When Pastors go Rogue

Dear Pastors

I have been following the Jamie Lee-Ross saga a bit. The question that Simon Bridges and the National Party are facing right now is, ‘what to do with Jamie?’

It has got me thinking once again about this issue in Christian Leadership. There are just three questions to answer when a leader is mis-behaving or has mis-behaved, I think.

1. When can we say a pastor has gone ‘rogue’, (as opposed to having made a mistake or even a one off major personal failure) and
2. If we agree he/she has gone rogue then what should we do with him or her¹?
3. And then, how should we go about it, i.e. the process?

There are traditionally three arena’s that we as pastors have to be especially careful about summed up by a former generation as the 3G’s – Gold, Girls and Glory based on 1 John 2:16. That’s a good start for sure. I think that needs to be nuanced a little these days. I would argue that we need to pay careful attention to the following:

• Sexual. How we handle our relationships with other women not our wife. This includes unwise and secret ‘emotional’ connections and also of course pornography.
• Financial. How we handle church money. This includes how we spend church money and how those decisions are made. It also includes the use of church property and assets.
• Theology. How we handle The Word. I am NOT talking about the occasional bad hermeneutic but rather ‘camping out’ on truths that result in error.
• Power. How we handle our position. This is about the ‘abuse of power’ in team dynamics. Personally, I think that this one is the one that has and is causing a lot of grief in Christian circles in recent times as it is in the secular work place in NZ. To be blunt, it is about pastors who are power hungry and end up abusing that power. It is one of the top complaints of ‘The Dones’.

Having established that a pastor (or Christian leader) has gone rogue then what and how should we handle this situation. This, of course needs thousands of words not a few hundred. But can I give my best shot in 200 words or so.

From my lived experience in both Church and Board work I keep the following questions/issues on top of mind.

• My goal is to hold in tension God’s Holiness (His standards) and God’s Grace (The God of the second chance).
• How genuinely repentant and remorseful the individual is on being confronted with his ‘sin’ problem?
• How quickly we can get to the ‘full truth’ without denial, excuses, fudging or side stepping.
• The ‘level and extent’ of the individual’s influence.
• The effect of the sin on the individual’s immediate family.
• The willingness of the individual to submit whole heartedly to a biblical process of honest reflection, discipline, rehabilitation if necessary, and restoration.

I always try to treat the person respectfully and at the same time as a wounded soldier that desperately needs help. I constantly remind myself that we are all in fact at risk and we walk with ‘feet of clay’ and that my brother or my sister who has been caught in a sin (or pattern of sinning) is much loved by God and He more than anything wants to bring truth, grace and restoration into this situation and circumstance(s).

Finally, I believe, absolutely that in Christ we can experience full and complete healing and restoration. Sadly, in reality we don’t see it too often.

Blessings

Alan

¹ I also include my female colleagues when referring to him.

And now let this bless you. Pentatonix singing, ‘Mary, Did You Know’ 185m views, 3mins 24sec of simply stunning music.

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.