President of International Church Growth Ministries, Dr Francis Bola Akin-John, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on how gospel ministers can seek restoration after moral failure and other issues. Excerpts:
There have been outcries over recent moral failures on the parts of gospel ministers with many saying they constitute a slap on Christianity. Do you share this sentiment?
Well, I will look at it from two angles. One, yes it is a slap on the church to the extent that pastors are very crucial. Pastors are supposed to be above board and serve as credible examples. They are the Shepherds of the church. So when one of us falls, it is indeed a dent. What happens to one happens to all. People will say they are all immoral people.
The society will assume we are all the same. They will tend to believe we are all cheats. So, to that extent yes it is a slap. But on the other hands, these things are not new. There are always people who abuse their offices and privileges.
The Bible is awash with people who took advantage of people and their offices. It has always been there. Look at America, look at the Catholic Church. Look at world leaders. You find that leaders generally misbehave and abuse trust reposed in them.
Yes, the church should be an exception but it is sad that these things happen among us too.
But there are those who believe the victims should not have gone public with the dirty details to spare the church. Should these things be covered up?
No, I don’t believe there should be cover-up at all. When things like these happen, people express sentiments and opinions. But we should always go back to the Bible to check. In the Bible, God does not cover the sins of His servants.
Once you start dabbling into sin, God will warn you. But when you don’t repent, God will have no choice than to expose such persons. I always say that if you and I wrote the Bible, we would have yanked off the adulterous affairs of David. We would have spared Abraham and other fathers of faith.
When so-called servants of God dabble into sins; when sins become our way of life, we are going against the dictates of God. It is scriptural to cry out and expose sins. Anybody who is living in sins without repentance will be exposed. Nemesis will soon catch up with them.
We must not cover crimes, abuses or misbehaviours as Christians. We should expose them in love. We should not gloat over the falling of anybody but we should expose especially when the person is not repentant.
Besides, God can orchestrate the exposure. And that is the truth. It is all there in the Bible because God is not the respecter of anybody. If it is once, we can forgive and endure. But once it becomes persistent, it must be exposed.
If a man of God falls, what is the process for restoration?
Galatians 6:1 says if someone is found to have fallen, those standing should restore in the spirit of love, careful not to fall too. When a church leader falls morally, he must be rebuked and corrected. He must be disciplined and recalled from the pulpit by spiritual fathers. That is where accountability and mentorship come in.
That is why a Pastor must have a Pastor that he answers to. He must have a board that he answers to. When the evidence becomes clear that he is at fault, he should be disciplined. It is not a discipline to destroy but to seek the face of God and reconcile with those who have been abused.
You remember Ted Haggard fell into sin and he was covering it up until somebody called in during a live show to say ‘look, I am your male prostitute’. He denied it but the person went on to provide concrete evidence.
Ted Haggard’s spiritual father went to his church the following week and withdrew him from the pulpit. He gave him the process of restoration and started watching him. Haggard was humble enough to go through the process. Today, he is back in ministry though not in that church. He has founded another church. That is how it should be.
The only problem we have is we have lots of pastors who claim someone is their spiritual fathers but do not submit to their authorities. When they fall into errors, they don’t submit themselves to be corrected and restored.
You see a situation where a pastor divorces and marries another woman and still continues on the pulpit. He is not remorseful but carries on as if nothing has happened. They have spiritual fathers that do not call them to order. They just pay their tithes and offerings to them.
There are pastors that sleep around. They have to stop preaching. Pastors that have children out of wedlock must also stop preaching. What they are doing negate the scriptures. They must demonstrate they believe in what they preach.
They must stop preaching and submit to discipline for restoration. I have heard people saying too that only Christianity fights its wounded soldiers. That is a very wicked statement. If a soldier is wounded in battles and you offer to help and the wounded soldier says he is not interested, what do you do?
I have seen situations like that a lot. A pastor keeps sleeping around and keeps saying ‘you cannot discipline me. You are just my spiritual father’. What do you do to such men? We should submit ourselves to authorities. They must withdraw from the pulpit until they can prove they have repented. They must go back to God for restoration until their weaknesses are dealt with. Then they can turn back and preach the gospel. That is how to bring honour and integrity to the pulpit. That is when the society can respect us that we are real and representatives of Christ.
Do moral failures discredit the body of Christ?
To me, it is sad and unfortunate but it has happened all over again. I just hope this can bring revival. But this does not discredit the church at all. We cannot discredit Christ, who says I will build my church and the gate of hell will not prevail over it. It is only men that do not follow Jesus and abuse their offices, taking advantages of followers that are discredited.
God will continue to use men and do wonders. That is why those of us who call ourselves His servants must be careful. We cannot discredit God. We can only discredit ourselves. Once we don’t submit to the leading of God, we will destroy our names. God has people in secret loyal to Him.
We have to be careful that we do not abuse our offices and privileges. We must never molest the women, men and children. We must not use prophecies to hoodwink rich men. We must be careful to be found faithful by men and God.