Comments on: SBC, Sex-Offenders, & Pastoral Leadership

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:38:20 +0000

I am surprised at how easy it seems for people to become elders or leaders of your churches. I have just enrolled in theological college as an ordinand, and I have gone through an extensive screening process over more than a year to get to this point – psychological exams, medical exams, interviews with myself and my husband, written references from my church leaders, colleagues and friends, as well as Australian police and “working with children” checks.
I guess my question would be if my church can do it, why aren’t other churches?

By: Nathan White

Nathan White — Tue, 01 May 2007 03:01:30 +0000

Reegz,

What a frightening story. Praise God that at least you eventually found! You could have read about it on the news or something, like what happened to Teg Haggard.
Above reproach means just that, above reproach. It is a very serious matter.

SDG

By: Reegz

Reegz — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:49:25 +0000

I found myself in a situation about a year ago. I attended a church for 5 years when the lead pastor left to plant churches in another part of the country. His replacement was a man who had fallen into sexual sin and who my church was replacing our former pastor with which we weren’t informed of right away. I know the bible is clear when it says “above reproach” and I was very upset about the unanimous decision the church was making. This pastor had gone through 18 months of “restoration” and was truly repentant. I think that is awesome he did this and praise God he could be restored to fellowship and his family but NOT to Pastoral leadership. He came from another state and taught us for a year and a half before he was being “voted” on to our pastoral team. The night of the vote he revealed that he had “broken his marriage covenant” a couple of years ago. I wanted to disappear right then and there. I felt betrayed, lied to, and like the elders did something behind the back of the congregation. Being a pastor is a VERY high calling. When you fall you can no longer be above reproach. It’s impossible. You are disqualified because what Gods Word demands of you as a pastor- you forfeited.

By: tim

tim — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:37:43 +0000

You know, these are serious issues and I find some hope in the fact that God is raising up young men who take serious the role of leadership in the church and desire to honor God in this area. The one thing that must be kept in mind is this: No other man can actually keep another man accountable. My point is this: If a man is doing these things, they are usually private and thus, God will have to reveal them. They are not going to come out in an accountability session. Nathan, you make an excellent point to watch for other areas where things may arise. However, one thing that should be of great encouragement is if something is seen and the man confronted, if he humble and repentant. If he is, then I think that is the mark of a true believer and maybe even a great leader. For in teaching others to repent, we must be willing to repent ourselves.

With that said, sexual sin always carries a stigma with it. A man seems to never rid himself of it. Therefore, if a man is a believer and falls into such, it seems that he will never be above reproach again, though he may truly be repentant.

By: Jay Z

Jay Z — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 11:30:47 +0000

I am a bit relieved to know that these 6 men in the “minister search” are not ‘availble for pastorship’. It disturbed me the most to imagine them being called on at any moment to fill a pastor spot. One relief among many question.

Its a start.

By: Nathan White

Nathan White — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:34:23 +0000

I also posted this article on Strange BaptistFire, located here. In that post, Timmy Brister commented and said that a resolution is being drafted to submitted at then annual SBC meeting in San Antonio this year. You can read the details of this resolution in his comment, here. To which I replied:

Timmy, thanks for the update on that. I certainly applaud this resolution, and I pray that it goes through.

However, I do have to question whether a resolution will fix the problem. Specifically, I see this as a fruit of the �CEO� type of leadership, where one man is given free reign, and the nelgect for the scriptural blueprint for church government (elder-rule). In addition to this, the emphasis on numbers, growth, popularity, etc., causes people to promote spiritually unqualified men to leadership.

One example in the 20/20 report was an SBC pastor who had a church building named after him, an assortment of other accolades, and had even received a $50,000 �love offering� gift from his church for his retirement. When men are lifted up in these ways, what do we expect to happen? It doesn�t matter who he is or what he has done in the past, this is a recipe for disastor.

This will continue to be a problem until the elder-rule, biblically-qualified, scriptural blueprint for church government is embraced. The only way to slow these types of sexual sins (in this digital age) is to surround each man with others who are equal in their authority, who can rebuke each other and take away the right to ministry, and who will hold each other accountable. We should be working towards this.

By: Nathan White

Nathan White — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:30:00 +0000

Jon,
You raise some good points. Things that I have been thinking about, and purposely left out of my post b/c I’m not sure of the answer. For example, can Teg Haggard be restored to leadership? What about a sex offender, maybe even a pedophile, who committed these acts before he was a believer? I must admit, I’m not sure I have the right answer to these questions.

Regarding the 6 men mentioned, they are all in jail right now either awaiting trial, or serving their sentences. I believe each one of them held a pastoral position when the offense was committed.

BUT, the thing is, this is just the 6 who got caught. NO DOUBT that there are many, many more who haven’t gotten caught, haven’t yet committed a criminal act, or who are just waiting for the right opportunity.

I posted this same article on Strange BaptistFire, and I exchanged a few words with Timmy Brister (as student at Southern Seminary and a good personal friend) on this issue. I am going to post those comments below, check them out.

By: Jay Z

Jay Z — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:13:53 +0000

This is the one topic that brings out the worst feelings of anger and hatred, that I must repent of. The topic of sexual sin with children, as well as forced sexual abuse, is repulsive.

I was reading through 1Tim 3 and Titus 1, in light of the ABC transcript, to remind myself and re-think about the qualifications of elders. The first question that came to mind was can a minister (elder) be restored to ‘qualified’ after one of these such experiences?

I wich I could know the story of these 6 sexual convicts to understand the context of the story. Were these men who were saved at 23 in prison after convicted of rape of a 17 year old girl they got mixed up in? Were they ministers who did some of the horrific things described in the ABC report? I would only want to know that to try and answer the question above.