Heather – I think that in this industry there is not a lot of willingness to be open about those kinds of things. We buy into the lie that we’re supposed to be on a pedestal and we’re not. The only way we can reach a dying world, and the dying world inside of the church is if we’re willing to be honest about the mistakes that we’ve made because that’s the only way that God gets the glory. I don’t want that to be the case ever in my life again.
Kim – That’s one of my frustrations – the whole pedestal thing. I’ve said so many times, in both my band’s ministry and in this (job), don’t put me on a pedestal because I don’t need to be there and I’ll fall. The higher you allow yourself to be put “up there”, the farther you have to fall to hit the ground. But I’m human and I’ll fall because of it. I can’t walk around saying that I have all of the answers because I don’t … but I know who does. You know, when you start believing your own PR, then you’re in trouble.
Heather – That’s the truth! And there is a lot of that. I think that one of the things that I’m so grateful for is that God has put a lot of people around me that remind me of who I am not. I love that because we get to give God glory! We get to point people to Him. I missed that for so much of my life and mis-used the abilities and gifts that He gave me. I feel so passionate about that, it makes me giddy sometimes. It just bums me out at the missed opportunities because we do so much patting each other on the back and recognizing each other. We do it as a good cause or something, but it’s brutal. I’ve already had some people tell me “You might want to tone down your story and maybe not be quite as colorful about what you’ve walked through”. I just believe that God has called me to be exactly who I am and to tell the reality of what He brought me out of, or else nobody can benefit from it.
Kim – If you white-wash your own mistakes, your own past and your own sin, them somebody that is at the bottom looks at you and thinks, “OK, you came through it, but you were never down here at the absolute bottom where I’m at. Big deal! Doesn’t take much of a Savior to save you from something that small”. Sin is an ugly thing and we have no right to dress it up for the masses so it looks better on us. Talking about where you’ve been, honestly, without glorifying it, and how far down God can reach to get you is where He gets the glory.
Heather – Exactly! We ignore those things. In the church we’re so guilty of almost pressuring each other to do that. It’s terrible. I know that I’m one person trying to affect change in one area, but I’m meeting so many other people who feel the same way. If we’re not doing this, it’s not going to change and the church will be ineffective. We are ineffective in so many ways because of it. We just can’t afford it. I want my kids to know the reality of how real God is. Look at what He can do! This industry is at such a crucial point. People "out there" know that we’re not perfect and we’re becoming the laughing stock of the world. We don’t do what we say that we’re doing. By and large we’re not walking the talk… I could say so much about it but I don’t want to go overboard. I’ll just say that we’ve got to be relevant and the only way to be relevant is to be honest about who we are. We all have stories about where we’ve been and each story can lead someone to Christ, but you have to tell the story to reach them! I think that in ministry, if we don’t wake up to that we’re in serious trouble.
Kim – The world isn’t a pretty place.
Heather – And the church isn’t a pretty place – underneath the veneer.
Kim – When the bickering and the finger-pointing and the condemnation of other Christians is the only thing that lost and hurting people see, it’s really hard to convince them that joining Christ and therefore, the very people doing all of that, is a good answer. People in pain generally try to avoid situations that are going to make it worse instead of better. If we’re setting an example, it had better be a good one.
Heather – Isn’t it terrible? It doesn’t make any sense. I feel like that is such a huge part of what I’m called to do – reconciliation in so many different areas – and being honest. You can not get healing and reconciliation until you’re honest about who you are and you have to be honest with others about who you are because they can’t get healing without it. You have to start the domino trail somewhere.
