When Leaders Fall “They’re Only Human” Doesn’t Help Our Disillusionment

If you have ever expressed interest in leadership you will at some point have someone

tell you about the cost of being a leader. You will be reminded that the Bible says that there is a greater accountability for those who teach, and that church ministry is a calling that not everybody will have in this life. So herein lies a slight mixed message that we are clearly unaware of. Either leadership does carry a high accountability that we all must pay should we fall, or leadership does not deserve that level of elitism it does these days, since ‘they’re only human’. Now we as members of the Body may not be the individuals that are meant to hold a leader accountable, but it certainly is a conundrum for the disillusioned person to navigate! Because are we defending the leader by making this statement? Or are we going to acknowledge that leaders are held to a different standard, as per 1 Timothy 3:1-13?

Yes, many believers do put Christian leaders on a pedestal. And the disappointment that ensues when that pedestal comes crashing down is a painful one. It’s probably true that we should have never placed anyone besides Jesus in such a favorable light. But I might add that nobody, especially not the leader with the celebrity status, is discouraging them from doing so. Leaders in the spotlight present themselves as a brand.

Their image is perfectly curated just like any other celebrity. See, the difficulty with a statement like “they’re only human”, is that often it’s not the disillusioned person who first painted them in this superhuman light…it was the leader. The leader in most instances intended to gain this kind of popularity. So why is the disillusioned person being suddenly expected to immediately acknowledge the leader’s humanity, when they have been trained to perceive them in such a glorified state?

Finally, the statement can do very little to rectify the disillusioned heart. Often the person isn’t exactly sure why and how the leader’s fall has broken their foundational system of interpreting the world. And it’s going to take some time for them to make sense of it all. Sometimes the disillusioned person simply needs to grieve. So if we are interjecting with this statement in an effort to comfort, it may be better to leave it unsaid. The better thing to do might be to ask some helpful questions that might help them heal.

At the end of the day, the best thing we can all do for a person with disillusionment is:
a) Listen to them;
b) Direct them to resources that will help them understand what they are going through. After all, the disillusioned person is human too. And we ought not judge them harsher than the leader that fell