Many of you have recently heard about Pastor Justin Cox and Chris Facey stepping down from P4CM for a while due to sexual immoral sin. This blog is not to bash them at all but I want to thank them. Why? These are real leaders with real hearts.. So many leaders out there would rather hide their sin and pretend like everything is okay but I respect them. Although it hurts my heart."True Repentance" causes you to do these things. Although many may have alot to say God still wants to use them..same way he uses you.People think that because you are a Pastor you are exempt from sin. No not one bit.I respect them because they exposed their sin and that goes to show that their is no cover up or no reputation that must be kept.I do not know them personally but I know what God has done through their ministry and now is not the time to stand in judgement or hold unforgivness but choose mercy instead of justice but to pray for them because these are our brothers and wouldn't you want someone to do the same for you? The devil is so stupid they are coming back 10 times stronger than before but we must keep our eyes opened and our hearts rended lest we fall. AS I write this my emotions become overwhelmed because the enemy has no respect of persons and don't think that it can't be you because it very well might be you. Does this situation make them any less anointed by no means. Jesus didn't come for those who had it all together.He came for the weak and the broken. How can you ever know the God who delivers you out of broken places if you have never been broken. I'm asking that everyone who reads this blog feel free to leave comments. Like I stated before this blog is not to bash them but to encourage so if you can't find any encouraging words please don't post anything. Leave encouraging words up here you never know .. they just might read it and it could help bring healing
A Joint Statement from Justin Cox and Chris Facey
There are times in the Christian life when we experience joy, beauty, success, disappointment and failure. Yet in the midst of disappointment and failure God teaches us powerful lessons of love, mercy, and redemption.
When we first founded P4CM, we founded it on a desire to live a life worthy of the cross and exemplify “passion for Christ.” Recently it has become clear that we have personally drifted from the standard that we sought to uphold as a ministry, and as leaders. Part of pleasing God is admitting when you are wrong, need correction, and help. Because of this we have agreed to step down from leadership at P4CM due to moral failures respectfully in each of our lives in order to have a time of healing, discipline, growth, and restoration. We are deeply grieved and sorrowful for how our sin has affected our church, leadership, and people that have respectfully followed us throughout the years. We see that there are times in the life of David when he was a warrior, a leader, and a broken sinner. You have been with us in our stages of being warriors, you have walked with us as we were before you as leaders, and now we humbly ask you to stand by us as we write our own Psalm 51, and are before you as broken, repentant sinners in need of rebuilding, mercy, and renewal.
This is another chapter in the book of our lives, I know it may feel like a sad time, but we don’t believe this is a sad time. God is sovereignly using this process to discipline and break us, to cultivate and shape us into the men that He has always wanted us to be. Sometimes you have to die before you can live, and this is our time of dying so that we can enter into new levels of life. It is our expectation, that you don’t despair to the point of losing hope, but rather pray for us while taking heed to yourself, it is a time for you to hold on stronger and affirm your own faith with more tenacity than ever before, this is not the end but rather the beginning. We fully support the way P4CM leadership has handled this situation in the loving way God has called them to. Also, we are working with an awesome leadership team of pastors, counselors and ministers that are committed to working on us, and with us for the ultimate glorification of God. Our hope is that this is not the end, but rather the beginning of something new that God is doing in our lives that will result in us being back before you in the future as new and better men of God.
for more in depth information please visit.. www.P4cm.com
15 comments:
I can respect a leader or Pastor who can stand before the people of God and say I sinned, ask for forgiveness and step down to let God restore them. I think people can grow for this incident.It should cause us to keep our heart before the Lord and stay prayed up.I believe God can do a work with them and they will be a fire ball for the Kingdom.
Praise God for P4CM and all that they are doing. This is a lesson to be learned for so many older men and women of God. They are living the Word of God out and a example of God's true love. And you, Revelation, are a messenger for God on their behalf. Please forward your blog to them and across this nation. I decree that Elish Movement will move powerfully across the globe. Thank You!
RAIN FIRE
Much respect to Pastor Justin and Chris. They are truly walking out the love of Christ by removing themselves from leadership and exposing the enemy rather then trying to hide it and allowing it to grow and affect others. I also commend them on seeing this as an opportunity to grow in the things of God instead of going into their own pity party. The enemy is going to hate them when they are released. Much love and blessings.
DanielSon
Thank God for truth and i pray that they will be burning with the love of God even though they messed up they had open up our eyes to be open about the things that we may be doing behind close doors..Thank God for His loving mercies and tender kinderness for what they have done...This is a step to another level for them Spiritually... Thank you
Yes it's all well and good for them to step down and "repent" but I think they need to also come forth and explain what SEXUAL IMMORALITY IS! Because when they admonish us and chastise us they call us out for what we are if they continue to partially tell the truth they are not fully repenting and being leaders. They need to show the people what it really means to be honest and help others with their own struggles. DON'T BE PARTIALLY HONEST. BE TRUTHFUL ALL THE WAY.
When I think of P4CM in the first instance, I am reminded that holiness does not begin with us and what we do. Holiness and righteousness begins with a holy and powerful God, a God who does something in us. Too often the debate about what holiness means has centered on questions of sinless-ness. But it seems to me that we are missing the point here by time and again focusing our discussion on the “negative pole” of holiness. Rather than argue what we won’t do when we are holy, we should focus on what we can have and what we should do. And what we can have is the love of God in our hearts, and what we can do is express that love (see below for rest)
-Precious
(continued from above)
The “positive pole” of holiness is the love of God filling our hearts and transforming our living, so that we can love him and love others as we ought… It is quite common to have a list of “don’t” as our holiness check list – don’t swear, don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t be rude, don’t wear a un-ironed shirt on Sunday – but, this is the beginning of morality rather than holiness. And, while morals are not a bad thing, they can move us away from true holiness and make us miss the point. Holiness is not the denial of our humanity, in many ways it’s the embracing of it. Understanding our humanity draws us closer to God and why we “need” God. We are all humans. We make mistakes, we fall, we hurt people. That is part of who we are. Yet through Christ, that is not all we have to be. We can share love and peace, bring hope and kindness, show patience and self-control in tough times, faithfulness and goodness to others who are hurting when we allow God (in HIS holiness) to transform us, daily. This is what holiness is. Our experiences of being human shapes who we are and how we treat others and understand God. It is vital that we stay connected to our humanity. Too often we think to be holy we need to deny that we are prone to sin. But if we embrace our humanity and allow the Spirit of God to works in us (and our humanness), we can be Holy people of God, despite the fact that we will fall, all the while showing the fruit of the Spirit and the continuous transformative power Jesus has brought about in us. Holiness is who we are in Christ day to day. The real you – transformed by the power of Christ – becomes someone who produces fruit. Holy people are people who create, build and give love. Holiness is giving love and service despite the mess that surrounds us or is even in us.”
Like the passage above says “...despite the fact that we will fall, all the while showing the fruit of the Spirit and the continuous transformative power Jesus has brought about in us” Justin and Chris are prime examples of this. They fell. But, the Spirit of God in them gave them to strength to face foward and to step down. And, this same Spirit of God was present when they fell. Falling doesn’t reduce our holiness. It reminds us that we NEED God and need to draw closer, dig deeper and to remember we are NOT exempt from the kryptonite of life. That is why Paul said, "When I want to do right evil is always present."
I am not convinced that any of us can live out our lives - in its entirety - without sin. So, we shouldn’t consider “holiness” in those terms. Holiness extends into a process of transformation which is why Paul said of this process, “I press” – daily. Recognizing GOD is the ultimate of holy, we grab God for the strength then to be His Holy People. And, in the process we don’t condemn others but love them toward repentance even as we recognize we (in a repentant state) aren’t infallible.
I pray that Justin has gained a new and profound understanding of “compassion” now. A lot of his messages were steeped in radical extremism and had many theological holes. My prayer now is that when or if he ever begins to do ministry again, his testimony will flow from a river steeped in love not condemnation and hellfire - because condemnation and hellfire as a witnessing tool never "keeps" people close to God. A real connection to the transformative power of God is what makes disciples...if you don't believe me, ask Simon Peter.
God bless.
-Precious
im like soooooo sad because i just found out about you guys and your gone. so im salty. mad salty. but i hope yaw come back. even if ya cant be a pastor ya still can say hello with a blog
Well Praise Jesus they are working on it but yet they deceived Gods ppl cause we know ppl just don't commit a sin like that it's been there for a while and they got caught and they had to step down but God is forgiving if you mean it but they can never should never be allowed to be a pastor again
One thing about Christ that I just absolutely love is that He loved us while we were yet sinners. All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. Am I justifying their actions? No, I do not even know them, but I love the heart that they have for the ministry. We have been instructed to forgive, and until we forgive our brother, how can we expect God to forgive us (Matthew 6:14-15)? The Old Testament (Leviticus 4) says that when priests or leaders sin, they are to present to God a sacrifice, however as Christians, we already know that Christ was the sacrifice for our sins. We are not to condemn and make statements like, "They should never pastor a church again!" You do not know the testimony that God is giving them that will bless countless lives. Whom God has deemed blessed, no man can curse (Numbers 23:20) Also, the general public does not need to know details about what happened. If you want to know what sexual immorality is, read Leviticus 18 and deduce from there. These pastors did what was required of them: confess their sins (Numbers 5:7). To dig and pry for further examples of their sin, which would be completely irrelevant to the uplifting of God's Kingdom and the restoration process that these men are undergoing, is considered GOSSIP, and the gift of gab is not needed in this situation.
Furthermore, I commend these pastors for acknowledging that they needed to work on their spirit and relationships with Christ before they can commence in leading God's people closer to the Kingdom. There was only one man that walked this earth completely free of blemish, and His name is Jesus. By the same standard that you judge someone else, you will also be judged (Matthew 7:1). Dawkins and Dawkins has a new song out called "Pray for Me". Listen to it and allow it to saturate your soul. We are not called to condemn, but to love. It is our duty to cast out the spirits of sin while still being able to uplift, encourage, and strengthen the person along the way.
Blessings,
Kelly
Well, I must say, first of I would love to give Glory who is still on the throne and the head of my life. Who woke up me up on this morning, and brought me through this marvelous day.
I will like to say , I completely agree with what sister Kelly said. Now, I do not know what these men of God (yes Men of God oooo ) , have commited, but I say, mind your own business. All you can do is pray for them. What concern is it to you the degree of their sin. Will it comfort you TUTIFRUTTIBACCN??!?!? It wont.
In conclusion, I suggest we pray for them , and furthermore strive to live a life that glorifies our Lord.
Amen? Amen!
Loving Jesus Said.... Fist Giving Honor To God Who Is The Head of My Life. I want to Say That, The Lord is so Good All the Time. When One Sins It Is Not the End Of the World. Although At That Time It May Feel Like It. God Is A Loving God, A Forgiving God, A Redemptive God. A Restoring God. With All Of This Being Said... We Have "All Sinned And Fallen Short Of God's Glory." Also the Bible Say's "Let He Who Is With Out Sin, Cast the First Stone." Beloved, We Have All Sinned Either By Thought, Word And Or By Deed. We Need To Support, Love, Stand By Our Brothers In Christ. God Will Do Even Bigger More Awesomer Things In Christ By Using These Great Men of God. Even though King David, King Solomon even Mighty Sampson Sinned. God Still Used Them to Bring God Total Glory!:) To The Mighty Men Of God You Are Still Brave, Effective, Wonderful and Mighty Men of God Made in the Image of Your Father God!:) Love You All and Praying for You All as Well!:) God's Blessings and Peace!:)
I am so saddened to find out about this. I was with P4CM a long time ago and loved it, it was the only place where I felt the closest to God and not just what God could do for me, but what I could do for him. I will definitely keep Pastor Cox and Minister Facey in my prayers and I truly thank God for working in them. They are so full of love...at the one person above me who said that they need to confess the entire truth...I totally disagree, that is between them and God and for the other person who said that they should never be pastors again...I disagree with that as well, give me one person in the Bible who was used by God who didn't fall short at one time or another (besides Jesus) God will be able to use them in an even greater way now then before...please don't cast judgement...only God can judge us...but we are to love one another and Pastors have it harder then any of us ost times...because they are expected to be perfect (which is unrealistic) and they get attacked a lot...so I would ask that you pray, please don't judge. God bless you all
Today i came across Pastor Justin's youtube videos. i wasn't really looking for anything but i stumbled unto a blessing. Currently iam in Seminary studing for a M.Div in applied apologetics. I didn't know what to call my sin until i watched one of his videos. Sometimes having a name for it solidifies what we know and helps to fight better and in a knew light of knowledge. i appreciate what they did for me and many other people. As the pastors said in their statements they need to be rebuilt and that is normal. the human race trys to hold onto the people God send to deliever messages, but they are just delievers. The message is what we should hold as a sure standard. We are not perfect and everyone struggles with something even the 80 year old pastor of a church he has attended his entire life. it happens i appreciate the way they handled their sin. i hope that people can see that Christ is the best example of how we should live and desire to be like him and no one else. He is truly amazing in all things.
God help us all!
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