Some years ago, I caused no little consternation when I was invited to speak at a church on the nature of ministry and started my lecture by declaring that it really did not matter if the pastor was an adulterer or not. As you may imagine, this was not something the congregation had heard before, and my guess is that more than a handful of those present probably thought the speaker had either gone mad or was simply ignorant of the most basic aspects of biblical teaching on the nature of church leadership.
In fact, I was making a serious point and doing so in a way that I knew would cause people to sit up, take notice, and, crucially, reflect upon their own assumptions about ministry. My point was this: The power of the ministry lies in the truth of the Word, driven home by the Spirit, not in the moral qualities of the pastor. I myself learned a lot of the theology that I still hold dear, and certainly 90 percent of everything I know about preaching, from a man who has since left his wife to live in a homosexual relationship, and all the evidence suggests that he had embarked on this lifestyle while I was under his ministry. If it was the quality of his private life that made the difference, I would have to go back, unlearn, and then relearn everything I imbibed during my years in his church.
Of course, even a moment’s reflection reveals the truth of this for all of us: If faith comes by hearing the Word, and the moral character of the one who speaks that word to us is that which makes the Word effective, then which of us could ever be sure of our salvation? And which of us would ever bother to speak the Word to another, knowing how morally crippled we ourselves are?
True as this is, however, it is probably the case that an overemphasis on the moral quality of church leaders is not the problem we face in the contemporary church. Every year, the list of pastors who are caught in serious sin—sexual, financial and otherwise—is startling and depressing. Equally startling and depressing is the list of pastors who are restored to office after a perfunctory repentance and a short period of discipline. I am probably a hardliner on such issues, but I am a firm believer that an adulterous or sexually profligate elder forfeits his office permanently, and, frankly, the restoration to office of those involved in other public crimes should be the exception and not the rule. Restoration of the repentant to fellowship is an imperative; restoration to office is quite another matter, hard as this may be to swallow in an age when anybody can do anything with no long-term damage to their career as long as they appear on Oprah, cry a few tears, and say the magic word sorry.
In the 10th century, the church produced one of the worst examples of an immoral church leader in the person of Pope John XII, who reigned from 955 to 964. During his tenure, the Vatican was referred to as being akin to a brothel. Such were his high crimes and misdemeanors that in November 963, a desperate attempt was made by church officials to oust him at a synod in St. Peter’s, where John was variously accused of sacrilege, simony (selling spiritual offices for money), perjury, murder, fornication and incest. John refused to recognize the synod and later took terrible revenge on those who had sought to replace him as pope, having various enemies scourged and physically mutilated. His victory was short-lived, however, as he was to die on May 14, 964, just over a week after having a stroke (at least according to the rumors) while in the act of committing fornication.
John XII is an extreme example of a sleazy church leader, as much for the range of his crimes as for anything else, though it is arguable that the greatness of his evil actions was simply the result of his greater power and opportunity for such immorality compared to many who have come after him. Now, if John had preached the gospel, there is no doubt that the gospel would still have been effective, for, as we noted above, the Word of God is powerful because of what it is, not because the person speaking is a moral superhero. Nevertheless, John was a disgrace to the church, and there is no doubt that, whatever their motives, those who sought to oust him from his position were doing the right thing.
Why is this? If the power of the gospel is not dependent upon moral behavior, why should bribery, adultery or even murder bar someone from being a church leader? Well, the simple answer is, of course, that Paul lists a whole set of characteristics, most of them relating to morals, character and reputation, as being vital in an elder or a pastor. Thus, in Titus 1, for example, the candidate for eldership is to be above reproach, happily married to one woman, with good children who behave as those in a Christian household should. He must not be arrogant, nor have what Americans call “anger-management issues.” He should not be greedy or ambitious but rather hospitable, self-controlled, upright and so on. It is important to note that Paul is not here demanding perfection, for then no one would qualify; what he is basically asking for is that an elder should be a decent, honorable person of good reputation within and without the church.
