This is a bit raw for me still this morning, and I'm trying my best to keep a check on my emotions.
Good luck with that, Heath.
Sunday I preached a sermon on "The God of 2nd Chances" from Acts 15. I demonstrated through the life of John Mark that a past failure doesn't indicate a pointless future.
And then I read Monday morning of Tullian Tchividjian, a mega-church pastor in Ft. Lauderdale who just resigned from his church due to an affair. It was barely a year ago that another mega-church pastor in Ft. Lauderdale had to resign his church for the very same reason.
Ft. Lauderdale just got harder to reach for Jesus.
So what do we do with these pastors and others like them? Don't they deserve a second chance just like the man or woman in their congregation who committed the same sin?
As a person, yes.
As a pastor, no.
John MacArthur recalls the story of a pastor who made national headlines after being caught in an adulterous affair. After a year of counseling and restoration, the church had a recommissioning service to welcome him back to public ministry in their church. They wanted to show the forgiveness of Jesus, but in doing so, they are enabling that man to make the same mistakes as before.
Pastors can be restored, but the idea of restoration needs to be adjusted. They don't need restored to leadership, but to a closeness with Jesus (both of the Ft. Lauderdale churches are doing this openly). They need to be restored to their wives, their children, and their friends.
Leadership is a privilege, not a right, and the man who has chosen sex, money, or power over the righteousness of Christ has lost that privilege. Once restored, he can be useful to the kingdom in a number of ways, but public pastoral ministry shouldn't be one of them.
So whether a pastor or church member, pray for and encourage the pastors you know as they face temptations around every corner.
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