So, I just read within the news yesterday about yet one more pastor who has fallen into sin and has been faraway from his church. That makes at the least three over the past month or so. I do know of many more pastors which have in a method or one other, whether it’s due to inappropriate relationships, it’s due to embezzling money, alcoholism, pride, or all types of reasons.
People I do know from a distance have fallen out of their pastoral positions or duties due to sin. It’s really pushed me to begin asking some difficult questions. One particularly is, are there more pastors today who’re dropping out of ministry than ever before? Meaning, is the church in a worse position than it ever has been? Are things happening, possibly even systematically, throughout the local church in America this 12 months that make it worse, a worse situation than it ever has been? I do not exactly know the reply to that.
I can actually have my assumptions and opinions. I do not know what it was like 100 years ago, 500 years ago, or a thousand years ago. All I can do is read history, and there have been some periods that sounded pretty rough. But nevertheless, I began to reflect on these items. I began to reflect on who these pastors are, what situations they were in, what sort of leadership that they had, and what accountability or lack of accountability that they had of their lives. It has brought me to 4 conclusions that I desired to share with you.
4 Insights into the Rising Number of Fallen Pastors
1. The Reality of High Standards
The first conclusion is that a high standard, similar to what we get in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1, a high standard for leadership signifies that fewer people will meet that prime standard. Scripture gives us this concept that regardless that every believer is named to live a certain way, those that are called to set the instance, as Paul tells Timothy, set the instance for the youth, set the instance for the young men or young women which might be under your leadership. If that standard is high, naturally, fewer people inside a congregation or throughout the American church will meet that standard. That also signifies that those that don’t meet that standard, possibly did, but now don’t, will find yourself stepping down. There is that this natural occurrence here, I feel that we see.Â
2. Â A Pastor’s Failure Is More Newsworthy Than Their Success
We know this to be true. Anytime we see a headline a few pastor that is fallen from sin or something tragic that is happened in a church or perhaps a church burns down-those sorts of things are so much more newsworthy. They show up within the headlines and even get clicked on and get likes, thumbs up, and so much more attention. We see tragic stories and problems within the news.
3. We Are All One Bad Decision Away from Destroying Our Lives
I, and I hope you realize you, are only one or two bad decisions away from destroying our lives. It may be very easy for all of us, myself included, to begin pointing our fingers at that pastor and that church leader and that lady that stepped down from ministry or was faraway from ministry, was forced to resign, was fired, all those things due to certain sorts of sin which might be horrific and which might be unrighteous and which have destroyed lives and families. I can not point my fingers at those people and say, well, I’d never ‘fill within the blank’ because here’s what I’ve realized, and call me a fatalist or a pessimist, which I’m really not. I just recognize human nature.
Human nature is that this: left without accountability, left to type of fend for ourselves, other than God’s constant intervention and charm, and other than a lifetime of continual confession and repentance with individuals who know us, you and I are all just a pair of selections away from destroying our own lives. And if we’re in church leadership, we’re destroying our ministry, possibly even our church. That’s all of us. That’s why we want Jesus Christ. That’s why he had to come back and die for our sins and why we want the Holy Spirit to live in us, to empower us to live this Christian life, because we cannot do it alone. Left to ourselves, we will make a large number.
4. Maturity Is Recognizing Your Own Problems
I’d say, just as I take a look at these news articles, and I feel, man, is that this person blaming everybody else, or blaming their system, or blaming their church, or blaming their past, or blaming their spouse? I’ve seen a few of that in their very own statements in a few of these articles or on the news. This leads me to say that some immaturity was never handled here. When I take a look at my very own life, do I play the victim? Am I defending myself when someone accuses me of something? Whether they’re right or incorrect, am I immediately on the defensive? Or am I maturely considering my life and saying, okay, what do they see that I do not see? What spiritual accountability in my life can call me out and call me to repent for some things?Â
5. You Are a Horrible Judge of Your Own Character
You and I, me especially, are really bad judges of our own character. I’m a very bad judge of what is correct and what’s incorrect in my very own life. Again, if left to myself. I would like God and others to pinpoint those things in my life. Well, church leader and Christian friend, here’s what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:12:
“If you think that you might be standing strong, watch out to not fall.”
That’s for me. That’s for you. Friend, let’s stay faithful in our ministry as Christians, as gospel representatives, where we’re light within the darkness.
Let’s stay faithful by recognizing that we’re fallen, that we’re broken, that other than God’s grace, we’re nothing. Apart from assist in our lives, through the Holy Spirit and others, we are going to fall, too. May God bless you.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
