Ministry Statement on False Teaching and Pastoral Care

Ministry Statement on False Teaching and Pastoral Care

One of the most painful parts of pastoral ministry is helping people recover from teaching that promised much but delivered spiritual harm.

I have seen—personally and pastorally—the damage caused by false doctrine that treats faith as a transaction and suffering as a personal failure. These teachings have impacted my own family and have left many believers in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice care carrying unnecessary guilt, shame, and confusion.

Some are led to believe that unanswered prayers or declining health are evidence of weak faith. Others are left disappointed in God Himself, because what they were promised was never rooted in Scripture. In both cases, the result is the same: wounded believers who feel abandoned—by themselves, by the church, or by God.

This is not biblical Christianity.

The gospel does not teach that faith guarantees health, wealth, or ease. It teaches that God is faithful, present, and sovereign—especially in suffering. Scripture never places the burden of illness or hardship on the believer’s faith, nor does it portray God as a vending machine for human desires.

Part of our calling is not only to teach truth, but to help people unlearn error—to gently remove distorted images of God and replace them with the God revealed in Scripture: compassionate, holy, near to the brokenhearted, and trustworthy in every season of life.

We are committed to shepherding people back to a faith grounded in truth, sustained by grace, and anchored in the unchanging character of God—not in promises He never made.

In His love,

ray