It’s being called the Year of Exposure. Christian pastors, musicians, and authors are being credibly charged with plagiarism, pedophilia, and predatory leadership practices. It’s not that 2025 was plagued by a sudden uptick in criminal behavior but rather that decades of coverups are being exposed, and every person who bravely risks telling their story empowers another ten to come forward.

Thankfully the terrible practice of covering sin “to protect the reputation of the church and its people” has been replaced with UNcovering sin “to protect the reputation of the Church and its people.” It’s been way too long in coming. Reporter Julie Roys challenged us to accountability in a 2022 podcast about Mark Driscoll that wildly now looks like the Who’s Who Pastoral of Coverups. I’ve included some clips in this blog but I’d also encourage you to go back and watch her full videos.

Driscoll had resigned from his church amidst scandal and just six days later came to Robert Morris’ church. While introducing Driscoll to the pulpit, Morris admonished his congregation to “stop shooting the wounded.”

Morris himself now awaits trial for charges of molestation of a twelve year old. The decades-long pedophilia coverup has now resulted in the firing of elders and resignation of a pastor who made Morris a spiritual overseer at his church. It now looks as if dozens of Christian leaders protected a pedophile and denied assistance to healing for his victim.

How on earth did we get here? Why are those with the microphone putting focus on forgiveness for predators instead of justice for the wronged? When did “restoring a brother in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1) mean erasing consequences for criminal behavior? To be clear, I’m not talking about sin – the Bible makes it clear we all sin and fall short (Romans 3:23). I’m talking about soul-crushing C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L behavior. The kind you go to jail for and they justifiably throw away the key.

I think we need to consider how professionalization of the church has shifted our priorities. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be people who are paid employees of a church. My husband and I have served on staff at several churches and it can be beautiful and fulfilling work. My family includes generations of pastors of Mennonite, Baptist, and Assemblies of God congregations. We love the church and we love the Church.

But as the modern American church adopted a franchise business model and began employing large staffs, we’ve started frequently using a phrase that I believe unconsciously shifted the core of Christian faith.

Full-time ministry.

I really started noticing it after my husband and I resigned from our last position where he was the Campus Pastor and I was Operations Pastor (fancy term for managing staff and budget). People kept asking me when/if we were going to return to “full-time ministry.” Then I started noticing people testifying that the Lord had called them to “full-time ministry.” Then I heard this quote from a former pastor at Driscoll’s church.

It struck me as so odd, because he seems to be saying he can only speak the truth now because he isn’t in full-time ministry. And what he means (as well as the others who use the phrase) is that where your paycheck comes from determines whether or not you’re in ministry.

I’m not convinced that’s a biblical definition.

I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior when I was three years old. Soon after, I asked my mom how I could follow Jesus when I wasn’t even allowed to cross the street. My three year old self saw something I still believe today: as a believer in Christ, I am in full-time ministry. I was in full-time ministry when I was three and I’m in full-time ministry still at age 53. Sometimes my paycheck came from a church and sometimes I was a church volunteer. At all times, Christ calls me to be His representative on this planet along with all others who serve him. I’m in ministry every day, all day.

Every Christian is called to full-time ministry. Everywhere we go, we are to be his hands and his feet, whether we’re a waitress serving scrambled eggs to a retired couple or that same retired couple graciously ministering to their waitress. The Great Commission calls us to go out into the world and make converts disciples. Jesus showed us what that looked like – he was in full-time ministry whether he was at a friend’s wedding, fishing in a friend’s boat or at the temple. Our lives are supposed to model his.

The Bible pictured at the top of my blog belonged to my great-great Grandpap Lawrence Saylor. It’s all marked up with notes and underlining and even a valentine from my dad to my great-grandma. He obviously studied the word and attempted to live in full-time ministry.

So has something shifted from then til now?

I believe by using the phrase “full time ministry” we’ve conditioned ourselves to believe that only paid employees are ministers and therefore Christianity rises and falls on protecting their reputation. Because the waitress and the retired couple just come to service on Sunday to watch the service, we’ve come to believe their daily ministry doesn’t matter. Texas Pastor Ed Young delivered a toxic message called, “It’s all about the weekend, Stupid”¹ that encouraged churches to cut all programming (including discipleship) that diverted attention and funds from Sunday morning services. It cost a lot to bring rollercoasters, Ferraris and other stunts to the stage and so all other ministries needed to take a back seat.

Lots of churches have adopted Young’s philosophy, so now we have exciting stunt performances but few trained disciples.

We have celebrity pastors and musicians and congregants who think they need the celebrity as an intermediary to explain the Bible to them.

We have a system with concentrated wealth and power at the very top. The wealth and power is protected by those who exercise it as well as those who think they’re supposed to support it.

It reminds me of just the kind of stuff Jesus chastised the religious leaders of his time for doing.

And it kinda sounds like the situation that birthed the Protestant Reformation.

Some are calling this current situation a second Reformation. And when the history books write this story, my friend² and retired Grove City College Dr. Warren Throckmorton will be understood as a catalyst. He is a smart man with good research ability and a blog and he wasn’t afraid to use them. He called out abuse in the church and over a decade later, we’re starting to see the abusive systems change. Roys brought this up in 2022, but its even a more powerful statement now in light of all 2025 has brought:

Exposure of corruption was a large part of Warren’s ministry. I’ve had people ask if there aren’t more beneficial ways to spend time than in exposure. Let me answer in a personal illustration…

In 2018 I had a little scab above my left eyebrow. It didn’t hurt or anything but it also didn’t go away. My friend Robin told me to go get it checked out so I did. A primary care doctor came in to the exam room with a resident and told me (in a very condescending tone) that it was just a scab and to put a bandaid on it.

Later that day, the doctor’s office manager called me back to say the resident had been uncomfortable with the diagnosis and recommended a referral to a dermatologist. Turns out I had a very large cancer growth under the skin that was growing towards my eye. Days later I had the cancer cut out. It was incredibly inconvenient, as I was in the middle of a political campaign and had to make speeches looking like a prize fighter who couldn’t win a round.

It was inconvenient – but having a healthy body meant identifying the cancer and having it removed.

The resident did the loving thing by calling out the cancer.

The dermatologist did the loving thing by cutting it out and neatly stitching me up.

The primary care doctor did not do the loving thing by telling me to put a bandaid on it.

I have some policy ideas that could help us better avoid these coverups in the future. I’ll write about those at a later time. But for this post I want to keep the ask clean – how about Christians commit to removing cancer from the Body of Christ? He is coming back for a bride without wrinkle or blemish and it seems wise to get the surgery done now so we can get healed up.

DC Talk’s song, “What If I Stumble?” (yes I see the irony) starts with a quote from Brennan Manning,

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today,

Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips

Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle

That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Let’s each commit ourselves to full-time ministry and show the world that the Church can be trusted to honestly represent a holy and loving God.

1. I didn’t find a an online version of the message, but Young refers to the slogan here https://www.preaching.com/articles/preaching-creatively-an-interview-with-ed-young-jr/ ↩︎
2. My collaboration with Warren is a fun story for another day ↩︎