We live in a world of noise. There is always somebody making a statement about something. Always somebody ready to complain about the statement. Then there’s apologizing for the statement. The clarification that makes things worse. The need to signal our virtue to all the wrong people (people on the internet) while missing out real virtue to the people that really matter, those we live and work with.

I attempted to try and think my way through to some principles about when and why I would say something about something earlier this year. It was an attempt at triage on various scenarios to get down to the simple principle of ‘does this have anything to do with me or not?’

So let’s not beat around the bush, what does the tragic case of Mike Pilavachi and the victims of his abuse have to do with me?

Let’s work it through. I attended Soul Survivor numerous times in my youth. In fact one year was so pivotal for me that I’ve mentioned it in my testimony ever since. God spoke to me. It was a powerful, dramatically life-changing, course-altering moment up on a hill overlooking the sea of tents & lights one evening after a main session. It was back in the days when Matt Redman was leading worship because I’m quite old now. But I’m not now questioning whether this was God because of Mike’s failings and I don’t think anyone should question those things. We’re following Jesus not Mike Pilavachi.

I’ve heard Mike speak a few times (maybe two or three) in the 20 years since I last was at Soul Survivor. I seem to remember they were the same gags and more or less the same message followed by a powerful ministry time that had almost nothing to do with the message. I think I have one book by Mike and Andy Croft on my shelves.

But I’m not an Anglican, I’m not a member of Soul Survivor, I don’t know any interns, I don’t know Mike, he almost certainly wouldn’t know who I was, I’ve never been mistreated by Mike, and it was at least two decades since I went to a summer festival. So what does it have to do with me?

The answer is nothing, at least not directly.

For a good example of some church leaders thinking this through and coming to the conclusion that they did have a connection and so had to say something, then read this. So my writing something about it just adds noise and signals virtue, telling people I don’t know and who are not in my church, ‘I’m one of the good guys, I care – look!’

But not so fast.

I could say all the same things about Mark Driscoll but eventually I felt I needed to write about that because he, just like Mike Pilavachi, did have something to do with the movement I’m a part of, Newfrontiers. Like many organisations, Newfrontiers waited until the Safeguarding Team in the Church of England issued a statement before they made one of their own. I’d expect all of the Newfrontiers spheres that had some connection (as listed here) to make their own statements in the coming days (and most now have, see here, here, here & here).

Now I, personally, think the connections between Mike & Newfrontiers have been overstated and misconstrued but it is undeniable (and I don’t think anyone is denying) that Mike Pilavachi has been both publicly praised and repeatedly platformed amongst Newfrontiers churches in the UK. And as a point of order, Newfrontiers is a global movement and I’d be surprised if the majority of our churches in Africa, Asia, even Europe had any idea about any of this. This is predominantly a UK issue.

Newfrontiers does now have a short but growing list of leaders they have platformed that later hit scandal CJ Mahaney, Mark Driscoll, PJ Smyth (who was a leader within Newfrontiers) and now Mike Pilavachi. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad record over the past 30 years or more (Mahaney was a presence in the early 1990s I think), I don’t have the data to compare it with say Spring Harvest or something remotely comparable. It can look bad if you say it all in one sentence but what to many today looks worse is that it would seem that Newfrontiers has up until today not usually made a habit of making statements.

And like any movement of thousands of churches we’re going to have churches that run into trouble. There will be leadership failings, there will be trouble, there will be disagreements and strife. Because people are people and no generation since Jesus has been able to avoid it.

But the criticism has come because there is a judgement call to make here, does this thing have anything to do with you? If you’ve platformed or praised someone publicly when something goes wrong, should you say something? Do you have a duty to speak up? There is a case to be made that the answer is yes and I’ve made it myself.

When I read this, I hear hurt and confusion. He says ‘our very calling which we heard while at Soul Survivor camps, is now being questioned’ and ‘What might it look like if leaders who had been influenced by Mike Pilavachi, loved his teaching, found their calling while under his guidance and encouraged others to learn from him were open and honest with their congregation?’

And I think that’s the main reason why something needed to be said, not to keep the internet happy or people who would never be a part of our churches no matter what we did, but to speak to those who are in our churches. To open up insights into learning, to remind about safeguards, best practices and to offer compassion to the hurting, wisdom to the confused and renew our commitment to creating a culture where people are healed not harmed, where power is understood to be as dangerous a spiritual power as money or sex. And that’s what we need now, leaders with a better understanding of power and its abuses so we can be not that.