Do you remember the first time in your life that someone you looked up to as a spiritual leader had a moral failure?
I do.
I was a freshman in college at Liberty University studying for the pastorate.
I had gone to chapel to hear a great preacher expound upon the Word of God. The speaker was such a passionate speaker who knew the Word of God so well that it inspired me to memorize Scripture and to seek to know God like him.
As soon as chapel was over, I rushed to the library so I could know Scripture like he did. Before that day was over, I had read over 50 chapters in my Bible and had memorized over 60 verses.
Not long after that, I learned as did many others, that the man who had inspired me was a fake. He had made up a childhood story to sensationalize his life. He was a fraud and later was found out to not only have had one moral failure but many in his lifetime.
I wish I could say that this only happened to me once in my 53 years of life and 27 years in the ministry. But, sadly, I have had close pastor friends and spiritual heroes whom I have looked up to over the years who have let me down and caused me great pain and confusion.
I am sure you have too.
These days, it seems like so many pastors are having moral failures that we can’t even keep up with it. Decades of deception and repeat moral failure—sometimes it comes out while they are in the middle of it, and other times it comes out decades later.
If you are anything like me, when these sorts of things happen to you, it shakes your faith, causes you to wonder, and plummets you into a combination of hurt, questions, doubt, and anger.
It arouses questions in the depth of your being like: Was their influence and inspiration just a lie?
I have heard some say that when their pastor fell morally that it was like their own wife or husband failing morally. It hurt them that deeply.
