In this short video, Tim Keller, John Piper, and Don Carson answer a hard and sobering question: What would you say to a congregation that has lost its pastor due to moral failure?
Tim Keller
- Don’t get cynical. Don’t get disillusioned by institutions, ministers, or the church. Don’t say every pastor is a fraud.
- But also be careful about idolatry of Christian leaders.
Don Carson
- We should always be horrified by sin but never be surprised by it.
- Churches should discipline with outrage over the sin and tears over the fallen.
John Piper
- Remember Joseph who endured great calamity and corruption and yet God was bringing about good.
- Bethlehem Baptist lost 230 people over the moral failure of a member of staff and we did not grow for four years.
- It’s a time to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and patiently endure God’s chastisement until he takes the church through it in his timing.
David Murray
No, I’m not on the video and it may look like arrogance to add my name to such exalted company, but this has to be added: tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth. Tell the congregation the truth about the fall and its consequences.
The wife and children (and others in the know) already have to deal with the shock to their faith of the most important Christian leader in their life falling into sin. Imagine the double shock to their faith when they see other Christian leaders doing all in their power to cover it up, or to try and present the fallen pastor as a victim of circumstances. If these precious souls are ever to have their trust restored in Christian leaders, the leaders need to tell the truth.
Telling the truth also serves the purpose of “that others also may fear” (1 Tim. 5:20). I know of one instance where one man did all that he could to successfully cover up the sin of another minister and then fell into the exact same sins himself a number of years later.