I hate it when this happens…

A few months ago I wrote a short post about a young leader I had run into. He was the pastor of a church that I had attended for a few weeks when it was first starting, author of a discipleship book and heading toward the fifth anniversary of the church with attendance around 500. I thought all of this was pretty good.

Just a couple of weeks ago I got an email about his fall from ministry. I checked the church web site and his name, all of his sermons, his place in the history of the church, had all been expunged. I checked his personal website and it was down. I checked the website for his book and it says "will return shortly."

This just makes me sick at heart. I feel for the members of his church who looked to him for spiritual guidance and find that he didn’t have the character to "make it through." I feel for the members of his own family who have been hurt and damaged. I feel for him, in particular, because I know he is living in a personal hell.

I don’t know how these situations can be handled in any better way. They just point out the fact that pastors and leaders are human beings. I wish this wasn’t true. Because then these issues would never arise. I do know that there is a special place reserved for leaders who have fallen publicly. The road to forgiveness and restoration is longer and harder and less grace-filled than for the rest of us followers of Christ.

I am adding this leader and his church to the people that I pray about, when I remember to pray. I am going to pray for healing and restoration. I am going to pray for repentance and redemption. It’s probably the least I can do.