Abandoning Leaders

I recently came across a blog post by a gal who seems to have a series calling people to say goodbye to Christian teachers. This post caught my eye because the teacher she was referring to was Lysa Terkeurst, the founder of Proverbs 31 Ministries, who happens to also be acquainted with someone I know. It’s a small world, folks.

Upon doing a little more reading I found that this gal, Michelle Lesley, has similar posts where many popular Christian female teachers such as Priscilla Shirer, Christine Caine, and Beth Moore are mentioned as false teachers who need to repent. Lesley goes through a few points to support her case for women abandoning the teachings of these Christian women. Now I haven’t done a lot of research regarding the purity or heartbeat of these women, this is simply my reaction to what I had read.

First, Lesley faults both all of these women for “unrepentantly preaches to and instructs men in violation of 1 Timothy 2:12-14” which by all accounts sounds like a good case. What she fails to mention is what is meant by this scripture. The version she is using, English Standard Version, verse 12 says  “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet…”, which makes it sound like these women are certainly disobeying God’s word. However, upon changing the version to NIV (yes, old school and doesn’t have the accuracy of a rabbi, get over it) verse 12 rings more like this “ I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man”, which sounds pretty much the same. But while the ESV version says a women isn’t to “exercise” authority over a man, implying an active flex of authority, the NIV version says a women isn’t to “assume” authority over a man. When Beth Moore teaches a Bible study to a crowd she has no control over who attends. When Lysa Terkeurst sells a book she cannot limit the book only to women. While Lesley may gasp at men seeing Beth Moore teach about Daniel, I don’t see it as she does. These women are not rising up with the purpose to teach men and put them in their place, or take their place. Their hearts are for the women. If a man (which, may happen to be a pastor interested in what the women’s ministry is learning about, for pete’s sake!) happens to hear the teachings of these women it does not mean they have sinned.

Ms. Lesley, if a man reads your blog about the Bible does that mean you are preaching and instructing him and, by your logic, make you a sinner?

Michelle Lesley brings up how Terkeurst and Shirer partner with other false teachers such as Joyce Meyer and Christine Caine, who by the way is a false teacher because she also preaches unrepentantly to men… Nevermind that Christine Caine and her husband are advocates against human trafficking and giving the cause a voice. Joyce Meyer, who isn’t the best model of what a Christian teacher should act like, must have had some purpose to God’s plan. Maybe she was to lay the framework for Christian women’s ministry so that others could rise up and start version 2.0. What I know is I’m not going to hold who someone knows or has worked with on a project against them and call them a sinner for it.

Finally, Lesley faults these ladies for promoting “ the unbiblical practice of ‘listening prayer’” in their teachings. Now I don’t know if you have seen the movie War Room, but Shirer plays the young women in the movie who is struggling with her life until she starts using her closet for purposeful prayer. It was a powerful movie. In her post, Lesley says “this practice of emptying the mind and listening for God’s voice is found nowhere in Scripture… No mention of sitting in silence or listening here nor in any of the other passages in which the Bible teaches about prayer”. She also says “Jesus taught us the way He wanted us to pray” and quotes the passage of the Lord’s prayer. While I agree that New Age spirituality and meditation is not Biblical, I do not think removing yourself from the distractions of the world and finding a place to concentrate on talking to God is unbiblical. Even Jesus had to go someplace to pray.

Lesley also finds issue with Shrier putting herself in Biblical stories, I don’t think it’s bad to read the stories of the Bible and ask yourself “what would I have done?” which I believe is what Shirer meant. Also, apparently Terkeurst doesn’t spend enough time tending to her husband and kids, nevermind that her kids are mostly grown or that other Christian women can leave their families for careers other than ministry and no one blinks twice.

At the end of the day it comes down to this, who are we to judge? No one is going to teach  the Bible perfectly, no one is going to measure up to the Bible, and no one can replace it. It is up to each person to seek the Bible first before men, including Michelle Lesley. Who are we to pull someone down from the mountain God has called them to climb? Not one of us is worthy, but we are all to try.

It is not our job to cast the stones.

Romans 3:10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;