The Pastor’s Pivot: Are We Restoring Our Pastors Too Quickly?

By Warren Cole Smith - Posted at MinistryWatch:

This week, Brian Houston—the head of the scandal-ridden Hillsong movement—announced he is forming a new church just months after pleading guilty to a DUI charge in California.

This story reminded me again of just how often disgraced pastors make a quick comeback to ministry.

The examples are, like the demons in Mark 5, legion. Just months after Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church spectacularly imploded, Driscoll moved to Arizona and started a new church. Other similar stories include Ted Haggard, Jerry Falwell Jr., Jim Bakker, Todd Bentley, Johnny Hunt, and Carl Lentz. These are all men who have behaved in ways that have biblically disqualified them from ministry who continue to serve in ministry, sometimes with very little time passing from the time of the fall to their restoration.

This week’s story caused me to search scripture and reflect on the necessary and sufficient conditions for restoration. Scripture does not have a succinct, step-by-step cookbook for such matters, but neither is it silent. It does offer a few guidelines and principles.

Continue here.