Vienna Presbyterian Church had a problem, they had hired a youth pastor Eric DeVries, who had a series of inappropriate and apparently illegal sexual relationships with some of the young women under his care. The church leadership found out and eventually made the decision to involve the authorities and of course fire DeVries. This would be a tough position for any church to find themselves in. What happened next is what impresses me about these folks.
The church has insurance and their insurance policy has a rider that covers this sort of situation. The insurance company wanted the church to "lawyer up". "Lawyer up" is a term that basically means shut up and let the professionals lie for you in an effort to make the problem go away. Vienna Presbyterian went another, much more biblical route.
The leadership owned up to the whole mess publicly. They apologized for not responding quicker to the allegations, for the way they handled things and for the harm Pastor DeVries caused. Instead of doing a "lawyer up" they "owned up". This will no doubt be used against them in any pending civil suit. However, there are victims that may find healing a little easier, church members that find sorting out their own feelings a little less conflicted, because they took the high road instead of the lawyer road. Christians also may learn from their example God's method of confession and "owning up" is more beneficial than "lawyering up".
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