Another Pastor Resigns

A friend called with the news. Had we heard? It was homosexual sex again. Another pastor, family, church, and community affected.

Maybe this is the next wave. It won't just be evangelical leaders getting busted for adultery but it will be homosexuality.

A while back Mark Driscoll, a big church pastor was giving advice to other pastors on how to avoid problems like the Ted Haggard situation. One bit of advice was to have a male assistant rather than female. So much for that. Oh by the way, Driscoll was dumb enough to indirectly implicate Haggard's wife. He speaks of some pastor's wives "who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness." Shove foot into mouth Mark.

There is a lot of analysis in these situations of trying to figure out how a guy ends up in such a high place and in such trouble. I wish I knew; that would make it a lot easier. One thing it should do is throw a serious scare in us. What it shows is that none of us are safe. It doesn't matter what we did in the past, what our title is, etc. It also shows that sin is serious. There must have been a place where each of these guys made small compromises that grew.

Remember the following lines:

Sin will take you places where you don't want to go.
Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

May we remember those words when temptation comes. The choices we make will have consequences - good or bad. We will become stronger or weaker.

Another thing to remember is that sin will be exposed either through humility and confession or judgment.

Here is the reality: none of us are perfect. All of us struggle with sin and a lot (most?) of the time we fail. What are we going to do when we find ourselves failing and failing? The only answer is humility, confession and accountability. We need to have someone we can talk to about what is going on in our lives. Someone who can help us get a good perspective on where we are and what needs to be done. The Lone Ranger will soon be dead. We have to get away from the self sufficient person syndrome. I can't do it by myself;I need others. If you don't have that going on in your life then you better get it going. Find someone of the same sex that you can be real with. Take small steps to transparency.

"The Bible says to humble yourself because if God has to humble you it's too late."
C. Peter Wagner

Philip

Links to story:
Denver Post
Channel 7