{"id":695319,"date":"2019-10-30T02:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomrainer.com\/?p=695319"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:37:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:37:33","slug":"eight-reasons-long-term-pastors-still-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/eight-reasons-long-term-pastors-still-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Reasons Long-term Pastors Still Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Chuck Lawless<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We all know stories of long-term pastors \u2013 leaders who\u2019ve been in the ministry for years \u2013 who still fall morally. We grieve when we hear the stories, and we wonder how it can happen to ministry veterans. Based on my studies of how Satan attacks leaders, here are some reasons even long-term pastors fall.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>\u201cSuccess\u201d leads them to let their guard down.<\/strong> The more \u201csuccessful\u201d pastors are, the easier it is to assume, \u201cThat will never happen to me.\u201d Their thinking sounds like this: \u201cAfter all, God has always blessed my ministry, hasn\u2019t He? He won\u2019t let this happen to me.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Longer ministry = more opportunities to fall.<\/strong> This reason is really simple. The more time pastors spend with more people, the more opportunity they have to get wrongly connected with someone. Longer ministries demand more awareness of falling\u2014not less.<\/li>\n<li><strong>They\u2019ve learned to hide in the ministry.<\/strong> Busyness and excellent speaking skills can cover a lot of private sin. Public ministry does not always include private accountability. What looks great on the outside isn\u2019t always so pure on the inside.<\/li>\n<li><strong>They never really developed spiritual disciplines.<\/strong> I speak to a lot of pastors who candidly admit that Bible study and prayer have always been struggles. They\u2019ve searched for a deep relationship with God and have never really found it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ministry has worn down their defenses.<\/strong> I\u2019ve not met any pastors who started ministry defeated and discouraged. I\u2019ve met many, though, who are now in that state. Sometimes emotional and spiritual fatigue drives them to wrong solutions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Their own marriages have been strained.<\/strong> Sometimes their spouses feel second (or worse) in the line of the pastor\u2019s priorities, and they\u2019ve felt that way for a long time. Marital neglect has led to long-term emotional and physical separation \u2013 and the pastor wrongly looks elsewhere for comfort.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mid-life crises happen.<\/strong> They really do. Leaders who figure out they haven\u2019t reached their dreams battle their own emotions. Some feel hurt, alone, disrespected, and tired. Others have had success, but they thought they\u2019d see more by now. Weakness leads to disaster.<\/li>\n<li><strong>They\u2019ve seen others restored.<\/strong> I tread softly here, recognizing views differ on whether fallen pastors can be restored. I also affirm ministries that walk alongside fallen leaders to bring them through the defeat. My point is simply this: the enemy is so evil he convinces some folks to go astray with these words: \u201cWell, you can be restored, too. This action won\u2019t cost you much.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Take time now to pray for some long-term pastors you know.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What other reasons would you add?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Chuck Lawless We all know stories of long-term pastors \u2013 leaders who\u2019ve been in the ministry for years \u2013 who still fall morally. We grieve when we hear the stories, and we wonder how it can happen to ministry veterans. Based on my studies of how Satan attacks leaders, here are some reasons even&#8230;","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":695321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,177,194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-lead","category-preaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eight Reasons Long-term Pastors Still Fall | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Based 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