A question being asked more frequently than at any other time during my many years of leadership is when, or even if, a pastor can be restored after a moral failure.
Sadly, the rise in the frequency of the question seems tied to the rise in moral failures. Whether they are simply being made more public through social media or there is an actual increase in pastoral failings, it seems we are being inundated with stories of pastors having affairs, abusing children, misusing church funds, falling prey to pride or anger, abusing power and authority, and more.
When such things surface in ways that force a leader from his or her role, can they be restored? Pastors themselves are unsure. According to Lifeway Research, when asking current pastors how long a pastor found guilty of adultery should step away, only 2% said they didn’t need to. 16% said for one year, 18% for two to 10 years, and 27% said permanently. The most popular answer? 31% saying “I don’t know.”
I would counsel that the answer depends on the nature of the moral failure. So, let’s tease out some scenarios.
When a minor is involved. If there is any type of moral failure with a child, I have long held to a “one strike and you’re out” mentality. Sexual abuse of a child is an immediate forfeiture of any future spiritual leadership.
When it is proven to be serial. A second type of moral failure that I have long held should preclude any restoration would be when there is evidence of someone being a serial adulterer or sexual predator, a consistent abuser of power, or a consistent embezzler of money. Meaning there is a history, a pattern, of immorality that continues to rear its head time and again. This demonstrates a lack of repentance and the church’s need to step in and prevent any further use of their position to abuse, wound, take advantage or destroy.
When the position itself was used. Another type of failure where I would argue against restoration is when the pastoral position itself was used to groom or abuse or take advantage. For example, there is little that is truly consensual when a pastor uses the confines of a counseling session to manipulate an emotionally and spiritually vulnerable person into an affair. This is such a gross abuse of the office that, in my mind, it precludes future restoration.
So, those are at least three situations (I can certainly envision more) where I would counsel against any restoration to vocational ministry. But there are situations when a pastor was justifiably removed from office when, after a time away addressing the issues that led to their removal, they could very well be restored.
For example, cases where:
… the failure was truly an anomaly in someone’s life as a result of a very unique set of vulnerabilities;
… the issues were deeply personal, and they needed time away to get help (think addiction to pornography, a broken marriage);
… they found themselves caught up in another’s manipulation (such as a junior member on staff falling prey to a senior leader’s grooming and advances).
