jim jones jungle juice anyone?

on a morbid, but interesting note: tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the jim jones massacre that took place in guana. for those of you not familiar with the story, jim jones was a pastor-turned-cult-leader that led a group of some 400 followers to the jungles of guana where he convinced them to take place in a ritual murder-suicide. those who refused or survived were chased down and shot by his "temple guards". they were told that guana was to be the promised land, but when they arrived, they found a place that was far from paradise, but were told they could not leave. these were intelligent people, too. they were not some kooks with iq's of 50. they were bankers, lawyers, company presidents, men, women, and children. jim jones was so convincing that he even met with president jimmy carter at one point. (and given president carter's latest meetings, it now comes as no surprise!) what happened? how could one man, lead so many seemingly intelligent people astray?

the Bible is very clear about those whom God places in positions of leadership. He says in the book of James, that leaders will be held to a far stricter judgment. Jesus said that if a person was to lead a "little one" astray, it would be better for a large stone to be tied to that person's neck and cast into the sea. God takes the role of pastor very seriously.

however, as we have seen throughout history, whenever a person who is in leadership goes astray, the results are usually catastrophic, whether that be in a church, an organization, or a country. a historian made the observation that every leader in history who was prideful, and claimed to have the answers to problems, ultimately led their followers to ruin (hitler, nero, napolean, etc.) that is one of the things that scared me about the past election. neither candidate had a sense of humility about them, but rather both were very adamant in their claims to have the answers to america's problems. it is said that pride goes before a fall, and i worry about the fall to come.

however, no other place do we see disasterous results of leadership gone awry than we do in the pastorate. wars have started because of divisions within the body of Christ. the name of Christ has been blasphemed among the people because of haughty preachers, building their towers of babel just to climb to the top and come crashing down in glorious spectacle in front of every news camera in the world. whenever a preacher starts to rely on himself and not on God, then we see destruction awaiting ahead, and the enemy blinding the eyes so as to not see the warning signs. the apostle paul said that if anyone, be it man or angel, preaches a different gospel than the one he taught, then let that man or angel be cursed. i look around, and i see many preachers that would be listed as cursed in paul's opinion.

i take this very seriously, as i am currently awaiting where God will call me, along with my famliy, to serve Him. the idea of being that leader who leads to destruction, literally frightens me to no end. and so, i have resolved that no matter where i go, or what i do, i will do my best to seek his face. i try and always remember that i am nothing special. there is no difference between me and the person sitting in the pew. we are both called to serve and to minister. the only difference is in the expectations. my standard is higher. whenever we as pastors tend to think to highly of ourselves, or of our wisdom, let us remember jim jones and the legacy he left. it is said that "there but for the grace of God, go I". that is very true. we all have the capacity in us to be a jim jones, because of our sinful nature. let us stay subject to God and His laws, and always rely on His wisdom, not ours!