It seems providential that the Ashley Madison hack happened right as Pastor Resources was launching this new site. If nothing else, the presence of pastors on this list only reminds us how important it is to support this vital part of our community. Infidelity in itself is a terrible thing, but it doesn’t just happen on its own out of nowhere; it is built up to. There are warning signs, alarm bells. Perhaps there are phone calls and text messages, stolen moments, flirtation. And in this, there is hesitation. Seconds, minutes, hours when the pastor sits by himself or with God and asks, “What am I doing?” But more often than not, there’s no one physically there for the pastor in these moments. No one he can go to for encouragement or help, because admitting that he is struggling this way is admitting that he’s human, and somehow, there’s been no marked effort in our community to pay attention to this important fact. After all, pastors are people, and people need to be cared for.
As much of our community remains on a witch-hunt, seemingly excited to see names of pastors exposed, we’d like to instead use this as an opportunity to better understand what is broken in our community. What is the root cause of this problem and how can we best encourage and support you, the pastor?
We’d love to hear from you about this and we’d be thrilled to invite those who have thoughtful things to say to submit content on the topic. Please take some time to comment below. Keep things kind and remember the goal is to encourage others, not tear them down.