Alfred Willis Blames "Woman Who Messed Up the Pastor" for Pastor Running Off

In the sermon Living With a Secret, delivered at Bibleway Baptist Church, Boone, NC, Alfred Willis talks about a pastor who ran off with a woman and blames her for "messing up the pastor and the church."
Original sermon link: • Living with a Secret -...
There is so much that can be said about this video, from the admission that he refused to believe that his pastor was having an affair, to his rebuke of those who forsook the adulterous pastor, to his blaming the woman for the whole thing. Nowhere does he give any inkling that he lays any blame on the pastor for his actions. Typical IFB woman shaming and deflecting away from the guilty party, the adulterous pastor.

[@IFBPreachers]

There is so much going on in this video. From railing on those who spoke the truth about the pastor's affair, to lifting himself up for "standing with the pastor," to blaming the woman for "messing up the pastor" and destroying the church. But nowhere do you hear him say the pastor was wrong. You hear him say the pastor ran off and forsook the church, but no, "The pastor fell. The pastor sinned. The pastor couldn't control his lust." I won't say the woman was a victim or that her intentions were innocent, because I don't know what her intentions were. But I do know this. When it comes to consenting adults, it takes two. I think John 8 has something to say about the woman who was "caught in adultery." Funny how it was the woman they blamed. If she was caught in adultery, there should have been a man as well.

[@dailydoseofthescriptures]

SIR YOU NEED TO REPENT AND GET YOURSELF RIGHT BEFORE TRYING TO KNITPICK THESE GREAT MEN OF GOD. BROTHER WILLIS IS ONE OF THE BEST. REPENT.

[@dustinbrinkerhoff3745]

If you're in a movement where every pastor you spent time with was committing adultery, you need to find a different movement

[@TheProverbsmom]

Astounding admissions from the "man of god." I completely agree, it takes two to tango. So, inquiring minds wonder if "every Pastor" with whom this preacher had to do, ran off with some woman, if this preacher also found the same "trouble" for all of his elbow digging wife's perceptions. Bad company corrupts good morals, and sadly, these "men of god" keep the worst company, and affirm those that do wickedly. If any of these men actually believed in hellfire and damnation, they would seek to bring an erring sinner to repentance, not stand by him. ( For the record, a degree from an approved Bible college like Hyles and soul winning are no substitution for repentance and faith.) This clip is absolutely AMAZING. What a find!

[@thefluffykirbyprincess6307]

Every pastor he got tied up with had an affair????? See this is why I can't take the IFBC seriously. The Bibles says by your fruits you shall know them because a good tree can not bear rotten fruit and vise versa.

[@Mike_saved]

Just wait till you hear of the catholic church

[@Faith_Alone_in_Christ_Alone]

Their fruits are not the actions they take but the words they speak. Jesus is talking about what false prophets profess. Anyone that says that anything aside from faith ALONE in Christ ALONE is a false prophet. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGSxYoOdeJWEjLs God Bless You!

[@beenballinsince9488]

By your fruits you shall know them is referring to false prophets not being able to bring forth good fruit meaning they can’t get someone saved

[@OnAWireStudios]

Oh my word... How on earth do people endure this every Sunday? I get exhausted just listening to this.

[@princybella5386]

Remember GOD holds Pastors to a higher standard For unto whomsoever much is given,of him shall be much required Luke 12:48

[@JunktionJack]

I’m a born again believer that grew up in KJV-only IFB and thank the good Lord I didn’t run away from the church altogether. From the age that I had the ability to decide what church I attended I’ve migrated away from IFB. Most of my friends from youth sadly have either left the church altogether or committed suicide out of desperation. The IFB has done so much damage. It’s not exclusive to the IFB, but it is definitely a well developed pattern. Maybe it didn’t start out this way but in my youth it was absolutely a cult of personality, and those persons being the “senior pastor” and “famous” itinerant evangelists/revivalists they associated with. Their boasting was in numbers “saved” in fast paced high pressure door-to-door “soul winning.” In hindsight, it was like they all took a course in southern used car salesmanship, and there was a particular style of delivery and jargon you came to expect when they got all wound up. And there’s a certain kind of people, generally a minority, that this resonates with. Because it is a minority and a fabricated form of peculiar, they use that as proof they are preaching the exclusive “straight and narrow” Gospel. I long for simple Gospel-centered church without the baggage of the nonsense that has permeated the remnant of the church in America that still claims to be Bible believing.

[@debbiebrown4420]

He speaks as if the man didn't bear any responsibility at all for what happened. Does he think the woman messed him just by simply walking in? If men were no more capable of self-control than that, God wouldn't proclaimed pastoring a ⛪ a man's job. Of course, scripture does specify a number of qualifications a man must have before he can pastor a ⛪. So, obviously it isn't for just any man. I question that preacher's qualifications. Preachers aren't supposed to railers, and they're supposed to speak up when someone, male or female, does something awful. It sounds like he blames everything on the woman and lets the man off the hook even if his guilt is obvious. Those people in the congregation that were vocally agreeing with him were showing their ignorance.

[@elijahshirk8803]

I don’t really know you…. But I am also IFB…. Yet, I also have seen there are some major issues going on in our denomination….. I’m currently studying to prepare for ministry, I’ve got a wife, and a newborn baby…. One of the biggest things, as you’ve said in your bio…. Is opinionated preaching makes up a big portion of IFB…. It’s true….. I’m praying the Lord will help to me still be salt amongst the brethren that attend church with me, and that maybe even through preaching I’ll be able by God’s grace to clarify some of these major issues that have confused so many people. I’ve held Bible studies with numerous people from outside of the church, and I can’t help but feel stressed because half of the time I know that if I invite someone from outside the church…. Something is likely going to happen that’s overly critical that’ll lead them to think everyone in the church is that way…. There is just such a rampant hypocrisy and blindness in the IFB right now…. My dad got caught up in the Gothard crowd…. My family broke into pieces…. My brother and I only have our individual faith to hold onto right now, and my sister has completely walked away entirely (she hates church from what she’s experienced)….. I hope by God’s grace more people will wake up to what is going on…. And, hopefully, we can still hold onto the fundamentals of the faith and quit arguing over suits and ties. My wife’s own family recently was kicked out of an IFB church because the pastor framed them and then told the church they were doing things they weren’t. I know them very well enough…. The pastor just didn’t like them calling him out on some of his foolish decisions and the fact his children were living in wickedness and he refused to do anything about it….. The IFB is definitely damaged because of bad people…. But there are people trying to serve the Lord amongst this nonsense.

[@elijahshirk8803]

@@QuietlyContemplating that’s definitely apart of the problem I’m sure. But, it’s not the entirety of the problem. Paul dealt with false teachers confusing the brethren, and really…. I think there are just a lot of confused people in the IFB. A lot of times people get saved, and they want to do the right thing…. Sometimes they are zealous, and their desire to be something for the Lord can lack humility, and in turn, it also leads them to jump on bandwagons and to try and be the exact opposite of the evil they see in their day….. Paul talks about those who are “weak in the faith” as being those who didn’t eat meats, and only ate herbs. The idea understood there is they didn’t understand the liberty Christians have in Christ and how really that liberty allows them to live much more devoted to Christ internally. A lot of the early Jewish Christians still celebrated the sabbath and many other traditions which the elders held to (Jewish elders). But…. That didn’t mean they weren’t born again, it just meant they were theologically confused and didn’t understand some things. There were some circumstances, such as the Galatians, where there were some who believed you had to be circumcised to be saved, and obviously, that would reveal a lack of apprehension of the gospel on both the part of those teaching and those who believed it. But…. There were some who simply didn’t understand they were strictly bound by the Mosaic covenant, and they failed to realize too that Christians are not BOUND by traditions. These are simply things that need to be clarified in MANY churches, not even just the IFB…. I know southern Baptists who are persuaded Sunday is the sabbath and that we keep the sabbath through meeting every Sunday… but this is a lack of rightly dividing the scriptures. That is what ultimately has led to the majority of the problems in the IFB, a lack of rightly dividing the scriptures, and genuine false teachers in the ranks who are not born again. But we cannot outright say every one in the IFB is not saved….. I wouldn’t say that about most denominations except for the Catholic Church….. but, I’m sure even then there may be some who call themselves Catholic that don’t hold to the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church (but, this is hard for me to imagine being I’ve never met a Catholic as such).

[@IFBPreachers]

Very well said. You sound like you are in a similar situation that we have been in. There is so much that we hold dear, yet we see insanity in churches where we have been involved in the past. We were at a church where I honestly reached a point I no longer wanted to invite people because I didn't know what the pastor would say or do. I agree that bad bible interpretation leads to bad theology which leads to bad behavior. And then there is just downright bad behavior that is glossed over by the people in the pew, often out of fear of saying anything. There is a social price to pay for those who would stand up and say that something is not right. And you are correct, there is a lot of hypocrisy, both in the pulpit and the pew. We've seen so much over the years, from the pastor who acts as though the rules he creates don't apply to him or can be arbitrarily changed at his whim to his benefit to the person in the pew who dresses and acts one way in the church house and another way outside the church house. That's not to even mention what I call the "perjury papers," what some preachers call "worker's agreements," the list of rules that people have to sign off on to work in the church that they know they aren't going to keep. It can be very discouraging. One of the important things that's helped me is the fact that I was rooted in my faith before I was involved with some of the more extreme elements of the IFB. I was saved at 14, and wasn't introduced to the more extreme elements until I was 16. I surrendered to preach under the preaching of Jack Schaap at a youth conference and attended and eventually graduated form Hyles-Anderson College. But it was a very different culture than what I grew up in. I can say that Hyles-Anderson and First Baptist Church were also different when I went to college than what I thought it was. After I surrendered to preach, my only contact with Hyles-Anderson College outside of the one youth conference was to listen to tapes of Jack Hyles from the church library that were dated from the '80s. Listening to some of those sermons and then listening to what he preached in the '90s, there was a difference. But I digress. I will certainly be praying for you. I do hope for the best for you all. It is very difficult to be in a culture where you find yourself at odds. I know the Lord knows exactly where you need to be. We left a church in a similar situation, but I think sometimes we may have moved in a bit of a wrong direction simply because we wanted to get out of where we were. That's one of the most difficult things is discerning the Lord's leading when we feel out of place. May God bless your direction and your decisions.

[@DrGero15]

@@IFBPreachers Do you still preach today?

[@IFBPreachers]

@@DrGero15 I have taken a step back from that for the time, seeking the Lord's will in what He would have me do. I surrendered to preach under a very emotionally driven service led by Jack Schaap, so I want to take the time to really understand what God wants before moving forward with anything.

[@DrGero15]

@@IFBPreachers Do you have any sermons available anywhere?

[@JR-my6bc]

Here’s always a good tip: count how many times he says “I”. Tells you all you need to know.

[@GitzenShiggles]

Zero accountability as usual.

[@preachersdayoff]

I found myself distracted by that amazing head of grey hair on the front row. Is it Samuel Adams, George Whitefield, or the Quaker Oats guy?

[@IFBPreachers]

😂😂😂

[@andrewash7249]

The gray hair on the front ought to humble you that some seasoned saints are in church and serving the Great Almighty God and my Savior Jesus Christ the RIGHTEOUS!

[@preachersdayoff]

@@andrewash7249 You're right, I should've known. He's Lord Cornwallace isn't he?

[@user-uk7nn6yg8p]

He preached at my church before. He really nice

[@abrahamkline8812]

I generally like Bro Willis. As far as presching a good Gospel message, i don't have a problem with him. I don't know what he means by still standing with the preacher. If he means restoring him to fellowship with humility like the Bible says, i can understand that. If he means thinking he is a blameless victim and should still be preaching, he's wrong. But to not want to do the same for the woman,i don't understand. Regardless of who initiated the affair, he still has atonomy over his actions. You can't tell people that you're the one everyone should get guidance from if you also think that you are powerless to the whims of any temptations that come your way

[@Mike_saved]

Both parties are guilty, OP, the woman and the pastor. She isn't some innocent woman who was taken advantage of, she's a homewrecking harlot, as the preacher is an adulterer. Go read the book of duetoronomy if you have any confusion on that.

[@IFBPreachers]

Which is what I said in my original comment. I wouldnt say she was innocent nor a victim. It takes two.

[@andrewash7249]

You ought to post the whole message maybe and let the true context of the scripture and what the man of God has said speak!

[@IFBPreachers]

There is always a link to the full message in the description of every video, if the sermon exists online. Anyone can freely listen to the entirety of that message. When and if you do, please come back and let everyone know what the context of those words were, even though that is what he had to say about the situation. You will find he says nothing about the pastor sinning or doing anything wrong. If you find elsewise, let me know.

[@IFBPreachers]

You also will find that when I post clips, quite a number of the sermons are removed by whomever posted them, which leads me to believe that there is nothing taken out of context.

[@Athabrose]

“man of God” 😂

[@philliprouse9644]

​@@IFBPreachersAre you a recovering fundamentist?

[@anewcreature7]

You’re brainwashed by man’s false teachings if you call this man or any man up on a pulpit ‘the man of God’. Most of the time, it’s them themselves, self proclaiming to be ‘the man of God’ and the people just eat it up. I mean, this guy blamed a woman for the downfall of a ‘pastor’. What he’s not responsible at all? No, self control? I thought he’s a ‘man of God’? Those who calls themselves ‘pastor’ or ‘preacher’ is not ‘the man of God’, don’t compare them to the likes of those men who were actually chosen/anointed by God in the Bible.