Featured Another one BITES the dust?

A long time coming.

 

That's an extremely pessimistic outlook, RD2. I don't think there will be any more or any less of this than we've seen in the past. Who was the last with high visibility? Haggard? That was six years ago. Jack Schaap of First Baptist in Hammond, Indiana went to prison after a conviction for having sexual relations with a minor three years ago. Two years ago, a handful of so-called mega-church pastors in Florida individually resigned over a period of months for sexual immorality.

Mega church pastors are more visible, more "rock star" than pastor in many cases. They, rather than Christ, tend to be the focus of their ministry, and that's a recipe for disaster in any church. It just happens to affect the big ones more often than the little ones.

There is also the reality that sexual immorality is much more common in the pews than in the pulpit. Sure, some of these big-name, big-bucks pastors are going to fail. So are some of the lesser-known pastors around the country. But if we want to address the problem, we need to start in the pews. It's a bigger problem there, and I wonder, is it confronted as often as it should be?

 

Doggone it, we agree again!

 

This is gettin' scary! :thumbsup: :laugh:

 

Jack Schaap started his sentence in 2013, which was last year.
He was first arrested in August of 2012. FTR.
He was fired in July of '12, exposing his "affair" to the media.

 

I can deal with a pastor being a sinner...if a guy can take a drink every now and again, can admit when he is wrong, that women are attractive to them instead of trying to make them guilt ridden (about their dress etc)....those things I can deal with. But this sanctimonious, better than you BS upsets me to know end. I don't pattern myself after any man, they are all flawed...even after being born again.

What I haveto see is action. What are you doing in your community....that tells me a ton. So let these characters falter....let them go to jail, get divorced, loose their lofty positions...its all a result of phony baloney designed church organizations pointing to themselves and not to God. We as true believers do not need that....church is the bride of Christ & it needs to be more....much more.

 

Dates wrong, facts right. Any other observations?

 

The point is that it is a regular occurrence in the U.S. to see an evangelical pastor in the news.

Bill Wininger

 

I would challenge the concept of "regular." On what do you base that statement? What do you consider "regular"? Weekly? Monthly? Six times a year? What?

 

Look up Bill Wininger

 

One guy makes this a "regular occurrence"? I don't think so. Schaap, the three in Florida, Haggard, and any number of others you throw in still don't make it a "regular occurrence." There are 450,000 churches in America. These guys represent a very small handful of bad eggs that are to be expected in any henhouse. As it would apply to this particular profession, "regular" as you use it would attempt to say this happens "frequently." Given a sampling of 450,000, it doesn't. You want to examine megachurches only? You've still got a handful out of the 2800 in the country.

As I said, look to the pews. Far more need to repent there than need to repent in the pulpit. That doesn't mean the pulpit is exempt from the need, but "regular" is an inaccurate description of the number of incidents.

Having said all that, one who falls is one too many. But let's not make this an "epidemic" when it is far from it.

 

Matthew Jarrell.

 

Marty Braemer.

 

Two more out of 450,000. Tell you what, put together a list that represents one tenth of one percent of U.S. pastors, and we'll have something to talk about -- but not much.

 

To be fair, we only hear about the 'big ones.' I could name a couple of dozen from my own circles.

Still, we tend to focus on the negatives no matter where we look. While by no means Catholic, the same thing happens there. The vast majority of priests, despite their theological error, are decent men who love their parishes.

 

Greg Neal, Berean Baptist

 

That's nine, counting all the ones mentioned by name or circumstance so far on this thread. Only 441 to go.

The vast majority are men who love their wives, their children, and their churches and while perhaps tempted, never ever seriously consider crossing the line. Calling out names is dwelling in the cesspool the world loves to see us dipped in.