CHURCH DISCIPLINE

A man on staff with Chuck Swindoll got sexually involved with his secretary. The church chose not to handle it in public, but rather deal with this privately. The next year, 17 marriages of senior leadership people in the church broke up! Paul is clear that when a leader sins, he/she needs to be publicly rebuked so that others will be warned away from the same sin. 

Jack DeWolf, in a conference on conflict resolution in Spokane, WA, April 30, 1994.

Statistics and Stuff

Any decision to hire such an individual (guilty of sexual misconduct in the past) should be based on a full consideration of several factors, including the following: (1) the nature and severity of the previous misconduct; (2) the frequency of the previous misconduct; (3) how long ago the misconduct occurred; (4) whether the minister received counseling; (5) the competency and effectiveness of any counseling received; (6) the prognosis of the counselor; (7) the likelihood that the minister will repeat the same type of misconduct now; (8) the possibility of legal liability if a jury concludes, on the basis of all the evidence, that the church was negligent in hiring the minister. The same considerations apply if a church learns of previous incidents of misconduct after hiring a minister, since a jury might conclude that the church was negligent in retaining the individual. 

Church Law & Tax Report, March/April, 1993, p. 13.