So I’m a little late to this party but I figure so are some of you as well so here you go.
On Wednesday, Rick Warren made this tweet:

Wow.

Now, i actually respect a great deal about Rick Warren. I admire him, his wife Kay, and the Saddleback ministry on a number of levels. Like most, I already knew he was not perfect so I’m ok with a lot of what he says because really, I don’t really care enough to figure out what he’s trying to really say and I figure he’s a smart enough and godly enough guy – I’m sure between him and the Lord, they’ll figure it out.

To his credit, the man tweets a lot. Supposedly it’s really him, he has said so on several occasions and I believe it.

When I saw this, my reaction was … ughh. Now who am I to question Rick Warren’s motives? Maybe the criticisms and pressures are catching up with him and something was on his mind and this was the reaction. Aside from a few thoughts and a joke or two that will not make it online, I have no idea.

But here’s the thing – the Church has to start responding in better ways to these moments, including when our higher profile leaders/pastors/personalities make a mistake. On the blogosphere and twitterverse, many were merciless, absolute merciless. Others responded with gentle push-back fitting for Christians, particularly younger brothers in the Lord (as they make up quite a bit of the Twitter population, you know). Frankly I was blessed by that.

We need to give grace to these men and women when they fail. We can’t stand there and say things like, “I knew he was an arrogant tv preacher guy only interested in selling book and creating his own kingdom”. I didn’t actually quote any comment exactly, but that’s the gist of it. We also need to remember that we fail regularly. The difference is very few people notice and fewer actually care.

I am all for accountability but we need to be really careful what and who we condemn and dismiss. It’s very antithetical to being the loving followers that Jesus has called us to be.