I'm not exactly sure where I stand on the issue.
Some pastors behave so egregiously that I don't think that any discerning congregation members would have them be a pastor or that they could in fact pastor anyone.
Good point.
However, that's not to say that all have "fallen" so far that they couldn't be restored. Or that they didn't behave poorly BEFORE they became believers but are successful pastors today.[/QUOTE]
True. The only foundation for prerequisites from the perspective stated in the OP are those outlined within scripture. When they compromise those, that is when they have no business behind a pulpit.
Sampson is a story of a Pastor/Judge who "fell" but then became faithful for 25 years before he "fell" again. But then God forgave him and he sacrificed himself for Israel while killing thousands of the enemy.
Once Sampson disqualified himself as a judge, at the point he went too far, in the eyes of the Lord, it wasn't until he was ready to bring down the stone structure upon himself and those in attendance that the Lord restored his strength. That was his last breath.
There's obvious reasons to restore a pastor and then less obvious. We don't want to restore a Child Molester....but maybe a murderer? Maybe someone who incited riots to break out. Maybe a con artist....maybe.
I once served under a scumbag preacher, David, who landed himself in prison for laundering money they handed over to him. He laundered through his institution money from federal agents he thought was drug cartel monies from Central America. He lied under oath when claiming that his wife had no knowledge of what he was doing, which she absolutely did with her padding the offering plates with that money.
Getting scared and wanting to get away, he even ran to the West coast right before his sentencing. They were just about to catch up with him when he gave himself up. They then set him down and told him that if he continued to fight them through appeals, they would charge his wife Tammy who lied to them, but whom they knew had also helped him in his laundering scheme, they threatened to take her down along with him, sending their children to foster care.
So, he chose to not appeal and serve the full ten year sentence. He is now back behind a pulpit of charismatic nonsense of the stripe that he parsed out, misleading a new group of people as his following, and working his way back into a larger facility every few years. He has no business behind a pulpit, but institutionalism, which is not under elders of biblical caliber, pushes men like him to the forefront and limelight. positions they enjoy, and institutionalism has that right.
What's even worse is that, right before he ran prior to sentencing, he had the audacity to stand before his congregation and blame God for allegedly having put him in that situation! He clearly, being a liar, and daring to call that wife of his "pastor Tammy," all that filth on open, public display for all to see and hear, it was sickening. The institutional model is the only thing that will have trash like him and his wife as their leadership, along with his trashy following. I hope he didn't raise up trashy kids like him and his wife. Sometimes trash begets trash.
So, generally speaking, the only thing I stand apposed to is the false idea that the institutional model is God-breathed rather than man-made. History bears out to us just how man-made the institutional model really is by comparison. Some are so deeply immersed in that model, having never really partaken of a true fellowship, defend that model as if it were God-breathed, thinking that they are experiencing biblical fellowship while looking at the backs of other people's heads, with some even attending cell groups and Bible studies, also thinking that those band-aids are what fellowship is all about.
How quaint indeed. The day is soon to come when all the institutions will either bow their knee to culture and government demands for conformance, or they will close their doors under the tax burdens, fines placed upon them, and perhaps even violence and destruction of their communal property. Camela is just the kind of person to start that trend once she is cheated into office next month. The illegitimately restored pastors will become the friends of the new, world-wide, ecumenical religion soon to come...
Thanks for sharing.
MM