hello and welcome to Pastor well I'm Herschel York dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky I'm also senior pastor of The Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort Pastor well is dedicated to helping Servants of the Lord Jesus Christ be faithful in Ministry we do that by talking about subjects that matter especially to pastors who have been called by the Lord to be under Shepherds in his church today I want to talk about what could be permanently disqualifying for a pastor in Ministry in other words what sin would
permanently disqualify Pastor from ever being able to serve again well first of all I would say any unrepentant sin now we don't need to talk about sins categories as much as we need to talk about Sin being perpetuated in our lives it is essential as a pastor of one of the Lord's churches that we stay prayed up that we stay fresh on our walk with the Lord and if there's any sin in my life that I'm just unwilling to let go of the reality is I shouldn't be serving the Lord's Church you know when Paul
talked about uh sitting at the Lord's table and he told the church at Corinth that anyone who takes this unworthily in an unworthy manner eats and drinks damnation to himself he said for this cause many of you are sick and some even sleep now that's when he's writing to the church members at Corinth for the way they partake of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner if that's true of church members how much more so is that true of the pastor who's administering the Lord's Supper if he is serving the Lord's Supper in an unworthy
manner because he's regarding sin in his heart and life that he knows is there and he will not repent he will not forsake the sin that's a very serious matter so our consciences should be so sensitive that we do not want to hold on to sin that our attitude is always Lord please cleanse me I know that there's no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus but because you have saved me and forgiven me you've given me your Holy Spirit by which I can mortify the Deeds of the flesh I can put to death
the Deeds of the flesh because I have the indwelling Christ the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and I want to do that Lord you deserve my life to be holy and to reflect your character so first of all I would say if we are holding on to our sin we have no business standing in the Pulpit we have no business administering the ordinances a pastor who is unrepentant in his sin needs to needs to step aside and so to the degree that you are remaining willfully in sin you should be disqualified for Ministry but
now I know the question meant more than that it was what's permanently disqualified disqualifying and I would say this anything that is such a breach in a pastor's life that the knowledge of that sin becomes greater than the pastor's reputation and character so most commonly I get asked this about adultery if a pastor commits adultery can he ever serve as a pastor again and I'm going to give a nuanced answer here I'm going to say probably not and that's a strange answer but frankly I think that you can never Pastor so long as your sin
is notorious so long as it becomes the thing people know about you and only if you have walked the long hard Road of repentance so clearly so transparently and for so long a Time that your reputation as a repentant person dominates your reputation as a sinner and I don't know how long that is I know it's a long time but your your repentance has to become more notorious than your sin a lot of times I've dealt with pastors who've fallen into sin most notably adultery and they immediately are asking the question how long do you
think it will be before I can preach again and as long as I'm hearing that question I know they're not anywhere close to being ready to Pastor or to preach again because that can't be the goal your goal has to be to get your relationship right with the Lord your goal has to be to restore if you're married to restore that relationship to reconcile to the one you've wronged and to forsake the sin and the and frankly the weaknesses that or the underlying causes of that sin it usually doesn't just happen suddenly Adrian Rogers used
to say people would remark about some Pastor who fell into sin well look how far he fell and Adrian would always say you don't know how low he was living boy that's true usually it's not a far fall usually there's been there have been secret compromises things happening behind the scenes in a man's life and then when he the public fall comes it really wasn't that far from all the secret things that he was already doing you need to make sure that you've dealt with all of it it's not merely the very public disastrous crash
that is the issue it's all the stuff that led to it and was behind it that takes a long time so frankly I'm going to say that if a pastor falls into sin his goal should not be to get back in Ministry get back in the Pulpit whatsoever it should be simply to get right with the Lord and to do whatever it takes to demonstrate that and I think that takes a long long long time let me tell you some things to watch out for if a person falls into sin they often then begin even
if they claim they are repentant they'll get judgmental about other people's reaction to their sin well look at that that guy calls himself a Christian and he's not able to forgive me for what I did oh listen to me you don't get to do that as long as you are judging someone else's reaction to your sin you're not really in Repentance yet that's self-righteousness what you have to do is understand that your sin put that person in the position of needing to judge your sin whether they're right or wrong that's between them and the Lord
You Have To Own It you have to be willing to say you know what my sin is so bad that nothing that that guy thinks about my sin is as bad as the truth and when you have that kind of Brokenness and humility over your sin then you're really walking the road of repentance and you have to walk it relentlessly that's not a short time that's a long time and the other thing you need to know is you can't restore yourself you don't get to declare yourself ready or restored there needs to be a round
of a preacher who falls there needs to be around him an accountability group that walks with him that puts him sort of through the paces that helps him understand the depth of his sin and what his sin has caused and helped him walk that road of repentance and his church uh or a church you know often he can't stay in the church where the sin was committed but he needs to plug into some church that will accept him in essence already under discipline and then walk him through that repentance but others have to declare okay
he's ready for something but you know what that Ministry might be just going to the nursing home it it it might be uh just going on trips with the senior citizens you don't just immediately get to go back up In a Pulpit and after years of just humbling graciously uh it repentedly just following Christ and honoring him it might be that someone with full knowledge of your sin might give you some opportunity you know when a pastor falls into sin it's a terribly egregious thing because he's a leader and his sin has effects far beyond
just his own life or even his own family others are hurt others are wounded by what he does and that's no small thing so it very well may be that he can never ever again really fill a Pulpit it might be that his sin is so notorious that no one can ever really hear him without thinking of it and if so that's just the cost that comes and it's a terrible price to pay it's one reason we should all want to stay holy because we see the terrible cost that it will it will bring but
if in God's Providence after some long period of time after someone's repentance becoming more notorious than their sin they are asked to fill a role then it very well may be that they have that opportunity I'm not going to say never I am going to say rarely because our leadership matters so very very much and a lot of people can be wounded by a pastor's sin I don't know exactly what the parameters are I just know that sin is terrible that leadership matters so much that our goal simply has to be to get right with
Christ if God in his Providence allows us ever to have any form of ministry again that's Grace upon Grace but you can't grasp for it you can't ask for it and you can't do it secretly would have to be done with full knowledge of one's past but Grace is a wonderful thing and God is gracious it should be enough for us that our names are written in the Book of Life and that we can find a way to bring glory to Jesus even if it's not in the former kind of ministry not in a public
Ministry the goal has to be to honor him but you know what this is such a warning to me it reminds me of how desperately I need Christ how much I want to live a holy life because I never want to have to ask that question it's important that I walk with the Lord Jesus that I lean on him constantly that I rely on the power of the holy spirit that I'm saturated with his word that I don't ever have to make someone ask the question am I ready or not God help me by the
power of the spirit I want to Pastor well for life [Music]
