Kevin Perry

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the risks involved in believing that people are who they present to be when you lack the benefit of being close enough to discern something different. Obviously the recent arrests of Seth and Heather Day prompted this wrestling match because I wrote the foreword for their book and once invited Heather to speak in a session of living proof live as I did two other women of similar age. I wanted my audiences to get to know these younger teachers. Before I proceed, a disclaimer is necessary. The Days have not been heard by a court of law and remain, in the eyes of the law, innocent until proven guilty. So, I don’t know how much or how little of what I assumed will turn out to be true. Fact is, I may never know. At the end of the day, only the Ancient of Days knows. But the risks are always true and how are we to handle them? Think about Ravi Zacharias, for instance. He made charades an art form. How were the many people who endorsed him and invited him onto their platform to know he wasn’t him? We could—as I’ve seen people say and don’t blame them—never believe any Christian leader we don’t know well. Listen, I’m one of them and I too am struggling with the same questions you are. A couple of nights ago, I was with 4 fellow Christian author/speakers and we talked about the same thing. One of them said, “Some people recommend only trusting the dead saints but think how many things we’ve learned about some of them.” Good question, right? So is no one genuine? No one is Jesus. That’s for dang sure. He alone can be trusted completely. Jesus, have mercy on us. Jesus have mercy on me. I’ve been graced beyond comprehension by God and, without the cross, am ruined. Without holding onto Jesus for dear life, I would never have learned to walk with any level of consistency. I’m going to be thinking more about this serious conundrum but, so far, I’m imagining the tension is unavoidable. The risks are even unavoidable unless we give ourselves over to cynicism. Each of us must decide these matters for ourselves but, for me, cynicism is as great a risk as proving foolish to have believed. The apostle Paul was sure John Mark couldn’t be counted on in ministry after he’d abandoned the mission. Yet in his final letter, he literally called for him because he had been so “helpful to me in my ministry.” Sometimes we are wrong about people. And, even if we were right, people really can change. I’m not willing to give that up. To give that up, I have to give up the gospel. I’ve been reflecting on Jesus‘s parable of the wheat and weeds. He talks about how careful we must be in pulling up the weeds because we could pull up wheat with them. Drawing conceptually from that parable, it seems to suggest to me, if we just go tearing out everyone who’s anything like the people we wrongly believed, we’re going to pull up others who were genuine. This is not me trying to get you to believe me. If it’s safest for you not to, you have my blessing and understanding. This is me wrestling with the same thing you are. Lord Jesus, am I to believe no Christian leader is who he or she presents to be? Someone’s going to reply that we are to judge them by their fruit. Yes! Absolutely! But some of these appear to have had very good fruit. Think of Ravi. Plastic fruit can look like real fruit even from a few yards away. Here’s where I’m landing for the time being and, really, I don’t even like it. I’m not going to write any more forewords. Period. But I’m also not going to stop believing in younger Christian leaders who seem legit and refrain from cheering them on. I’d rather take the risk. People took the risk on me who weren’t living in my house and couldn’t see what was going on in my home or in my personal life. They took a chance on me. I’m going to take a chance on people. And if I prove a fool, well, I’ve been foolish before and will be foolish again.