Last week a colleague forwarded an article to me by Chad Hall titled, “The Affairs of Pastors.” Here are the opening two paragraphs:
This past Sunday the pastor of the church where I came to know Christ resigned after admitting he’d been involved in an extra-marital affair. His wife and children suffer while the members of the church wonder how this could happen again – that’s right, in the past 30 years this church has had three ministry leaders resign because of marital and sexual infidelity.
This church is far from being alone. I can think of very few churches that have escaped such a trauma. Sometimes the affair creates a spectacular end to the pastor’s service, other times it’s quietly the cause of a resignation. However it plays out, it leaves everyone involved hurt and wondering why it happened and how it could have been avoided.
Here’s the link: http://www.transformedblog.com/2013/06/21/the-affairs-of-pastors/
It was especially painful to receive this forward because it originated with a church leader whose church has just been rocked by its pastor’s having an affair with a woman in the church.
Here is my response to the forward – in part:
Thanks for this forward . . . I can attest that in my line of ministry, I see ministries collapse over this issue way too often. I would add one item to the list that the author recommends. That item is accountability. Please hold your pastors accountable on a regular basis, not assuming that they’ve got it all together. In fact, assume they don’t. After all, pastors are people, too. My observation is that church leaders sense that something is out of whack with a pastor long before an issue explodes, but they hesitate to speak up. If you as a leader are sensing that something is wrong, it probably is. Don’t wait for the explosion. All sin is equally grievous, but not all sin has equal consequences. Tell the truth in love early and perhaps the explosion, by the grace of God, can be avoided.
What’s the connection between fallen pastors, or leaders, and the Great Commission Matrix? It’s impossible for a church to be effective in outreach and evangelism when it is reeling from the blow of a pastor’s or key leader’s falling into serious sin. The Domino Effect occurs when the leader falls, rendering the church incapable of kingdom effectiveness. It might be said that the fallen leader is the Anti-Great Commissionist.
Much of our fallenness is our own doing, and I don’t want to make excuses or offer alibis, but another dynamic of this syndrome is that church leaders are primary targets of spiritual warfare. Why? Destroy the Leader = Cripple the Church – again the Domino Effect.
There is no need to be paranoid about this or to give the Devil more credit that he deserves, but the truth is that many churches are made impotent because of fallen leaders. Support these leaders in prayer and hold these leaders accountable. Here’s the Good News:
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4
