Media Dimensions of Christian Scandals

Tragically, recent years have seen a number of leadership scandals involving sexual and spiritual abuse engulf the church in America and the United Kingdom. This has included RZIM, Acts29, Mars Hill Church, Willow Creek Community Church, Sovereign Grace Ministries and the John Smyth, Steve Timmis and Jonathan Fletcher scandals in Britain. Social media has played a significant part in rightly bringing these scandals to light, but it has also been used to vilify leaders who are innocent of wrongdoing or themselves victims of abuse. This talk considers both the proper and improper use of social media in the context of church abuse, and how institutions and leaders can respond in a godly way when they are subjected to scrutiny or abuse on social media. John Stevens has helped the conservative evangelical constituency in the UK address serious cases of leadership failure and shares from his personal experiences on Twitter and Facebook.