A pastor/minister morally fails. People are devastated, hurt, confused, angry, sad and their faith is shaken. The church is thrown into turmoil. This appears to be happening more frequently in our present time.
Are there signs we can watch for, that something is seriously wrong in the life of a minister? We continually see headlines of ministers and church leaders committing sex crimes as well as other criminal activity. They involve various groups across denominational boundaries.
For instance, it was reported that this is what Edwin Young, a Oneness Pentecostal minister, did for years and years. If similar things happened in a healthy church, the pastor’s wrong behavior would have been addressed when it happened or soon after. But at this church, it wasn’t. It was tolerated, allowed, and even thought to be proper conduct. Many ‘amened’ and cheered him on when he did these things. It isn’t proper behavior. It is far, far from how a minister is to act.
This is a huge problem in unhealthy churches and is often a gradual process. When it gets to this point, the people have been conditioned through previous teachings and incidents, to accept what is happening. The pastor is ‘the man of God.’ You don’t ‘touch God’s anointed.’ The pastor ‘watches for your soul and has to give account of you.’ The pastor knows more than you and what is best. If the pastor is wrong, all we can do is ‘pray about it and let God correct him.’ So when people have this type of mindset, it opens the door for abuse and other wrong actions.
Learn how a pastor is supposed to be. Go to your Bible and search this out. A main characteristic of a minister is they are not to be lords over people, but rather they are to have the heart of a servant. A servant doesn’t call the women in the church heifers. A servant doesn’t point people out in service and berate them and tear them to shreds. A servant doesn’t make up lies and call people who leave the church homosexuals or fornicators or drug addicts. This is NOT what a real minister does. This is NOT what one who is acting through love does.
It is no surprise to me when pastors such as the one referenced have fallen. Too often those who teach and do things without love as the motivating factor, have something in their life that they are hiding. It is interesting that when they are caught and exposed, they don’t want the same treatment they gave many others who did far less than themselves.
First of all ministers aren’t necessarily pastors. Pastors are overseers. Ministers preach the gospel. Ministers don’t have any family or age qualifications. Ministers can serve as single individuals without children. Pastors are required to the husband of one wife, have faithful children, along with out qualifications outlined in Titus 1 and I Tim 3.
Every congregation should have two or more pastors. They are the ones charged with watching for your souls. The minister has no such charge.
Most of these churches are structured wrong. Everything centers around the minister. When he goes bad, there is nothing in place to right the ship. That’s not how God structured His church. Experienced men, pastors, are supposed do whatever they need to do to protect the flock, including finding another minister to preach the Gospel correctly if necessary.
Only thing that concerns me about Douglas’s comment is the notion that there ought to be one “minister” to “preach the Gospel”. That can be found nowhere in the New Testament. There might be any number of people who have a word from God, who have the ability given by God to teach, and many times people who may not specifically possess that particular gift may nonetheless have much to offer in terms of teaching and wisdom. Any time it boils down to one person as the teacher, you’re almost invariably going to have problems.
We live in an age where every believer is a priest and we have one high priest, Jesus. So why do we want to keep propping up single men in Jesus’ place and putting them on platforms under spotlights? Because we’re fools and not really seeking Jesus, just flash and personality and great men. So naturally, we get what we ask for.
Any decent person with genuine integrity and the insight the Holy Spirit gives a true servant leader wouldn’t want anything to do with being the single go-to person in a fellowship for teaching. So what is left are the blinded and the abusers, the only ones willing to take such an unbiblical office. You simply can not look at the New Testament and Paul’s talk about the importance of every member of the Body and come to the conclusion that in a normal fellowship with mature believers that one person ought to be the church’s guide for wisdom and what the Bible teaches, that one person’s lead ought to be followed.
As a result, a huge percentage of those who do think they’re qualified for such a position of go-to guy in the church are not only not a go-to guy, but a full blown wolf. We are getting what we ask for today in many churches: a sociopath in the pulpit who cares about neither people nor God, who only wants to abuse and have free reign to hurt those who follow Jesus.
Just being brief but here is something..see
State v Milhoan MT 1986