Thursday, September 3, 2009
Former Missoula pastor busted in prostitution sting
Posted by Matthew Frank on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:10 AM
John Kameron Erbele, who for eight years served as a senior pastor at Missoula’s South Hills Evangelical Church (SHEC) and remained involved with the church until just last month, was arrested Tuesday afternoon in St. Paul, Minn., after responding to an online prostitution ad.
Rev. Erbele, 35, serves as the senior pastor at St. Paul's LifePrint Church. He was among 16 "johns" arrested during Tuesday's sting. He gave officers an address in Missoula.
“It’s terrible," SHEC Preaching Pastor John Luhmann tells the Independent. "I don’t have any more information than what’s in the news reports, but when a person’s been in a trusted position of moral authority, as a pastor is, it’s terrible for something like this to happen.”
Erbele was booked on a probable cause charge of soliciting a prostitute, a misdemeanor, and issued a court summons, according to St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell.
"The St. Paul Police Department's vice unit set up a prostitution sting whereby an ad was placed in local newspapers and online locations," Schnell says. "Female decoy officers were then used in an operation where men—prostitution johns—came to a hotel and arranged deals with undercover officers. When the suspects made a sex-for-money transaction or deal, the subjects were arrested. He happened to be arrested during the course of this operation."
Erbele was reportedly released Wednesday morning after posting $500 bail.
Erbele grew up in Missoula and was a long-time member of SHEC before becoming senior pastor, Luhmann says. His father was a SHEC pastor for 26 years, from 1974 to 2000. Erbele worked as a senior pastor from 2000 to 2008. Afterward, he continued to serve SHEC as a "senior visionary officer"—helping in the church's long-term planning—until July. (SHEC listed him on its website as such as recently as August 22.)
"It’s wrong," says Luhman, who besides having worked with Erbele for years is also his brother-in-law. "And something like this disqualifies a person from spiritual leadership.”
LifePrint Church released a statement on its website asking its congregation to “please pray with us for LifePrint Church, the leaders, staff and especially the Erbele Family."
"The recent events have been difficult for everyone," the statement reads. "The leaders of LifePrint Church, along with the conference leaders are meeting, praying and working on the next steps...Our God has birthed a life-giving ministry here in the south metro and we are trusting in Him to continue meeting the needs of hurting people."
The church, launched in April, describes itself as "a place where you can leave your 'church clothes' at home as well as any preconceived notions of what church should be or shouldn’t be. We are real people, addressing real life, real issues, and you will experience real Christianity. We are not after your money nor do we seek after external qualities."
The Independent profiled Erbele in 2002, writing, in part:
Erbele, 28, looks nothing like a traditional pastor. He has pierced ears, a long, blond, shaggy mop, and is only seen wearing a tie if someone’s “getting married or buried.” Looking like a cross between Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Bodhi from Point Break, he seems more like someone you might approach for the chord changes to Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary” or for a dime bag of weed. Erbele definitely can’t help you with the drugs—unless the love of Jesus is the drug you seek—but he does play a wicked guitar at Sunday services.
“I've had better days," Luhmann says, "but God’s good.”
Story updated at 2:20 p.m.
Comments (12)
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I think we should all understand that there are two sides to every story. If we were all perfect people we wouldnt be who we are. If youve never made a mistake in your life you aren't human. No one really knows this story, only what has been writen and exploited in the media. Out of all of the people involved John Erbele is the only one taking the heat??
We should remember these people are members of our community, extraordinary members who if you dont know, have given their all to help and guide others. Now should be a time for prayer and forgivness, not judgment.
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I agree. There are two sides to every story. Those who Know Jesus, Know that we are also forgiven. Would any one of us, want our "sins" made public. It just goes to show that sin is only "fun" for a season, and then we reap the consequences. Sin has a rippling effect, like a stone thrown in the water. God will only let us continue to walk in blatent sin as His child for a season....Their are many beleivers who "sin in secret" and would hate to be "found out", especially if the liberal media was involved!! So, good thing God Is In Control, And God is Good. Everything happens for a reason. And hopefully we all learn from our stupid sinful choices. I know I have!!!
Those who maintain that pastors are people like everyone else would do well to remember that on Sunday morning, and disabuse themselves of the notion that they are bring the "word of God" to the flock. John got caught with a hooker. Is there a tiny chance that he's innocent? Sure. Is there a huge chance that he's not? Yes. If the church spent 1/4 of the time looking rationally at sexuality that it does in cultivating sexual repression, this would be more surprising. How many pastoral sex scandals will it take until we all figure out that sex is a part of life, and that there is something distinctly unnatural about Christian attitudes towards it.
I am not saying that prostitution is a good thing. I am saying that when you're all screwed up with guilt for being a sexual person, and the church's response is to teach you that sex is nearly sacramental, other options are going to push their way into the picture.
No man can judge another mans heart. Only GOD can see. There is a spiritual war going on here people. Erbele was an incredible pastor that GOD had given many gifts and talents to. I am deeply saddened that the enemies schemes have worked. We all face temptations but everyone knows that the more you do for GOD the harder the enemy works to take you down because he knows that many others will fall. We all sin, I am living with and being intimate with my boyfriend and I am a believer, but that was not in the newspaper. Please be compassionate and understanding. The only perfect person was JESUS. We all fail, not that that excuses it, but if anything this only points the way more towards JESUS. We can't live perfectly and we need JESUS everyday. Don't put your trust in man, we all fail and fall short of the glory of GOD.
A "spiritual war" seems like a pretty convenient way to explain away a man getting online, searching for a prostitute, arranging a meeting, driving to a hotel, agreeing to a payment and attempting to pay for sex. Wow. Couldn't be that the dude was soliciting sex online, must've been "the enemy" scheming against him. This isn't a religious issue, this is purely one of basic morality. As in basically, this dude is a pile. Pastor or not. And to radiantrose: you being intimate with your boyfriend isn't illegal- soliciting prostitution is. Dumb.
To fb: I don't know to which church you are referring, but SHEC does not teach that sex is "sacramental". (I think you meant to say sacrilegious.) I've been a member of SHEC for a while now. What the church does teach, is that sex OUTSIDE of marriage is considered immoral. The Bible says as much, which is why the church teaches it.
Sex is a part of life, obviously. But the Bible teaches that sex should be between a man and his wife. You seem to think the church teaches that sex should not be practiced at all, and that is simply untrue.
Besides that fact, Pastor Erbele WAS/IS married, to a beautiful woman, and has beautiful kids. If your rant was based on the premise that the pastor was denied sex, which is why he began looking somewhere else for it, then you are absolutely wrong. His wife and kids should be clues to that.
All his supporters are so amazingly cool with this whole thing. "hey man, people sin. Everybody does it. "
The ridiculous minimizing of this awful smack of hypocrisy, is very curious to me. But maybe it fits right in with his "new approach" to pastoring... A lil sex, a lil rock n roll...
Rather than proclaim him to be a great man raked over the coals by the terrible media, you might want to allow yourself to feel ashamed of him. I certainly am. My heart goes out to his wife and 3 children. His cruising hookers between sermons will be a tough sell.
I'm very surprised to hear about this. I am not a strong believer of any religion but do occasionally go to shec with my family. This pastor was an absolute favorite of mine. He made me feel more for his church than I had ever thought possible. To hear of this immoral act makes me cringe. It also makes me wonder if something happened to make him choose that route.
After John lied to his first congregation in Minnesota, and deceived them into believing he'd left SHEC for a position at Bridgewood; and after he destroyed that church by splitting their congregation and opening a new church in Prior Lake, his obvious "giant" ego has finally gotten the better of him. It's unfortunate that this arrest begins a downward spiral, but sometimes God has to use some pretty rough stones to polish those of us who have lost our way. I'll pray for John, but I'm always praying for the hundreds of people who were deceived by him too.
ONLY THE LORD KNOWS AND SHELL JUDGE..HUMAN CONFLICT IS TRASH BEING CRUMBLED THAN BURNED, JUST THE ASHES ARE LEFT AND THTAS WHAT THE MEDIA IS.
OK, So, I think there is truth to ALL the comments made so far. Where does that leave us? I can relate to all side here, Even John's side. I admit I like high class call girls. So what , They are just trying to earn a living too. I'm not saying its right. The whole reason it is illegal to begin with falls back to religion one way or another. I think it should be legal. They have something I want. I have something they want. If it can be done safely, It should not be illegal.
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