As somebody who is serving as a pastor, I accept the more stringent standard that is applied to my profession. We shouldn’t commit crimes. We shouldn’t fall prey to sexual desires. We shouldn’t even cuss. Why not? Because, at least theoretically, we are connected to Christ and He has made some progress in transforming us and we have been called by Him to a high office.
If you are bothered by news that a pastor has violated that trust, then consider what I feel about it. When a “brother” pastor, and I use that term loosely, violates that trust, all pastors are demeaned by certain people and Christ is demeaned. People will say, “See, Christianity is false, all Christians are hypocrites, and Christ is a myth.”
Why does it happen? Let’s start with a basic truth. Pastors are still human beings and all human beings have a sinful nature. It would be ideal if Jesus could choose from a class of humans who were completely sanctified and totally separate from sin, but no such human beings exist. He is stuck with using people who hopefully have made some progress in overcoming sinful nature and taking on the character of Christ. Our humaness doesn’t fully explain nor excuse the situation, however.
Lately, two cases of pastoral failure made the national news. One man had been a youth pastor a few decades back. He had started an affair with a teen and knew he couldn’t pursue that relationship when he was married. On a trip to Zion National Park in Utah, they went a particularly rigorous and dangerous trail called Angel’s Landing. People die on this trail every year. Not all of them are pushed. At first, it was considered an accident. But years later the woman who had this affair came forward and told authorities that it was planned. He was an adulterer and a murdered. In prison, this former pastor committed suicide much like Judas.
Multiple factors can create incidents like this. As mentioned pastors are human. Next, some will not necessarily be Christian. You can be what I call a “cultural Christian”. A cultural Christian is someone who likes the environment of the church. Maybe their parents or others encouraged them to church work as a career. They never were reached by Jesus and connected to Him and received the Holy Spirit. A real faith would have made their sin more difficult but not impossible. Add to it that Satan knows that if he can get a pastor to fail miserably, he can destabilize the faith of a whole bunch of people and “poison the well” for those outside of the Church. Of course Satan creates more pressure for pastors, I would in his shoes. Another scenario, as I wrote in my last two articles, is that pastors can fall from faith for the same reasons other people can. They won’t necessarily quit their jobs. So, you can have:
- A human who is genuinely saved who needs forgiveness, but may need to sacrifice his or her role.
- A cultural Christian who is ripe for Satan to use.
- A fallen Christian who also is ripe for Satan to use.
These scenarios explain, but do not excuse, the history of failure for Church leadership. All I can say is don’t hang your faith on any man other than Jesus.
Another situation in the news lately was that of a pastor who was caught on camera beating a man who had been harassing his church members. This man looked like he could have been someone with mental illness. Obviously, Satan can manipulate people so that they can persecute, or in this case, become an annoyance for a church. Never is it alright to respond like an unchanged human being. Unless, you are an unchanged human being. A bad acting pastor is somebody to flee or to fire in many cases. Sometimes you should forgive and give another chance. As a church member, you cannot endorse bad behavior.
God can be shockingly broad with His forgiveness of people in leadership. King David wasn’t a pastor. He was a main leader over the people of God, a prophet at times, and someone whom God said in the end, “was a man after His own heart.” That is a pretty broad endorsement for someone who took Bathsheba as wife and functionally murdered her husband. There were consequences for David’s bad behavior, but God could gauge genuine repentance and offer complete forgiveness.
God offers forgiveness for anything if there is real repentance. Whether a person retains their role is another question that depends on the severity of the sin and whether trust can be reestablished. We cannot let Satan’s job be too easy. Failures of church leadership are always serious and disappointing but they should not be surprising or faith crushing, even if it happens to us. I realize that this is especially difficult if you are someone who was sexually abused by clergy as a child. These sins make me especially irate. Satan loves it. All I can say to someone who was a victim is understand that Satan wants to make you a victim twice. The pastor and Jesus are not synonymous.
Given the difficulties of having a church made out of sinners and led by sinners, should we not abandon this model and live as solo Christians relating only to Jesus? Jesus, compares us to sheep for a reason. Satan finds us to be easy pickings when we are alone. For all the difficulties of a church, the benefits outweigh the risk. Pick a congregation wisely, but pick one. Make sure to never completely trust a person’s mastery of their sinful nature. Keep certain safeguards in place. Most pastors will not fail you in such large ways. Give them some lenience for being a human being and things should be fine.
Giving Christ 