If you assume most pastors finish poorly, you’d be wrong. As I look back on all my pastors and professors these last six decades, I see faithful men you’ve never heard of who got home before dark and left a quiet legacy of faithful service. It’s not right for their success to be overshadowed by the failures of a few, but this will be righted in heaven.

Another high-profile pastor resigns in disgrace. For love of power or a fleeting season of forbidden pleasure, he forfeits his hard-earned reputation, his position of authority, and perhaps even his marriage. But the greatest tragedy is that he stains Christ’s reputation on earth, giving skeptics what they think is good reason to continue their rebellion against the King of kings.

When I was in college in the early 1980s, the renowned and plainspoken preacher Vance Havner delivered his sermon titled “Home Before Dark” in our college chapel. By this time, Havner was an octogenarian widower, and it was probably one of his last times preaching the famous sermon. One statement he made that day has profoundly influenced me: “I’ve stood at the fresh grave of many a preacher who should have died 10 years earlier.”

Later, in 1987, after four years of youth ministry, I entered Dallas Theological Seminary. Those were the days of the televangelist scandals: Jim Bakker’s sexual affair and financial infidelity were broadcast to the world in 1987, and Jimmy Swaggart’s hiring of a prostitute was exposed in 1988. These scandals fed the stereotype of corrupt clergymen fleecing the flock. Everyone who wanted an excuse to renounce Christ and belittle his Bride celebrated these scandals.

In seminary chapels at that time, Chuck Swindoll occasionally returned to his alma mater and sternly warned us, reminding the young men preparing for ministry that we’re entrusted with a sacred duty, a charge to keep and a King to please. We mustn’t betray Christ or besmirch his name.

The day I heard Havner’s sermon, I began to pray God would take me home before I brought disgrace on the gospel. Looking back on how God used those warnings in my life, I sense a responsibility to share with a new generation some practical wisdom on finishing well. Here are five warnings and encouragements.

1. Hold Yourself (and Others) to High Standards

There’s no perfect pastor, but all pastors must be above reproach. After all, ministry is where you make Christ’s name great, not yours. On October 22, 1987, Swindoll’s chapel message was on David’s great sin. I still have the Bible in which I wrote down his outline (pictured). He spoke on faithfulness and integrity, on doing what’s right when no one is looking.

We must guard our integrity because pastoral ministry isn’t a place to become mature; it’s for the mature man who knows what’s expected, even if he still has much to learn. Pastors are called by God, affirmed by the church, trained in seminary, and responsible for weekly preaching God’s Word. They should know ministry’s rigors and dangers, and they must proactively guard themselves against the temptation to abuse authority for personal gain and selfish pleasure. Thank God, these things are forgivable, but they’re still inexcusable.

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