Pastor resigned

[Archivist]

At my church one of our pastors retired after 29 years. Before we got a new pastor we had an intentional interim pastor for about a year. I think that it was a good thing--it allowed the opportunity to clear things out before the new pastor arrived. For example, the interim pastor spent time going through the membership rolls and removing those who hadn't attended in over one year without cause (like military service).

 

[Sketcher]

My church's lead pastor resigned and it has affected my wife. She was part of his staff and she was able to see his personality from a unique perspective and is also a good friend of his wife. When he resigned, he provided the church with an explanation that the church was not growing, he needed to work on himself, go into the corporate world, etc., but did not go into specifics. My wife knows more about the unaddressed problems: pride, failure too listen to others, too much power/failure to delegate, lack of Christ centered-ness and Kingdom values. She wants to talk to somebody about it because it has shaken her faith to have witnessed a so-called man of God lead a church for so long and now leave the church without any accountability to his real problems. She doesn't want to stir up any gossip among other church members. Do you think this is something she should discuss with the new pastor or other church members?

There are two dimensions to this - personal, and structural. The structural end of it can be addressed to help protect against this from happening again with a new pastor if the elders are willing. Fewer responsibilities for an individual pastor combined with additional accountability will show pastors with similar proclivities that this isn't the church for them to rule over.

The personal end - I don't know. But pastors tend to go to other churches after they quit, so he'll likely be out of everyone's hair.