My wife and I eventually defected, as difficult as it was, and found ourselves on the team of a new church plant where we found not only ministry roles that helped us grow in our gifts but also a community that helped us flourish in our faith. We could be honest about our sins and our struggles and we didn’t find those confessions exploited. There was no ministerial spirit of competition or lusts for power strangling our own ambitions to follow Jesus on mission. We found a safe place to be sinners. We saw what judgment does to the honest and it was very, very bitter. Then we tasted what grace
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