Thoughts About Gary Lamb
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on September 29, 2009
It wasn’t until just last week, when I was talking to my pastor and he mentioned it, that I heard about Gary Lamb’s resignation. Gary was a church planter in Canton, Georgia who started a church in that community just five years ago. The church was purposeful in creating a casual atmosphere of grace, love, acceptance, and relevance. In just a few years the church has grown into a congregation of about a thousand in that small to medium sized town.
I was first introduced to Gary by a man in our church who when finding out I liked Perry Noble, told me to check out Gary’s church and blog. “Gary is even more blunt, open, and in your face than Perry” he told me. Well it had been May since I last looked at Gary’s blog, and it apparently was right after that time that Gary was asked to resign from his church on account of having had an affair.
Since hearing this I returned to Gary’s blog and at one point spent almost an hour intently reading the copy of his resignation letter as well as the more recent thoughts he has posted on there. As I read, my heart hurt for this man. I don’t know him personally and never really became a fan or follower of his, but he was living the life I want as a successful church planter, and now I was reading his words, feeling the pain of what he was now having to admit.
You can read the blog yourself if you care to, but as I read it, it hit me – I do the same thing. I constantly struggle in areas of lust and pride. God is just as rejected by my sins as He is Gary’s affair. It would be foolish of me to go in to church planting by looking at Gary’s story and saying that could never be me. It most certainly could be and in a lot of ways it probably is me now!
Not only must our guard always be up, but our first focus and love must be Jesus Christ. We must be so in love with Him that we shudder to think of trading that in for anything less. May we go beyond simply avoiding sin to actually pursuing righteousness, at all times! As my heart hurts for Gary and cheers for him as he fights to work things out in his life, may my heart long for Jesus and a pure pursuit of Him that is free of pride or lust.
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