Evangelical Times has posted this article on their website under the title, ‘Should all Steven Lawson’s material be deleted? I don’t think so.’

So, tragically, another prominent Christian preacher has ‘fallen’ and has had to leave his ministry and suddenly internet sites and others are busy erasing every record they can find of his existence. It raises a question for me – should Christians cancel Christians who fall?

Let me state at the outset that the tragedy of Steve Lawson has hit me harder than others who have ended their ministries in disgrace over the years. Though I didn’t know him well, I met him on a few occasions when he visited Scotland and spent time relaxing with him over a few days when he was the main speaker at a conference I organised. I have been richly fed and nourished by his exemplary preaching and teaching ministry.

Let me also stress that in no way am I trying to belittle Lawson’s sin – whatever it was. It was obviously serious enough for those ‘ in the know’ to decide that it disqualified him for pastoral ministry and, from what I have read, his fellow elders have acted promptly and biblically for which they are to be commended. His sin is all the more grievous because, due to his prominence, it has had major reverberations all around the world.

But, having said all of that, I am troubled by the Christian cancel culture that has so quickly swung into operation. It has happened before. I remember when Roy Clements outed himself many years ago, Christian publishers and booksellers couldn’t wait to clear their bookshelves of his works. I saw a sudden increase in the number of his books appearing in charity shops. Today, within hours of the news of Steve Lawson’s dismissal from ministry, his sermons and articles and very name began to disappear from websites and my question is – why?

I completely understand why ministries he was associated with want to disassociate from him because he can no longer work with them, but does his sin, however terrible it was, somehow invalidate everything he has ever said or written? Is what he has said and written over the years suddenly less true today than it was a few days ago? Of course not. While we weep and grieve over the sin, should that stop us from thanking God for, and still benefitting from, all the good that was accomplish over many years of faithful ministry – even if, tragically, some of that was the outward expression of something of a double life?

We all read and quote from writers who we don’t agree with us on the truths of the gospel because, in the providence of God, they can communicate wisdom and, at the end of the day, all truth is God’s truth. Why then do we try and erase from history the truth preached and written by someone who has seriously sinned?

I know that not everyone will agree with me but I for one will continue to listen to Lawson’s great preaching and benefit from his writings, and thank God for his influence on my life, while also earnestly praying for him, for his wife and family and church, that they may all know and experience the amazing grace of God at this desperately painful time.

And one last thought. I am appalled by the tone of much I have read in recent days, written by people who don’t know all the facts, just as I don’t. Steve Lawson may have ‘fallen’ into grievous sin, he may well have disqualified himself from any future pastoral or preaching ministry, but he hasn’t fallen from grace. If he is truly a child of God – and I have no reason to personally doubt that – then he can never fall from grace and my prayer is that through genuine heartfelt repentance he might actually experience depths of God’s grace that he has never known before.