Skip to main content

If We Don't Treat it Seriously, Who Will?

Lifeway Research conducted a survey of 1000 pastors concerning the issue of pastoral sexual misconduct.  Of those surveyed, only 24% supported a life-time ban on pastoral ministry for those caught in adultery.  A further 25% of pastors weren't sure.  The staggering statistic, however, was the fact that 31% of senior pastors surveyed believed that an adulterous pastor should only be required to step down from pastoral ministry for three months to a year. 

Is three months to a year sufficient time to deal with the damage of adultery?  What kind of reputation for integrity can be established in a failed pastor's life in under a year? 

What hope is there for marriage in society when the leadership of the Christian church is so anemic on the issue of adultery?

It is not an affair. . . it is adultery.
It is not an indiscretion . . . it is a gross betrayal.
It is not a misdemeanour . . . it is a flagrant violation of the faithfulness of our God.

Marriage is a picture of the covenant relationship between Christ and his church.  If the under-shepherds of Christ are so wishy-washy about faithfulness in their own covenant relationships, how will we ever be able to proclaim the faithfulness of Christ to his people?

Find the survey HERE.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oops!

I can be a real klutz.  I have very few manual skills and I never grew out of the "tripping over my own feet" stage of life.  I have fumbled and dropped more than my fair share of balls. In other words, "oops" has been a regular part of my vocabulary. It is not only in the physical world that I have fumbled things.  I have messed up relationships.  I have prejudged people before ever getting to know them.  I have used and abused those who love me most in this world.  I have failed and sinned my way into more than one tight corner and created untold disasters.  Oops is not even sufficient for the ways that I have blown it. Perhaps that is why something Paul, our worship leader last Sunday, said resonated so deeply with me this week.  He said "Oops is never said in heaven."  Our God never is clumsy.  He never makes mistakes. His plans never go belly-up.  He never fails.  He never ever has to say oops - and that comforts me.
Post a Comment
Read more

The walking, talking providence of God

Today I met a man in Israel I will never forget.  Fifteen years ago he was voting in a primary for candidates of the Likud party.  At the polling station, two Palestinian terrorists burst in upon the crowd who were choosing their candidate for the next election.  They sprayed the crowd with automatic gunfire.  Seven people fell to the floor, wounded by the barrage.  The terrorists moved among the fallen, stopping to shoot each one between the eyes to make sure that they were dead.  Six people died that day.  Today I met the seventh. He was wounded four times in the initial burst of gunfire - once in each leg, once in the arm and once in the side.  The terrorists then put a gun two feet from his face and put a bullet between his eyebrows.  I saw the deep scar with my own eyes.  The next year he spent in a coma. Today I met him at the little restaurant he owns outside the gates of the ancient ruins of Beth She'an.  He stood in f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Families' Fridays

From Focus on the Family 10 helpful tips for single parents Imagine this: you’re the sole parent for your children. You get them up, get them fed and send them to school. You do the housework, maybe you go to work yourself, you get home and you’re still the only adult there. There’s no one to relieve you. No one to pass the baton to while you take a shower or take a few minutes for yourself. You make dinner and gather the family around the table to eat. You play with them, read to them, give them baths, get them to bed and there’s no one there to sit with and process your day. There’s no one there to laugh with you or pray with you. Instead you keep working. You clean up the house again. You pack lunches for the next day. And you eventually crash into bed, knowing you’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow. For many, this is not an imagined scenario. When you parent alone – whether due to divorce, the loss of your spouse or having a spouse who works away from home for long periods of...
Post a Comment
Read more