Besides being stand ins for Christ, Church communities often have unrealistic expectations for ministers as servants, routinely expecting ministers to work or be on call 24/7. In addition to being masters of many domains, they are supposed to be successful preachers, teachers, evangelists, healers, sacramentalists, administrators, and program managers. It is no wonder that 90 percent of pastors feel inadequate in their jobs and 25 percent have experienced being fired from their positions because they could not meet the high expectations of their congregations (Steinke, 2006).
Denominations have failed to protect ministers or educate churches and church boards about what to realistically expect regarding the role of ministers. Conferences, synods, and presbyteries all have agendas that are composed of both gold and clay. All seek to further the kingdom of God and to see that kingdom life reflected here on earth in the local Church. Unfortunately, the competing agenda often has to do with numbers: how many churches, how many parishioners in each church, and budgets. The denominational conference often finds itself in the most uncomfortable and perhaps untenable position of serving both God and mammon. The result is covert and sometimes overt pressure on the pastor to be both a talented spiritual leader of a community of believers and an experienced manager of a small-business enterprise.
If clergy are seen as the intermediaries between parishioner and God, then they can become a metaphorical fault line that can shake a church to its core when they stumble and fall. Often the conference finds itself thrust into a position of having to choose in Solomonic fashion between the pastor and his congregation. Church polity tends to promote grace and mercy, but praxis is a much grayer area. When the conference leaders have to come down on one side or the other, it is likely they will side with the local Church community.
While denominations tend to promote a policy of grace and mercy, the policy is often in tension with a theology rooted in retribution rather than reconciliation. This is often expressed through expulsion of the pastor when dealing with clergy conduct. Whether the theological form is described as retribution, recapitulation, or ransom, the result is satisfying the requirement of punishment when there has been sin (Miller, 2010). Retribution theology reinforces the very elements it condemns by blurring the lines between sin
Paul asserts that the atoning work of Christ is about the reconciliation of God to humankind and people to each other (Ephesians 2:13–16; Romans 8:1–15). This social theology or theology of relationship is a systems approach and is like new wine in the life of the Church. As Anderson describes, “When the Spirit of God assumes concrete form in the world, He reforms man in the image of the incarnate Son of God; this concrete form is expressed corporately through the incarnational community” (1979, p. 581). The incarnational community represents the fellowship of Christ in its catholicity; that is, each person participates in God’s redemptive encounter with the world in a solidarity of relationship to Him and by extension to others (Anderson, 1979, p. 579). Solidarity with God is expressed in sacrificial love, for God is love. The pastor and congregation must be willing to identify with Christ, empty themselves, and yield to Christ’s spirit of acceptance that puts all people on the same level with the same limits (Anderson, 1990). This sacrificial love on the part of all members becomes a new rubric for relationship between the pastor and his family, congregation, and the Church conference. Sacrificial love becomes a medium through which balance and wholeness can be attained, redefining the role of the pastor; it also offers the community a means for safety and security that every member of the Church community might experience, including the pastor.
The apostle Paul noted in Romans 12:2 that spiritual health is related to being balanced in one’s mind, accomplished through the redemptive work of Christ. On this foundation, a system’s approach to clergy sexual misconduct embraces the fundamental concept that recovery occurs when people are reconciled to themselves, others, and the environment. Essentially, recovery begins through Christ at the core level of one’s internal neurology. Behavioral change, cognitive restructuring, and affective processing only occur when neural pathways are altered. These neural pathways are altered when all elements of the clergy system begin to function in intimate I-Thou ways of relating, rather than the objectifying I-It, which is really at the heart of sexual misconduct (Kramer, 2004).
Health and Wholeness
The story of David, the second greatest leader of Israel, may provide a cautionary tale, but there is another biblical story that is more about health and wholeness. The story of Moses, the greatest leader of Israel, provides us with four principal focus areas for the incorruptible leader:
1.Strong character foundation
2.Spiritual formation
3.Spiritual direction
4.Spiritual support
The story doesn’t start off well. Moses is raised as an adopted son of Pharaoh in the lap of self-absorption. The royal family of Egypt fancied themselves to be gods. Moses was characterized by the people who knew him as self-centered, uncaring of others, and impulsive, but of the most dangerous kind—at one point he killed a man in a fit of righteous indignation.
However, Moses had several things going for him. First, he did not become a leader overnight. His character was forged and formed in the crucible of his exile in the desert where he spent much of his adult life. The character foundation he brought with him to the desert was fundamentally a healthy one. He was likely securely attached because he had been deeply loved by two mothers while growing up. He neither needed nor sought a leadership role to build his sense of self. He had a core spirit of humility about his strengths and weaknesses. Most important, when he was called by God, he never actually saw himself as a leader, but as a follower of the leading Spirit of God.
When the burden of leading became too much, he didn’t compartmentalize or burn out. He turned for spiritual direction to his father-in-law, Jethro, who helped him think through how to share the burden of leadership, thereby managing the needs of the people. He took the spiritual direction of Jethro with him his whole life and was not above asking for and embracing support from others. During the battle of Rephidim, the Israelites were successful against the Amalekites as long as Moses held his staff forth. When he became too tired to keep the staff aloft, Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s arms in support, enabling Israel to prevail (Exodus 17). Every leader needs to cultivate healthy character and spiritual formation, gain spiritual direction, and develop a healthy spiritual support system. For Moses, the greatest insurance against corruption were these character and spiritual factors. (See chapter 3 for more prevention-related issues.)
Health is reflected in a continuous process and the ability of a living system to respond to a wide assortment of challenges to its integrity (Steinke,