Is Moral Failure in Pastors a Growing Problem?

I subscribe to the Christian Post and it seems like it has an article at least once a week about some fallen pastor. Are we facing an epidemic of sin in our pastoral ranks? No. There are about 370,000 churches in the U.S. Almost all of them have pastors. That’s a lot of room for temptation, sin, and moral failure. And a few of them do, indeed, fall into scandalous sin. A lot more of them are guilty of subtle sins. False doctrine is a much greater threat to the health of the church but is not nearly as newsworthy.

I worked at a major university. I regularly received stories of moral catastrophe among the 2,000 or so profs at my school. I can assure you moral failure was a much more common occurrence at my university than in the churches in my area.

We do not need to panic as though there is an outbreak of clergy sin. To be sure it is to be mourned, battled, and measures of prevention employed. But the people of God must learn that our trust is in God not our pastor. Our pastors will always fail in one way or another just as the people in the pew do the same. There is no sudden outbreak of sin. It’s the same thing that has plagued man since the garden.

Pray for our pastors, trust God, and remain confident that He will sustain us just as He always has.