Calvary Chapel Pastor Ken Graves Teaches Pastors to Embrace Persecution and Forgive

Ken Graves, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Bangor in Central Maine, delivered the teaching at the Southeast Calvary Chapel Pastors’ Conference in February. The second part, published online by Calvary Chapel Magazine on March 2, addresses forgiveness. Part 1 urged the pastors to embrace persecution.

Graves said that in a time of persecution, Christians would have “a whole lot more to forgive.” He asked his listeners to consider whether their hearts were already embittered by what fellow Christians had done, including betrayals, division and people who speak about love in church but criticize it online after leaving. He said he had received written reproof of this kind, which rarely came face to face.

Graves recalled an incident from when he was in his 30s. He had said that the Lord protects a nation more than its military strength, and that a nation estranged from the Lord is vulnerable. He said he did not intend to disrespect the military. A correspondent misunderstood the statement and wrote to him, calling him ungrateful. Graves said he replied that the man had misunderstood, then wrote a further sentence advising the man never to say such things to his face. He said he sent it and then regretted it, and that the recipient did not take it as a threat.

Drawing on Habakkuk 2:4, which he said is repeated in Romans 1, Galatians 3 and Hebrews 10, Graves argued that believers must live by faith rather than by feeling. He described faith as a response to God’s revelation, which means believing what God has said and acting on it. He said forgiveness is not a feeling but an act of the will, an act of faith and a choice to cancel a debt. He also spoke of blessing as something spoken aloud, offering Numbers 6:24-26 as an example of a fuller blessing than a casual “God bless you.”

Graves said that when Jesus taught about forgiveness “from the heart,” he was describing a call to action rather than to feeling, and he cited Luke 6:27-28, which calls believers to love their enemies and pray for those who mistreat them. He told of an enemy he had wanted to harm and said he had struggled to act in love toward him instead of doing what he felt like doing. Over time, he said, prayer and reaching out changed his heart. Eventually he took the man’s hand and embraced him, and the man became his friend. Graves said he did not know whether the man had fully changed, but that he ceased to be an enemy. He added that the man later died of cancer, which he said his lifestyle had contributed to.

Graves said that others now speak against him across his state, and that his earlier experience with that enemy had prepared him to respond to such criticism. He said the teaching of Jesus must be applied to real conflicts, reconciliation being a lesson he had learned in a personal relationship (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Source: Read the original report