3 Reasons Why Churches have a Moral Failure Problem
Another week of headlines brings more of the same. Yet another high-profile Christian leader resigns in moral failure. Dueling emotions well up-sadness and anger. Texting with a friend the other day, I confessed jealousy towards lawyers. As a minister, I’d take the jokes they make about lawyers over the jokes they make about us. It gets even worse, though. All Christians are implicated, not just preachers and pastors. The public hypocritical sins of a few tarnishes the image of the church as well as the reputation of Jesus. It’s not surprising that participation in church has declined so rapidly over the last few decades. When I talk to college students and friends who have left church about their reasons for departure, hypocrisy always shows up in the conversation.
Why do we see so many public moral failures from Christian leaders? I’ve wondered this for a long time. I saw it more than once as a kid. Later, when I began my first ministry assignment, I saw first-hand the devastation caused by a leader’s moral failure. The disorientation from that event lasted years. Distrust lingered and festered into long term doubt for so many of those kids, teens, and adults. Many ultimately walked away from church. Some even walked away from Jesus.
In my upcoming book, “Broken But Beautiful: Why Church is Still Worth It”, I make the case that Jesus offers us immense beauty and flourishing through the spiritual family of a local church. Saying, “church is still worth it,” swims against the tide, yet I believe it to be true. However, no one will listen until we clean up our mess.
So why do churches so often have moral failures among their leadership? How can we prevent this?
1. Celebrity Culture: Consumerism exists as the dominant posture of modern life. We make meaning and search for happiness through consumption. Meaning making, since the earliest of times, has invoked heroes. In our contemporary moment of heightened consumerism, we’ve traded heroes for celebrities. We’ve swapped virtue and sacrifice for glitz and glamour. Tragically, both consumerism and celebrity culture have swept into the church. Trends from the 70s and 80s only accelerated with the age of social media. Many churches now form cohesion and identity around the brand of a celebrity pastor.
It looks like this. Fifteen years ago, a mentor told me this story. After years of growth and success, a church’s lead pastor retired. An exhaustive search developed for the next lead minister. My mentor advised the search committee and proposed the idea of multiple leaders sharing the lead role, as well as the preaching responsibility. The search committee pushed back early and often. “We need one main leader. We need a face for the church.” Shocked, my friend responded, “Why can’t Jesus be our face?” I’ve long remembered this eerie exchange. They found a face, a very talented one. For several years, the church looked to be doing well. Then, suddenly, the face of the church resigned due to a public moral failure, leaving a wake of distrust and doubt. Celebrities often believe their own hype. They feel like normal rules don’t apply to them. When a celebrity pastor begins to feel the disconnect, they hide. They develop a secret life to cope, until it’s not so secret anymore.
2. A Desire to Protect the Institution: In the aftermath of a public moral failure, one question always looms large. “Didn’t anyone see this coming?” An affirmative answer almost always follows. Yes, someone saw it coming. But more often than not, early signals met damage control, not confession and repentance. The abuse scandals which have plagued both Catholic and Protestant churches have clearly demonstrated this. Many instinctually worked to protect the institution. They cared more about the reputation of the church than justice for the victims and the future protection of the vulnerable.
Besides the misplaced priorities of that approach, a large irony surfaces. In the long run, this only damages the institution even more. What is worse? A priest/minister who abused children, or a church that consistently covered up priests/ministers abusing children. The latter only adds to the sin and increases the former. As church, we must make some crucial decisions. Who do we want to be? What do we want to be known for? Do we want to be known for confession and repentance or secrecy and hypocrisy? While challenging, the former honors the name of Christ while the latter directly contributes to people walking away from Jesus.
3. Lack of Restorative Pathway: The Bible offers a rhythm for how to handle sin. Scriptures like Matthew 18:15-20, Galatians 6:1-6, and James 5:16-20 show the power of gentle confrontation, ethical accountability, confession, repentance, and restoration. In short, the Bible offers a restorative pathway in contrast to a permanent banishment. Too often, our churches mimic our culture in simply casting off our villains. We’d rather punish and put away than devote ourselves to the hard work of restoration. Out of sight and out of mind, we just continue on as if their sin was an aberration. People see this. Other leaders see this and fear the lifelong banishment. Therefore, they retreat into secrecy as their sin worsens.
Sin is certainly serious and deserves a just reckoning. But justice must include the opportunity for restoration, even as that will be complicated and will likely require boundaries. We must create church cultures where leaders can confess and repent before their sin gets out of hand and hurts others. Many high-profile leaders, enmeshed in celebrity culture, simply get to a point where they don’t know where to go to confess their sin. A healthy church culture will demand humility and transparency among its leaders. It will insist that leaders regularly say, “I was wrong” and “I’m sorry” about seemingly minor things for this will help prevent the major tragedies from coming.
Every specific church has a choice to make. What type of culture do you want to create? Together, we can work to prevent moral failures. When we do, fewer will be harmed. Fewer will have a reason to walk away. This healthier church culture will do what we’re meant to do-point to Jesus.
