can we do?” What can we do in the particular place where God has called us to live and to love and to invite people into wholeness?

We can love God with renewed passion, and we can pray with deeper commitment, and we can encourage each other, and we can recommit ourselves to following Jesus – and do all of this with the application of intention and disciplined self-awareness. This is why, at the end of his list of the fruit – the evidence – of the Spirit, Paul included “self control.”

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. – Galatians 5:22-23

– DEREK