“Whenever a pastor falls, one has to ask: Where were the elders?  Sometimes, of course, the pastor can be good at hiding his faults; At other times, elders just turn a blind eye to peccadilloes, assuming that the pastor is a good chap and could not possibly be heading in a  spiritually lethal direction.”

I was reminded by events elsewhere yesterday how much I rely on my elders.   The task of the elder is to pastor the pastor.  If they do not do it, nobody else will.  That means there will be times when the elder has to confront his pastor because he sees that his teaching, or his life, or maybe both, are starting to wander from the path of truth and godliness.   Whenever a pastor falls, one has to ask: Where were the elders?  Sometimes, of course, the pastor can be good at hiding his faults; At other times, elders just turn a blind eye to peccadilloes, assuming that the pastor is a good chap and could not possibly be heading in a  spiritually lethal direction.

Unfortunately, ordination does not immunize one from total depravity and its consequences.  When a pastor falls, there but for the grace God goes every other Christian.

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