A missionary wrote to me recently about "setbacks, setbacks, setbacks, setbacks". The setbacks were mostly related to office-bearers who had "shown their true colours". That is, they turned out to be pretenders. How does one identify a pretender in the Church? Through my long experience in ministry, I have found that there are two early signs: • There is a lack of a sense of sin, and • They tend to idolise the Christian leader. That's assuming that there isn't anything one can see besides. Everything else may seem in place: praise to God, many good works, support for the ministry, and so on. OBSERVATION: Soon after this missionary wrote about setbacks, she reported revival. I would add that one can't weed out pretenders -- just exercise reasonable care.
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