I have asked for forgiveness to him and the church and did the right thing. I married the woman I impregnated.

Question from a Pastor on being restored after moral failure.

Pastor Peter,

You asked:

"As a pastor what must I do if my Senior Pastor has turned against me, because I fell in a sin of sexual immorality, even though I have asked for forgiveness to him and the church and did the right thing. I married the woman I impregnated."

Answer:

I too am a Pastor, ordained in South Africa in 1958. I planted and pastored five new congregations in South Africa, and also successfully restored a dysfunctional congregation. Now to answer your concerns.

Peter, God has forgiven you, and hopefully the Senior Pastor and the congregation have forgiven you. You did the right thing in marrying the lady. I commend you for this.

Now let me talk with you about your future. I believe you can have a good future in ministry, because you have learned that there are consequences for your failings. What I do see is that there is a difference between forgiveness and accountability in leadership. When a leader fails, it takes time for a congregation and also the community the Church is in, to trust you.

Trust has to be earned. This will take time.

I have had to ask leaders who have fallen into sin, to take a step back, and not be active in leadership for up to a year, but to remain a member of the Church, and let them see you live right and not fall again into the sin that caused you to lose the respect of the Church leaders and members. This is hard, but is necessary for your own spiritual growth, and for trust to be regained, so that people will respect you as you are transparent about your past.

You say your Senior Pastor has turned against you.

I think you may need to talk to him and find out if he is really against you, or if he is looking at the need to give both you and the Church time to rebuild trust again.

Ultimately you are accountable to the Senior Pastor, and if you leave the church, without restoring trust, wherever you go the news of your failure will follow you, and limit your future effectiveness for Jesus. If you submit to the discipline, and give yourself time to establish the confidence of the people again, then one day you will be asked to be a Senior Pastor in some church, and you will then be able to walk in with your past failure conquered, and show that you learned from the experience.

I believe in you, and want to see you succeed in the long term. I am praying for you my friend. God has plans for you ‘thoughts of peace, and not of evil’ Jeremiah 29:11