You probably heard about the recent mishap with Alaska Airlines flight 1282. Shortly after it departed Portland, a door plug blew out of the aircraft’s hull which caused the immediate and uncontrolled decompression of the cabin. The pilots quickly descended to an altitude at which the air was breathable and subsequently brought the plane and all its passengers safely to the ground. Thankfully, no one was killed or seriously injured in the incident.
The incident quickly garnered international coverage and many experts offered their comments on what it might mean for the airline and for the plane’s manufacturer. Patrick Smith, who writes at Ask the Pilot, provided an interesting perspective on all the attention the story garnered. “The amount of coverage we’re seeing serves to remind us of just how safe flying has become.” The story was so big simply because flying is so safe.
His comment got me thinking about the way Christian media and social media cover pastors who make shipwreck of their ministry through immorality or apostasy. Certainly this happens with some regularity and certainly it is never less than tragic. When it does happen, there are always victims, whether it is people the pastor has harmed through his unrestrained lust or people who have become confused about their own faith as they’ve witnessed the destruction of the pastor’s. Any time a pastor falls it is a major incident to those who are closely involved, and rightly so.
And yet just as flight 1282 can be a reminder of how safe flying has become and how the vast majority of flights reach their destination without incident, the fall of a pastor can remind us of all the faithful pastors God has raised up and how the vast majority of them serve their ministry selflessly, dutifully, and successfully. We pay attention to incidents in the air because they are so rare and there is a sense in which we pay attention to pastoral malfeasance for the same reason. If it was common, we would be accustomed to it and pay it little heed. It is its rarity that makes it especially shocking and noteworthy.
Sometimes the news can make it seem that every plane is likely to fall out of the sky and sometimes it can make it seem that every pastor is likely to fall.Share
Of course, we expect that every incident in the skies will be carefully investigated and that it will lead to actions to further improve an industry that is already very safe. Every airline, not just the one involved, becomes safer as the result of an incident or accident. And in the same way, we expect that the downfall of a pastor will cause individuals, churches, and denominations to reaffirm their commitment to godly character, sound doctrine, and safe practices. We expect that it will lead to both individual and corporate soul-searching and that it will lead to appropriate consequences and future protections.
Smith says that incidents like Alaska 1282 “and our focus on them, keep us on our toes. … It’s a way of being proactive and careful, so that we maintain the levels of safety we’ve achieved.” And may the same be true when we learn of a pastor who has rejected the faith he once professed or been found to have caused harm through an unrestrained lust for sex or power. May it cause us to be proactive and careful. But may it also cause us to better appreciate the great majority of the pastors we have known—pastors who serve us faithfully and well. And just as the actions following an incident in the air are meant to increase our confidence in flying, let the actions following an incident within Christianity increase our confidence in the local church.
Sometimes the news can make it seem that every plane is likely to fall out of the sky and sometimes it can make it seem that every pastor is likely to fall. But while the attention that is given to such circumstances is often appropriate, we should not allow it to make us think that it points to a problem that is universal. It should not even make us think it points to a problem that is more common than it actually is. Rather, it should reaffirm that God cares for us by giving us pastors who love us, who serve us, and who live to be a blessing to us.
(I wrote this article several weeks ago and scheduled it for today. Please don’t consider it a passive-aggressive response to any specific situation. By design, I was not thinking of any person in particular.)

The Lord be with you and bless you today.
Today’s Kindle deals include some choice picks from Sinclair Ferguson, Alistair Begg, Michael Kruger. You’ll also find Nik Ripken’s The Insanity of God. In related news, Amazon has a couple of Kindle devices on sale: The standard Kindle as well as the Paperwhite bundle.
(Yesterday on the blog: Is It Time To Stop Streaming Your Service?)

“The New Testament is replete with warnings to God’s people to beware of false teachers.” This article helps you learn how to identify them—a task that is often far more difficult than it seems.

Madeleine Davies takes a stab at explaining the unexpected rise of cultural Christianity—people who are content to consider themselves cultural Christians even while they deny the tenets of the Christian faith. (I think you should be able to read the article without paywall, though it’s possible you’ll need to register for a free account.)

I appreciated CT highlighting some of the Christian athletes competing at the 2024 Paralympics.

I would imagine many of us need to consider doing this or something like it. “Here’s my radical proposal to anyone and everyone finding their emotional and intellectual life highjacked by social media: delete it. Maybe delete it until the next election. Or at least delete it for a month so you can sober up.”

Matt McCraney explains why thinking about disability primarily as a medical issue may cause us to miss opportunities to bless and serve people with disabilities.

That’s a good little phrase: We are the chosen ones, but we are not the choice ones.

We all want to be productive, right? …here are 20 real-world, time-tested tips to improve your productivity.

It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass over us.
—C.H. Spurgeon

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

There are a couple of Kindle deals to look at.
We Should Trust God—But For What?
This is a good one from Cass Watson. “I cannot trust God to answer every prayer exactly how I want them answered. I cannot trust him to orchestrate my life so there is no suffering, toil, or disappointment. I cannot trust him to give me everything I want. I cannot trust him to stick to the timeline I had planned for my life.”
All of Our Nightmares Will Become Untrue
I remember these days well. “This past year, my seven-year-old son has been plagued by nightmares. Though he had experienced them many times before, they increased in regularity and we noticed him becoming anxious as bedtime approached.”
Please be gentle
“Gentleness is underrated and undervalued in the world and in the church. We prize power and authority and charisma. We want leaders who sound like TED talk speakers and who can capture our attention and hold it, leaders who are magnetic and whom we want to follow, who will impress our friends and family. Leaders who could do any number of jobs well and be recognised as leaders in their field. We also want to be that. We want all that because we have a Corinthian complex.”
Read And Then Judge
I hadn’t heard of Marie Dentière until reading this article, but she seems to have been a fascinating individual. “‘Read, and then judge’ – this was the title page of The War for and Deliverance of Geneva by Marie Dentière, published in 1536. For Marie Dentière, this was not just a sound piece of advice; it was a plea to her readers to judge the following words based on their content, and not the gender of their writer. Sadly, her advice often went unheeded.”
The Shortcomings of Scientism
Jimmy Wallace: “Scientism can be defined as ‘the view that the hard sciences alone have the intellectual authority to give us knowledge of reality,’ and that ‘at some stage in the future, science will be able to explain everything, and answer all our needs.’ Essentially, scientism is the belief that science is the beginning and ending of knowledge. However, there are several critical problems with this belief.”
Red Runs White (Video)
I’ve been really enjoying this song from Sow and Tether—a celebration of being in Christ.
Flashback: The Visionary Worrywart
The worrier takes upon himself a kind of prophetic role and allows his occasional successes in accurately predicting that awful future to establish his reputation as a person who understands what others miss.

God does sometimes keep us waiting for an answer to other prayers, but He never keeps us waiting one single second for an answer to our prayer for forgiveness. —F.B. Meyer