Regarding Sye Ten Bruggencate

 

Three years ago I decided - along with my elders - to use this blog to make a public statement about Sye Ten Bruggencate.  That post (a response to an article published by The Roys Report) was followed up by two subsequent posts.  At the time I  believed this was the right course of action.  I had sought the counsel of my own elders as well as some other men I trusted, and it was our view that public statements needed to be made.  Three years have passed, and for me, at least, a great deal has changed.  I can't speak for the other men involved, but if I were to do it again I certainly wouldn't bring matters like these before the public.  I sincerely regret that decision.  

I have also come to reconsider what I concluded in that third (and last) post.   Writing on behalf of myself and another minister I said, "It is our considered opinion that Sye has permanently disqualified himself from public ministry." That was, indeed, our opinion at the time. Other ministers had looked at the material we had received and they had concluded both that Sye's sin was something more than what he had confessed to and that he was permanently disqualified. While I continue to respect those men and value their counsel, I am now not so sure I could so easily reach the conclusions I did then. I do believe there are some sins that permanently disqualify a man from public ministry. However, I am no longer personally convinced Sye's sin - if sincerely repented of - is permanently disqualifying. On the contrary, I would like to believe that restoration is possible. In hindsight I wish I had not been so quick to pronounce the kind of judgments I did.

I have spoken to Sye and understand that he is now under the care of the pastor and elders at Crossroads Bible Church in Ingersoll.   

- Steve Richardson


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