10 things to learn from personal failure

Here are some thoughts on how to deal with personal moral failure in the church.

1. Yet but for the grace of God go we. This must always be our first response, to recognise that there is capacity for immense sinfulness in all of us. Circumstances like this should, before anything, humble us and cause us to guard our hearts, relying on God's grace, all the more.

2. Good leadership is found in surrounding ourselves not with people who will agree with us or help us to win an argument but rather to help us to pursue God's glory and love us enough to challenge us and do the hard things in our life that will serve God's glory best.

3. The Gospel will always be harmed by the public failure of a pastor- yet there is opportunty for something to be salvaged if the pastor is willing to model a humble acceptance of church discipline or a humble insistence on church discipline when the church refuses to exercise that in his life. There is an opportunity even at a protracted stage to humble oneself publicly by taking the step of withdrawing from ministry even when it is not required or desired by those around them. In this there is opportunity to acknowledge the magnitude of what has occurred and submit to church discipline even if none is put in place.

4. An opportunity is missed to care for the pastors soul when church disipline is not administered. Biblical church discipline must and will always be loving when conducted in humble, godly fashion. When it is not administered an opportunity is missed to lovingly care for the pastor in examining his heart with him and helping him confront and deal with those heart issues that the process reveals by God's grace and mercy.

5. In being urgently invested in protecting a popular pastor it is easy to miss the urgent matter of caring for those others immediately harmed by the circumstances. The public grief can very readily distract from the urgent matter of those grieving privately.

6. Pastoral ministry is by its very nature one where the words that they speak will be synonomous with the Gospel. So where lies have occurred there is the need for recognition that teaching from God's Word is a role incompatible with their present circumstances.


7. The Baptist principle of independent yet interdependent assumes effective and Biblical leadership in the local church. Without this there is a definite lack of accountability particularly for pastors. It is unhealthy to have a ministry without someone or some organisation that will help you to watch your heart and help the church to watch their practice. The question that remains is whether it is appropriate for the wider union of churches to exercise discipline, with the hope of restoration to Biblical principles, upon a member church?

8. We must be wary of allowing the world looking on to make better judgements about Biblical patterns of church than we are.

9. Exercising forgiveness and asking a pastor to stand down are not mutually exclusive positions- in fact Biblically it is the most loving thing to do (James 3: 1).

10. Yet but for the grace of God go we.