Pastor fail

 

I'm going to say something about a pair of recent falls by Pastors I listened to on the radio and had/have respect for.  No, I'm not going to tell the stories, and I'm not going to identify them.  But I am going to address what we all need to learn, whatever the circumstances.

To we, the people:

First of all- We worship the God, not the man.  To the non-Christian, it is oh so easy to say, "This just goes to prove..."  But all it proves is the lesson every good preacher drills into you from day one:  We are fallen.  We are human.  We mess it up.  God is not tainted by our failings; faith is not rendered impotent when a pastor falls.  If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, that relationship goes on.  So does the pastor's, if he had one in truth.

Second- The victim is not damned for being the victim, for being the one who 'brought him down.'  The victim is the victim, and needs our prayer first and foremost, whether we are praying for, mourning, or damning the pastor.  And the pastor doesn't need damning, mourning, or defending.  He needs help- and for most of us, that means he needs our prayer.

For the pastors out there:

This NEEDS to be a wake up call.  One man at least ended up this way by using the logic Satan used in the Garden.  Confession- but only to the point he could get back on the horse after a time and ride on.   He forgot there are three parts to the testimony:  the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth.

What that means for you, not that pastor, is you'd better examine YOUR closet.  Time grows short, and God is going to allow Satan to expose what we hide.  If you have had to come clean about something, good.  Make sure you tell the whole story.  If you don't, Satan will make sure someone else will.

For the Church elders-

This one group of elders did an investigation when the pastor was hired.  They investigated until they found what they wanted to find, were satisfied, and whipped out the 'approved' stamp.  That doesn't cut it, and now they are having to do a NEW investigation, due to several-decades old "new" information.

Lesson:  Investigate until you hit the TRUTH, whether you want it to be the truth or not.  This group took a man at his somewhat ambiguous word, and now every person who is haunted by having listened to this pastor- every one who bought one of his books- everyone who is doubting their salvation because they were led to it by this man- that is all on THEIR ledger.  And even though it is a different group of men by now on that board, the current board, and the church they run, all bear the taint in the eyes of the world.  Their witness will never be the same.

For that pastor:

I ask you now- you fudged the line between fact and fantasy, because instead of asking GOD whether you should return to ministry, you wanted so bad to get back to "your calling" that you would lie (because that's what it was) to do it.  Look around you at all the people you hurt because not what you did, but what you did ABOUT it.  You've preached David and Bathsheba, you knew it wasn't worth it.  I just hope you have a Nathan to make you see the sin from the outside and make you angry at it, because until you are, your repentance and your "rehab" just isn't worth on of your books in the 'free to good home' bin.