Idaho Pastor Addresses Congregation After Colleague’s Apparent Suicide

Idaho Pastor Addresses Congregation After Colleague’s Apparent Suicide

News Story By Tracy Simmons | FāVS News

On Sunday, Pastor Jim Putman stood behind the same pulpit, where only a week ago his friend Pastor Gene Jacobs preached a message on rebuilding faith. 

Three days after Jacobs’ sermon, he went missing and was later found dead. Initial reports from the Shoshone County Sheriff’s office indicate that the Real Life Ministries Silver Valley pastor died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“What (Gene) did, if true, was wrong and stupid, but it does not discount all that he’s said and done. He’s been used amazingly in this town, in my life, in people’s lives all around this country,” Putman said to the Silver Valley congregation.

The sanctuary was filled to capacity Sunday morning, with people standing in the back. An additional 150 people watched the service online.

Putman, lead pastor of the Real Life Ministries campus in Post Falls, Idaho, said many people, including himself, are trying to make sense of Jacobs’ death.

“It seems to me the enemy has won. It seems like a man’s legacy has been changed. It seems like the truth won’t come out, that’s what it seems like, which could make us angry, rather than trust in God. It could make us somehow step in and be the savior of the situation,” Putman said. “It seems like a war has been lost, rather than just a battle. If it is what appears to be, it seems like that Gene may not have actually believe what he said.”

That’s not true, though, he explained.

He said people, even those others see as heroes, struggle and fail sometimes, referring to the Psalms. The overflowing sanctuary, he noted, is evidence that Jacobs was wrong in thinking the community was better off without him.

“What I wish he would have done is he trusted in God’s understanding of things and that he would have trusted the people around him. He was in a deep hole, if indeed this is what happened. What he would have discovered is that he doesn’t fight alone. The war isn’t lost. It isn’t what it seems. There’s a God who loves him and hears him and sees him,” Putnam said.

He reminded the church that cutting off help from others is “cutting yourself off from the hands of Jesus to you.”

In a YouTube video posted Thursday Putnam and two others from Real Life Ministries told viewers that suicide is not an unforgivable sin, but that Jacob’s death is not permission to follow suit. 

“What Gene did was wrong. It was not God’s will, if it is indeed what happened. He had a choice to go to church and share, or go up that hill, and he chose wrong,” said Bill Krause, Family & Equipping Pastor of the Post Falls campus.

In Ring doorbell footage from the morning Jacobs went missing, it shows Jacobs heading toward a trail he frequently hiked, instead of walking toward church, where he had a scheduled meeting with elders, according to police reports.

Jacobs had served as pastor of the Silver Valley campus since 2007. He leaves behind his wife, Christy, and two grown children. The church launched a fundraiser to help the family, which, as of Sunday, had raised more than $21,000. The goal is to raise $25,000.

Leadership of the church, with help of the Post Falls congregation, is offering support to its congregation through small groups and by keeping the church doors open as much as possible for those who need to stop by.