Who is qualified to lead a church congregation? I asked myself that question when I saw an article the other day notifying the public that a convicted sex offender and child molester was an executive manager for a local church. This person has been on staff at the church since 2020 and apparently the leadership in the church is well aware of this individual’s past. I’m not going to name the person as it is irrelevant to my point. It’s not like there is a big secret or something because if you did a quick internet search of the man you would find plenty of news articles talking about a teacher having sex with one of his students. The real tragedy in this situation is that many Christians take the magic wand of grace and forgiveness to a sick level of sweeping things under the rug.
I don’t need to know what conversations happened behind closed doors between the elders and this individual. I don’t need to know how someone is reformed or redeemed. It is great when people turn from their sick, perverted and wicked ways to find Christ. We should all celebrate that. What I have a problem with is that this type of person is not qualified to lead a church or a flock of people. One phrase comes to my mind when I think of a church leader and that is a person above reproach. What does above reproach mean? If you look up the biblical definition of above reproach it means that this person exhibits the lifestyle and characteristics of an individual who lives an untarnished life with high integrity. This doesn’t mean that the person is without sin as we are all sinner’s.
Being qualified to lead means that other people should respect this individual, the community should hold this person to a higher standard based on their role in the church body and aspire to learn and increase their biblical knowledge through him. When we start looking at the biblical standard for church leadership, it is pretty clear that a child molesting sex offender has no place in any kind of church leadership role.
Elders are not qualified to lead if they hire a sex offender.
Based on the same standard found in Timothy, this elder board is not qualified to lead as well. Their atrocious selection of a child molester to act as a leader in the church not only fails the biblical qualifications to lead but shows their ignorance to the passages concerning biblical leaders. We should not have ignorant leadership bypassing biblical standards and painting them over with grace and forgiveness. Just because you show someone grace in their transgressions does not mean that they are now somehow qualified to be a pastor of a church. Forgiveness is between God, the victim and the molester, it doesn’t involve a church hiring an individual. Here is the main set of verses that the Bible lays out describing who is qualified to lead a church.
1 Timothy 3:2 New American Standard Bible
2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, skillful in teaching,
Titus 1:6-7 New American Standard Bible
6 namely, if any man is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of indecent behavior or rebellion. 7 For the overseer must be beyond reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not overindulging in wine, not a bully, not greedy for money,
If you look at the verses in Titus, I am pretty sure that molesting a child while you are a teacher qualifies as “indecent behavior”. So, we have an elder board in this situation that is either biblically illiterate, rebellious to the word of God or flat out does not care what the word of God says.
Before I get an ear full about Paul being redeemed from the child molesting favor crowd, let me remind you that God chose Paul for his mission and elevated him to the ministry to be a witness. Plus, Paul was never a child molester. People need to be very, very careful of claiming that God led them to do x, y or z. Most of that perceived God led me nonsense is a self-sanctified path that was not ordained by God himself. Remember that Paul wrote 1 Timothy and Titus. The above verses that I quoted are Paul’s words, a man chosen by God. Paul himself numerous times specifically said above reproach, and he meant it. Paul also included indecent behavior as a disqualifier for being in leadership of a church. I don’t care how anyone tries spins this, there is no place in church leadership for pedophiles. None what-so-ever.
If the church wants to be taken seriously then it needs to take the words of the Bible seriously. Christians are being watched every single day by a secular world. The actions or inactions of the church have many consequences for the salvation of those who have yet to accept Jesus. Take to heed the words of Paul and do not twist and turn them to fit your personal preferences. God is watching, the world is watching, and people like me who won’t let you get by with sweeping things under the rug are watching.