A Pastor's Moral Failings - James McManus

To whoever is reading this, please know that what you are getting to read grieves me. It grieves me to write about this subject. It grieves me that you are reading about this. But, even in this grieving, I am hopeful for Christ and His mercy to reign supreme and His grace to guide our thoughts and actions. 

What grieves me is the moral failings of pastors. I don’t mean to sound like I am above such a failing, because I am not … and you are not. I am reminded of the story of two Christian men walking along a street and seeing a drunkard, passed out in the gutter, bottle in hand. One of the Christian men, when he saw the drunkard, made a remark along the lines of “look at that pitiful excuse of a man”, to which the other Christian said “there but for the grace of God go I”. That is the best summary of my approach to the moral failings of other pastors - there but for the grace of God go I. I am only one conversation, one decision, one slip up away from my name being added to the list of pastors who are out of the ministry because of a grievous moral failing. 

But, the reality is that if you are a pastor, you more than likely know of another pastor who has fallen into such a grievous sin and failing. You may have wept over a friend who made a bad decision and is no longer in the ministry. You may have shook your head over a pastor you know who went down a path that cost him his marriage and family. You may have struggled over whether you were next - that surely if that man and pastor could fail in such a way, then you are next to fail and fall. It seems to be a threat for us pastors that always seems to loom on the horizon, ready to strike at any moment. 

When we hear about these situations, we should grieve. I don’t think these failings are  something any Christian should delight in - no matter our theological, ecclesiological, or eschatological stance, we should not delight in the reality of this. Sadly, it only takes a quick tour of social media to see Christian brethren taking delight in the fall of another pastor, especially famous pastors. We pontificate, we speculate, we share our opinion - sometimes with maybe a hint of joy, sometimes with unbridle glee that so-and-so has been caught in such a sing. Brothers and sister, ff we delight in these fails and falls, are we any spiritually better than those who fell? If we read about a pastor, famous or not, who is caught in a grievous sin, and we delight in it, isn’t that as much a sin as the sin of guilty party? When we hear of a pastor failing, it should break our hearts because this affects the man, his family, the church and the community. Maybe it’s time we’re known for our winsome compassion instead of our superior hot take and opinion. 

I believe we see this to be especially true with celebrity pastors. In our day and age, where celebrity reigns supreme - and, let’s be honest, being a celebrity is almost like a god-state in our culture - we see this celebrity culture taking root in the church. The 21st century American church loves her celebrity pastors! Can we count how many conferences are held, with the big name pastors speaking at them so as to get more people to come? How many books are written with the well-known name on the front of it, guaranteeing a spike in sales? What about all the downloads of sermons simply because this man is a well known speaker? The more famous the name, it seems the more willing we are to listen and to follow and to be molded by. 

From my limited perspective, as we have seen a rise in the “celebrity pastor”, we have also seen a rise in their moral failings. I will not recount these men and their failings in this article - my point is to not to continue to drag them and their families and the victims through the mud. However, I want us to think about the “why” of all this - why have celebrity pastors? Why are Christians willing to follow these men who don’t know them? Why do we seem to see more and more about their moral failings? Why?

A quote that has stuck with me since I first heard it is “preach the Gospel, die, be forgotten”. It is attributed to Count Zinzendorf, who was a bishop of the Moravian Church. What a wonderful summary of the Gospel ministry! We are called to go and preach the Gospel - which is all about Jesus, pointing to Jesus, glorifying the Triune God in and through Jesus - and then go on to our heavenly reward, and let the next generation take up the Gospel mantle and go through the same process of preaching, dying and being forgotten. The very nature of our call as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to die to self, to be like John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease” and Paul “for me to live is Christ”. We are merely heralds of the Triune God. Brothers, it’s not about you and me and our name recognition … no, it’s about God and His glory and pointing others to Him. It’s about always pointing to Jesus, to His word, to His glory, to salvation that can only be found in Him. It’s never about you or me. It’s always about Jesus. There is nothing “celebrity” about our calling, but it’s never about us. It’s only and always about the glory of Christ that points us to the glory of the Trinity. 

Think about the 12 disciples. We know some details about Peter (fisherman, bold, doesn’t always think before he speaks) and Matthew (Jewish, tax collector) and John (the one whom Jesus loved, the only disciples to die from natural causes) … but what about James, Andrew, Bartholomew, James (the Lesser or Younger), Judas, Thaddeus, Philip, Simon the Zealot & Thomas? What do we know about their lives, opinions, hobbies, haircuts, facial hair? Even with Peter and Matthew and John, we only know scant personal information. What these men are known for is the fruit of their ministries. It wasn’t about their name recognition … it was about the Great Commission, taking the Gospel to wherever God sent them, calling disciples, training pastors … preaching the Gospel, dying, and only being remembered because they were recorded in sacred Scripture as being followers of Jesus. I would imagine that they gained some standing because of their being one of the 12, but we never get the idea that they ever exploited it. It was merely part of their testimony and another way to point them to Jesus. 

I am fearful that with the rise of celebrity culture, especially in the church, we have given a bigger bullseye for the devil to aim for. We are putting these men on pedestals, clamoring after them, making it a Paul vs. Apollos issue - when it should never be an issue. The bigger we make these men, the greater the fall can be. With social media, any moral failing can now become big headlines - and these men, their families, their churches all suffer for it. Their ministry can suffer for it. I would imagine that all of us have an author on our shelves we can no longer read because of their failings. Not theologically, but moral failings. But, aren’t we part of the problem? Aren’t we the ones who clamor to hear our favorite celebrity pastor and set them on pedestals? Aren’t we, in a way, demanding more from them than what we should?

I know I may sound jealous … “why aren’t people clamoring to hear James McManus speak at a conference? Why isn’t such-and-such ministry asking me to speak at their conference”? Honestly, maybe there is some jealousy … I was raised in a culture that revered celebrities, so wouldn’t being a celebrity pastor be kinda cool? Perks of free books and swag, having people pay money to come hear you preach or speak, lots of downloads on that sermon I spent some much time in prayer and study for, feeding my ego that I am such a good preacher that people will travel great distances just to hear me preach. That all sounds cool. 

Then, I am reminded of the enormous cost of that sort of life. I would be gone so much from the congregation who I love and who loves me so well - and sacrificially provides for me and my family. I would be away from my family, giving up ministry to them so I can minister to strangers who, hopefully, have their own pastors, yet they have paid good money to hear me pontificate - and I would never know who they are, just faces in a crowd in a church or auditorium. I would be a man divided between too many worlds, and, at some point, one or more of those worlds are going to suffer - that’s just human nature. 

I will end this by admitting I don’t have a solution to this - you may have just wasted your time reading the whining and rantings of a small town pastor! Maybe you don’t see it as a problem. But, as I think about celebrity pastors and their moral failings, I grieve for them, their families and their ministries. Should our churches and presbyteries start counseling men to spend more time at their church and with their families instead of speaking at all these different conferences? Should you and I be careful about putting these men on a pedestal and thinking they are greater and better simply because their name is on the marquee and cover of a book? Should we be encouraging people to look more to their pastor who God has called to minister to them than to the guy on the stage who has no idea what their name is, their marital struggles, their sins that keep them up at night? I don’t know - maybe it’s none of those. All I know is that maybe it is time we, as a church and as pastors, take a good hard look at the celebrity pastor culture, see where we are culpable, repent, and go about preaching the Gospel, dying and being forgotten. 

Soli Deo Gloria