When A Prominent Church Leader Commits Suicide

When A Prominent Church Leader Commits Suicide

We addressed suicide earlier in this blog.  You can connect with that post at this link.  In this post we turn to a tough question.  What do you preach when a prominent leader commits suicide that rocks your church community?   This is indeed going to be a tough message to make.

Some Questions for When A Church Leader Commits Suicide

The questions here mirror, in many ways, the questions that come up when a prominent church leaders is found out to have committed a grievous sin.  Let’s look at some of them:

How could a Christian do this?

Maybe a prior question here:  Is suicide a sin?  The answer is: “Yes”.  God explicitly said that it is a sin to kill others.  To kill yourself is beyond God’s will.   Here is how W. Wilson Benton put it in a sermon after the death of a church leader:

The dictionary defines suicide as “the taking of one’s life voluntarily and intentionally”.  It is the taking of a life in a manner forbidden by God.  It is murder….”       

Can A Christian Commit Suicide?

The answer to this one is pretty simple:  Yes!  Christians sin.  We have within us the potential for all kinds of sins.  This is a basic truth that we must face at such a moment.

What Happens to the Church Leader Who Commits Suicide?

In the previous post on suicide, I made the point that some have misinterpreted

Corinthians 3:16:

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

This is a reference to the Church, not our individual bodies.  Suicide is a forgivable sin.

Where Was God When A Christian Leader Committed Suicide?

Why does God allow this sort of thing to happen?  Couldn’t he have stopped it?

William Cowper was a well-known hymn writer.  At the age of 32 he became so depressed that he decided to take his own life.  He ordered a horse-drawn cab to take him to the London Bridge, where he was planning to jump to his death.  The night was foggy.  The cabbie got lost.  Cowper was so frustrated that he got out of the cab, paid his fare, and turned to walk to his destination.  To his great surprise, he found that he was right back at his own door.

He went inside, still determined to take his own life. Poison was the answer, he thought, but he threw it up.  He decided to fall on a knife, but the blade of the knife broke.  Finally, he tried to hand himself, but someone came and found him in time and cut him down.

The next few days he thought about these events.  He wrote a new hymn.  It goes like this:

God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clods ye so much dread

Are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble senses, but trust Him for His grace.

Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain.

God is his own interpreter and He will make it plain.   (William Cowper, ‘God Moves In A Mysterious Way” (1774)

Reminders for People in Such a Sermon

Remind them to care for each other, to look for and listen to the depressed person.

Remind them in times of struggle to reach out to brothers and sisters who can point them to a God who said he would never leave and never forsake.

Conclusion

When a prominent Christian leader commits suicide it is a shock to the church.  But it can again be a reminder of God’s goodness to us, his grace for all of us, and his presence to comfort even in our pain.