Church Saved Me

My husband and I grew together in ministry. We started serving in ministry together prior to becoming married. Over a timeframe of ten years we were ordained as ministers, then elders, and finally installed as pastors of the first satellite church of our spiritual parents’ ministry. My husband served as our spiritual father’s armor bearer for twelve years and we were their right hand duo. Personally, I was in love with ministry. I ate, slept, and breathed ministry. This was the point that I could not imagine my life without church, ministry, and our spiritual parents. This euphoric experience slowly and eventually came to an end. That eventuality abruptly shattered the lives of not only me, but my children and my husband. My husband’s humanity overtook him, and our marriage succumbed to his indiscretions and the people in the church vehemently exposed them. The “church” people seemed to know more about what was going on with my husband than I did. Painfully, so did my spiritual parents. I remember sitting in a meeting with my spiritual parents and the overwhelming feelings of betrayal by them, my husband, and the beloved church. One meeting ended ten years of everything that I had worked for. During this meeting, my spiritual father revealed that he had heard all the rumors and he validated that he knew much of what was alleged concerning my husband was true. Incident after incident of who and what was revealed. After hundreds of weeks of ministering and preaching, it was over. I was shamed into silence. The weight of shame caused my husband to implode and he turned away from his family. Our spiritual father didn’t understand how to restore my husband and I think my husband’s actions embarrassed our leaders. Other leaders of the church were forbidden to reach out to us. They were encouraged not to call us or attend any of my ministry events. It was determined to be divisive if they supported me.