Thief Forgiven

This article made me think of how much we have sinned against a holy and righteous God and our deepest need is His forgiveness. Today is the day of salvation, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Faithfully Forgiven: Convicted thief rejoins church he hurt
Charles Lohn was a thief and a liar.

More than two years ago, the youth pastor at Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church was convicted of embezzling more than $75,000 from church funds over a three-year period. The case was widely reported in local and national media.

Lohn served a nine-month sentence, three months of house arrest and is now completing the remainder of a 10-year probation.

Restoration

This morning, he will stand before the congregation of the church he stole from, be transparent about his actions and motives, and ask for forgiveness from those he hurt directly. He will then be reinstated to membership in the church he's been associated with for a dozen years.

His relationship with senior pastor Jonathan Sims goes back much further than that.

"Charles and I have been together for 19 years," Sims said in an interview this week.

Sims met Lohn, then a young man just out of high school, while still in seminary. Lohn attended the first church Sims pastored in Texas, then followed him to a church in Talladega, Ala., where he would serve on the staff for six years. When Sims moved to Shelbyville, Lohn followed.

Sims had watched the young man grow up, had been a friend and counselor, had christened each of the four children born to Charles and Misty Lohn.

Shocking news

It was July 2009. Sims was a few days into a vacation with his family in Orlando, Fla. David Brown, associate pastor, was on vacation at home when the chairman of deacons of the church called his home.

"We don't have any money in the bank."

Not possible, Brown countered, ticking off assets and accounts which came to mind.

The two met at the church office and began to review bank statements. It didn't take long to figure out the discrepancy, to begin to understand what seemed impossible to believe.

"This is Charles. I trust him with my life," Brown said of his initial reaction. "There's got to be a more reasonable explanation."

Over a long period of time, Lohn had been embezzling from the church by taking cash and writing additional payroll checks to himself.

"I had ... thought that it would be alright to 'borrow' some money and pay it back at a later date," Lohn said. "This began to grow into taking more money. Although I told myself I would pay it back, deep down I knew that I could not."

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