Fall From Grace of Clergy and Lessons to Be Learned
I appreciated The Times’ sensitive handling of the recent “fall” of another spiritual giant, Calvary Church’s (and my) senior pastor. Thank you for letting your readers get a feel for the hurt, sorrow and humility of one of the Lord’s truly gifted and sincere servants who, after dealing quietly with a problem not requiring public confession, found himself being publicly censured. What you’ve shown us is the stuff of an even greater measure of greatness than his 51 years to date.
As an educated, serious student of the Bible, I can’t agree with the sincere, albeit unwise, actions of the church’s board in handling this situation. Please consider the following:
First: Given the facts, the operative scriptural injunction for this situation is Galatians 6:1, which calls for the party “overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort” to be quietly “set right, restored and reinstated.”
Second: No person alive in this society--pastor or otherwise--can maintain a position which is inclusively “above reproach” (Titus 1:5-8, I Timothy 3:1-5) in the truest sense of the word.
Third: Sin is inevitable in the thoughts and images which intrude to stir the imagination, or otherwise--God doesn’t distinguish. In fact, throughout the Bible, He seems more ready to forgive and restore than we.
Fourth: Forgiveness by a heavenly father who could handle a person like King David’s problems, restore him to blessing and leadership and call him a “man after God’s own heart,” to cite one among many possible illustrations, is the prevailing principle.
Finally: God does hold his servants to high standards, but no higher in this respect than the rest of us. By its nature the church with its leaders is a congregation of flawed, forgiven people who admit and deal with their failures.
Looking at all of the leadership requirements listed in the appropriate passages, I’d give David Hocking--humbled, repentant, and watchful with accountability--a nine on a scale of 10.
THOMAS ED. STEELE, Santa Ana