Thoughts on the Chi Alpha Sex Abuse Scandal

Part 2: Pruning Bears Much Fruit

A couple weeks ago, I published a series examining a conflict between the apostles Peter and Paul, and what it teaches us about the public rebuke of Christian leaders. The study was inspired by my own pondering about how public rebuke might have prevented years of sexual abuse in certain Chi Alpha college campus ministries in Texas. Last week I started a new series with my thoughts on the Chi Alpha sex abuse scandal. If you don’t know much about it, please refer to Part One as this post doesn’t stand alone.¹

It’s still mid-April, 2022, a week in which I had three intense dreams. Here is the third and final dream that week—a sequel, so to speak, to the dream I shared in last Friday’s post.

I am standing on a gorgeous well-manicured green lawn resembling the grounds around the Old Capitol building at the University of Iowa, my alma mater.² Here, I am talking to Q.³ At this point [in the timeline of my dream—not in real life], the abuse/scandal I saw in my previous dream has been revealed, and the Executive Presbytery (EP) of the Assemblies of God (AG) is deliberating on the grassy lawn of a college campus: what will their response be?

Q tells me they trust the EP will make a good decision about “who could preach.” In the AG, we call one of our ministerial credentials a “license to preach.” I know that Q means that the EP was in the process of deciding who would undergo discipline and have their credentials revoked because of the abuse that had come to light.

But I’m concerned the discipline will not go far enough or that removal of these ministers will be only temporary. Surely, I hope, whoever has done the abusing would not be able to continue on in ministry—ever. But Q and the EP are distressed over the idea that some of these ministers might never preach again, that their credentialed ministry could be terminated.

It is a sunny spring day, and Q steps away from me for a moment and goes to speak to a colleague about the situation she and I have just been discussing. In the shade of a hundred-year-old tree, the colleague tells Q that, in their opinion, what needs to happen within the organization is “pruning” in order for the AG to be more fruitful and healthy again.

When Q hears the word “pruning,” their face fills with wonder because they have heard something somewhere about pruning before. In fact, Q thinks they remember hearing that “pruning bears much fruit,” but Q isn’t totally sure if this is a trustworthy metaphor for church discipline.

At this very moment, Q spots the groundskeeper of the institution working near the foot of a tree, tending to it, and Q runs up to him and asks, “Is it true that pruning bears much fruit?”

“Yes,” the groundskeeper says. “It is.”

At this, Q begins to rejoice openly, to the point of weeping with joy that there could be much good fruit in the lives not only of individuals but also within the entire AG if this pruning could occur.

Then, the scene shifted and I am at a home with Q and her colleagues, who are eating dinner around the table. Q however, is still weeping with joy and relief. As the dream is wrapping up, Q remembers that their own “father” (who is in heaven) had been a gardener (one who prunes!), and Q’s thoughts are turned toward him with love and relief.

End scene. End dream.

If you are in any way familiar with the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of John chapter 15, then the metaphors from my dream are probably screaming at you.

“My father is the gardener,” Jesus says (v. 2). “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

The “vine” is an Old Testament metaphor often used for the nation of Israel. Various prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) employed the metaphor as a means to describe God as a gardener/vinedresser/caretaker of Israel, desiring it to be abundantly fruitful. Marianne Meye Thompson writes, “Jeremiah speaks of a vine that had born fruit ‘in all truthfulness’ but had subsequently become degenerate and was in need of washing.”⁴ Ezekiel portrays lopped-of branches that are discarded and burned in order to encourage the vine’s fruitfulness (15:4).

Scripture consistently speaks of God’s desire to restore the vine and its fruitfulness once again. And Jesus, in John 15, plucks this metaphor from the Hebrew scriptures and uses it in his discourse to the disciples. To describe the vine’s pruning, John’s Jesus uses a Greek word that can also be translated as cleanse, which offers us a nuanced way to think about pruning as purifying as well as a cutting off.

Thirteen months after my series of dreams, in May of 2023, news of the Chi Alpha sex abuse scandal became public. While the Assemblies of God boasts of a rich pentecostal history filled with faithful and integrous people, it is clear to me (and many others) that our “vine” has been sullied by the heinous acts of some of our ministers as well as by the ways in which district office and national office systems of governance interfaced so as to make it possible for a convicted sex offender to continue working with students.

While the sexually abusive behavior of Chi Alpha ministers should be unequivocally condemned, this Substack series is not meant as an indictment of any one leader who knew Savala volunteered in Chi Alpha ministries (but did not know that abuse was occurring). For one, I am not qualified to appropriate blame. I haven’t been part of any investigations; I do not know enough about behind-closed-doors conversations, directives from supervisors, advice from legal counsel, or other pressures that may have informed the actions that were or were not taken at any given point in time. (Although I hope, by now, hindsight has provided perfect clarity about what should have happened.)

If I’m indicting anything, it’s a system that lacks clarity, as well as a ministerial culture that sometimes ranks departmental, district, and ministerial autonomy above accountability.

I see how the world looks at us in light of this scandal. They see so clearly what we all need to see: For the sake of the gospel and the world, our fellowship should embrace an opportunity to be pruned.

I’ll have more thoughts about this in Part 3. Subscribe below for delivery direct to your inbox.

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Thanks for reading. I’m a book-obsessed pastor, seminarian, podcaster, and author. For essays and podcasts that come straight to your inbox, subscribe to this Dear Exiles newsletter in the subscription box above. Fun fact: I’m also the author of Dear Boy:, An Epistolary Memoir and the host of the Your Pastor Reads Books podcast.

1. You can find a repository of information, first-hand accounts, articles, and resources for victims of abuse at this site. Account creation is required.

2. This detail matters to me only because the abuse revealed 13 months later took place through college campus ministries.

3. A member of the Assembly of God’s Executive Presbytery (board of directors). Q did not ask to be in my dreams, so I am keeping their identity private. I’m sure you understand.

4. Thompson, Marianne Meye. John: A Commentary. The New Testament Library. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.