How to Stop an Immoral Pastor

[IAMWEAK_2007]

We fired our pastor because of his immoral acts, which are all proven by the victims and lot's of witness. Now he laid his resignation as pastor of our church, but he will put up his own church in other place, how can we stop him because for sure he will still do his evil doings and add more victims. Very sad, i thought a pastor must be respected, that is why I always hold on Psalm 118:8.

 

[saturneptune]

We fired our pastor because of his immoral acts, which are all proven by the victims and lot's of witness. Now he laid his resignation as pastor of our church, but he will put up his own church in other place, how can we stop him because for sure he will still do his evil doings and add more victims. Very sad, i thought a pastor must be respected, that is why I always hold on Psalm 118:8.

If we had a hierarchy like the Presbyterians (which I am against), it would be very easy. In our case, being autonomous local churches, after the local church votes him out, it would be a matter of working through your association, and state organization to get the word out about the person. In addition, just word of mouth would spread like wildfire. An unofficial, backwoods network works miracles. Also, if illegal activity is involved, report him to the authorities.

 

[annsni]

This is where a network of good local pastors is a great thing. We have a county evangelical ministers' fellowship that gets together regularly and they would act together to see about speaking to this pastor, counseling and restoring him to fellowship with the Lord and to counsel him to not continue in the ministry. If he chose to ignore that, then there is not much you can do other than let the leaderships know of the state of his offense.

 

[Don]

As Saturnneptune pointed out, if the activities were illegal, you need to report him to the authorities. Don't let this wolf in sheep's clothing get away with something that later, by not involving the authorities, could implicate your church or at least damage its reputation for "attempting to hide illegal activities, and thereby endangering others."

As Ann pointed out, if there's not an association to report this man to, then talk to local pastors and let them know what's going on.

 

[agedman]

We fired our pastor because of his immoral acts, which are all proven by the victims and lot's of witness. Now he laid his resignation as pastor of our church, but he will put up his own church in other place, how can we stop him because for sure he will still do his evil doings and add more victims. Very sad, i thought a pastor must be respected, that is why I always hold on Psalm 118:8.

By the plural of victim being used, I would assume multiple moral violations. Sadly, when an assembly goes through the trauma of the failure of the most trusted person, the denial, anger and excuse begging often prevent a rational response for years.

The assembly should contact and pay for a lawyer to stand both for the assembly and victims. The lawyer should NOT be a member of the assembly nor have any family ties to the assembly. There may be issues such as alienation of affections, breach of contract, emotional damages, even financial mismanagement that will scar the person's pastoral record in such a way that most churches would not even look beyond the background check.

During my lifetime, I have seen multiple churches fail to bring a fleeing pastor to account. The assembly and family thinking generally is couched in terms of bringing less "shame" or "exposure" to the victims - who usually "harden and die" a slow private death of unresolved and unrequited love.

It is also important to keep in mind that "victims" may not be the ones in whom the "act" was perpetrated, but maybe a spouse, or children.

Another matter to consider is that assemblies will often claim someone is a victim who may in fact not be the actual victim but a perpetrator; the pastor being the actual victim being caught up in sin that took him where he rationally did not ever imagine himself to be taken by the skill and cunning of a deceitful person. Doesn't excuse the pastor but "silly women" seem to abound around men of authority.

Hope this helps.

Any assembly, family, believer who has gone through the situation will be scarred. My heart goes out to them.

 

[Yeshua1]

We fired our pastor because of his immoral acts, which are all proven by the victims and lot's of witness. Now he laid his resignation as pastor of our church, but he will put up his own church in other place, how can we stop him because for sure he will still do his evil doings and add more victims. Very sad, i thought a pastor must be respected, that is why I always hold on Psalm 118:8.

IF he was guilty of doing criminal acts, either say money or sexual, you MUST report him to proper authorities!

if say doctrinal deviations, then make sure ALL churches of your group well aware of him!

IF he will not coness/repent/forsake, God will deal with Him eventually!

 

[Bob Alkire]

IF he was guilty of doing criminal acts, either say money or sexual, you MUST report him to proper authorities!

if say doctrinal deviations, then make sure ALL churches of your group well aware of him!

IF he will not coness/repent/forsake, God will deal with Him eventually!

You hit the problem, if it is an unlawful act, it has to be reported to the police. By not doing it you aren't doing anything to help in your church and you are leaving him free to do the same to another group of Christians.

 

[freeatlast]

We fired our pastor because of his immoral acts, which are all proven by the victims and lot's of witness. Now he laid his resignation as pastor of our church, but he will put up his own church in other place, how can we stop him because for sure he will still do his evil doings and add more victims. Very sad, i thought a pastor must be respected, that is why I always hold on Psalm 118:8.

Did you follow the prescribed disciplin layed out in scripture? If not you can still go through them.

 

[Alive in Christ]

We fired our pastor because of his immoral acts, which are all proven by the victims and lot's of witness. Now he laid his resignation as pastor of our church, but he will put up his own church in other place, how can we stop him because for sure he will still do his evil doings and add more victims.

Take all of the evidence and statements that you have you strait to the police.

 

[Dr. Bob]

I know of godly church members who, when the pastor "left" and headed to another church, made sure that any church considering such a reprobate was warned personally.

Rather than being a "talebearer", they had an official letter from the church in a couple paragraphs denouncing the evil this man did and phone numbers of the deacons.

Some churches, however, will not listen. So enamored with a potential pastor, they will believe him that the former folks were "out to get him". And the mess continues.

Look at the mess in church after church that Hyles is at. In fundamental Baptist circles it seems almost a "badge of honor" to be booted from a church, repent and the next week do it all over again. :BangHead:

 

[IAMWEAK_2007]

Most of his victims are youth women in our church and because of this I also believe he is doing the same to his outreaches program involving a college school, that pastor has a wife kids. The reason why I posted this is to alarm church member's not to idolized their pastor. As I said I hold on to Psalm 118:8.

Thanks for all who commented, I will not stop until he is charge of his evil doings.

 

[righteousdude2]

There is Very Little You Can Do...

...I say this with Ted Haggard in mind. Surely you remember pastor Ted? He was not only the pastor of one of Colorado's largest evengelical churches, he was the leader of the Ntional Association of Evangelicals.

While it it is true that he was defroked, losing his church and the role he enjoyed as leader of the nations Evangelic Association, just a mere few years later, he came back on the scene heading up a new church in colorado. And the people going to his church go knowing that he is a self-professed bi-se#@%l man.

Even Jimmy Swaggard made a comeback.

It seems that while their churches may have been embarrassed and disgusted with their sin, others don't seem to see it that way.

In other's words, you can take the man out of the church, but you can't take the church out of the man. They seem intent on moving forward. All you can hope for is that they don't repeat their sins (Ted is admitted he is comfortable being "bi") and hurt others.

There are always going to be those who want to think the best and give the guy another chance. It seems like your pastor is not ready to try to start another church, but if that is his goal, who are you to stop him? There will be those who will follow him to the ends of this earth, no matter what you say or show them.

Try to get some peace, and know he can't hurt your church any longer. It is time for you and your congregation to begin the healing process and now seek vengeance, after all, vengeance is God's business not ours!

I can see why you are concerned, but, is it a hill you want to die on?

 

[IAMWEAK_2007]

...I say this with Ted Haggard in mind. Surely you remember pastor Ted? He was not only the pastor of one of Colorado's largest evengelical churches, he was the leader of the Ntional Association of Evangelicals.

While it it is true that he was defroked, losing his church and the role he enjoyed as leader of the nations Evangelic Association, just a mere few years later, he came back on the scene heading up a new church in colorado. And the people going to his church go knowing that he is a self-professed bi-se#@%l man.

Even Jimmy Swaggard made a comeback.

It seems that while their churches may have been embarrassed and disgusted with their sin, others don't seem to see it that way.

In other's words, you can take the man out of the church, but you can't take the church out of the man. They seem intent on moving forward. All you can hope for is that they don't repeat their sins (Ted is admitted he is comfortable being "bi") and hurt others.

There are always going to be those who want to think the best and give the guy another chance. It seems like your pastor is not ready to try to start another church, but if that is his goal, who are you to stop him? There will be those who will follow him to the ends of this earth, no matter what you say or show them.

Try to get some peace, and know he can't hurt your church any longer. It is time for you and your congregation to begin the healing process and now seek vengeance, after all, vengeance is God's business not ours!

I can see why you are concerned, but, is it a hill you want to die on?

It's not vengeance, I'm just worried of more victims. If vengeance is of GOD so be it. But doing nothing of stopping this evil man in a sheep clothing is a shame! I will begin to ask GOD why GOD would allow this? THe man involve here was trusted as a PASTOR and it was not.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Most of his victims are youth women in our church and because of this I also believe he is doing the same to his outreaches program involving a college school, that pastor has a wife kids. The reason why I posted this is to alarm church member's not to idolized their pastor. As I said I hold on to Psalm 118:8.

Thanks for all who commented, I will not stop until he is charge of his evil doings.

Were these women over 18? If under 18, the authorities must be contacted.

If the beginning of these multiple affairs was in a counseling session, then the authorities need to be told no matter the age. There are laws that govern that.

Unfortunately, if there are no criminal laws being broken, the only power the church has is influence. Silence is not an option.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Silence is not an option.

Worth repeating.

 

[Tom Bryant]

This does bring up the question of how do we pastors deal with the situation. When a pastor fails morally and then goes to another church, do we have a responsibility to tell the prospective church what we know of the person? I think we do. In other professions, there seems to be a wall of silence that protects the guilty. But the moral authority of a pastor is part of his job description, we ought to be protectors both of our reputation in general and the churches who might unknowingly (because they don't do due diligence) hire the person.

 

[annsni]

This does bring up the question of how do we pastors deal with the situation. When a pastor fails morally and then goes to another church, do we have a responsibility to tell the prospective church what we know of the person? I think we do. In other professions, there seems to be a wall of silence that protects the guilty. But the moral authority of a pastor is part of his job description, we ought to be protectors both of our reputation in general and the churches who might unknowingly (because they don't do due diligence) hire the person.

We very much appreciate a "head's-up" on people who come to our church and we give the same respect to other churches.

We had a guy who liked to get a little too close to the women. Always asked women to pray for him or he would be more than happy to pray with a woman. He would never go to men. He was a little bit creepy and most of the women felt uncomfortable around him but he didn't care. He was always "touchy" too which I DON'T like from someone who is not my husband, you know? One of our pastors spoke to him about it and he denied it. He was told to stop doing it and he didn't. It went on for a while of discussion, denial, continuing to the point where he was asked to leave our fellowship. He went on to another church and our pastor called that church to just let them know. It seems he had already started over there but now they knew that it was ongoing and not just a one-time thing so they were able to head it off at the pass, so to speak.

For situations where there is more blantant things going on, I'd think it would be a sin to NOT speak to the other pastor to let them know.

 

[righteousdude2]

I Do Understand...

It's not vengeance, I'm just worried of more victims. If vengeance is of GOD so be it. But doing nothing of stopping this evil man in a sheep clothing is a shame! I will begin to ask GOD why GOD would allow this? THe man involve here was trusted as a PASTOR and it was not.

...I just don't want you to become so caught up in letting people know of his sins, that you are dragged down into the pit he dug for himself. Sometimes, we want something so badly, that we lose sight of everything else.

Just want you to think about ALL the consequences your crusade could eventually bring back to you, your family, and your walk with God. People like this have a way of landing on their feet [the devil sees to it] and those of us who are out to see justice is done, get angered when we see these folk's escape from what we believe they have coming to them.

I didn't mean to imply you were being vengeful. I just wanted to remind you that vengeance is of God. As a child advocate, I would be doing exactly as you. I just wanted to pass unto you, some advice I've learned over the years, from seeing "bad people" not get what they should have gotten.

Hopefully, law enforcement will take care of the job they've been entrusted to do, and put this guy behind bars, if a crime has been committed.

However, I live across the street from a neighbor who is dealing drugs [to kids, young people, and families]. My [five other neighbors] neighbors and myself just can't get the cops to see what we are seeing, day-after-day. It is frustrating. Take it from me, frustration can eventually become a form of spiritual rust, and we all know that rust erodes away at the physical fabric (spiritual part of us) and destroys the thing it grows on.