Have you ever had the feeling that your life, what people see, and the reality of your heart are so far apart it is like you are wearing a mask.Chris Archuleta was faking his spirituality as a pastor, so much so, that his family didn’t even know. This went on for years, until through a series of painful events, God helped him take that mask off. He shares with us that painful, but healing process, and how His loving God captured his heart, and restored him back to ministry.Lk 9:23- “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’.”------------------------------------------Topics Shared:LEARNING TO LIVE A DOUBLE LIFEHe thought his ethnicity was ‘christian’Intense Biblical upbringingTraumatic event caused deep hostility as a teenMean kid, who picked on others, fightsGreat academicsLiving a double life, rule following at home trouble at schoolPretending to be perfectHIS MASK COMES OFFChanged at a teen retreatBaseball playerDad started a church, his brother was the youth pastorMaybe I am nextReading for his own, and starting speaking publiclyOut of his comfort zone, classic introvertNervous to speak, hiding his shyness (chewed gum)Compromising his faith in a relationshipLet go as a pastorMarriedFired from a bunch of jobsBecame a phony and a fake as a pastor and worship leaderHis wife didn’t even knowThe spirit had left him and he didn’t even know itCombining church ministry with his family was a train wreckFamily relationships were strainedVULNERABILITY & TRANSFORMATIONParenting changed him, his daughter is his world and his son is his heart.Suicidal low and a call that changed him.The death of a godly man and the birth of another.Vulnerability with a pastor that reached out.The mask comes offRestored as a pastorChris's Podcast:Your Church Friends PodcastChris Quotes:“My marriage, all of the faking and the phoniness, I couldn’t do it and I snapped.We were now arguing all of the time. I couldn’t carry the weight I was carrying. Icouldn’t do the things that I was doing. I couldn’t fake it any more, and I felt that Iwas letting everyone down.”“My prayers in public, you couldn’t tell that I was not praying at all. When I waspraying at churches or leadership meetings, you just couldn’t tell because I hadgotten so good at faking it.And I had gotten really good at burying the feeling of being a phony. And I wasgetting away with it. And that is the part that scared me the most.”“That was probably my biggest mistake in ministry, that I thought I was the guyshouldering everything went into His strengths.God. . I never went into His graceand love to power me through it. II never said. ’God this is your ministry. It wasmine. I personalized it so much, that I never gave it to God. So when it startedcrumbling, it was me. I fell apart. It was my mistake. And then I got angry at God. Ibecame your classic prodigal son older brother. But what about me, and I becamevery angry at God.”“You have to get the mask off, and the easiest way is accountability. God didn’tdesign us to be alone. If you look at animals in nature, the one the lion gets is theanimal that is by itself. The enemy comes after us when we are alone.”“The biggest struggle in the church today is the lack of authenticity. If hypocrisy atits root is a lie, authenticity is the truth. If we were just more truthful at church. Ifwe could just remove the facades of ‘God is good all the time which isn’t a lie, butyeah ‘life sucks, life hurts, I am struggling with this, to find someone to be honestwith, and to be honest with God.”——————————————We would love to hear how the Lord has encouraged you through this story at [email protected] more everyday extraordinary faith stories:We are on Instagram, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, iHeartRadio and all of the places podcasts live. Just type in ‘Letters From Home Podcast’ and scroll down until you see the rainbow.Show Notes & Transcription: https://bit.ly/3SjsaWa

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