Flirting with temptation; playing with fire.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” (Proverbs 27:6)

Perhaps the most dangerous place on the church campus is the pastor’s counseling office.

When the minister is shut up in a tight space with a vulnerable female who confides in him the most personal things of her life, often the two people do something completely natural and end up bonding emotionally.

The bonding process is simple: she opens up to him, he sympathizes with her, she reaches out to him, and there it goes.

Many a ministry and a great many marriages have been destroyed in the counseling room.

Can we talk about this?

Rick Warren says if any of his staff even flirt with temptation, he’s coming at them with a baseball bat. And he wants them to do the same for him.

Every pastor needs a baseball-bat wielding friend.

Sometimes we need a buddy to beat some sense into our heads. To speak the uncomfortable truth to us. To risk the relationship in order to save a marriage, a reputation, a ministry.

Let’s talk about ministers and sexual temptation.

The rest of you may leave the room.

Take Ashley Madison.  What were otherwise normal, healthy people thinking when they enrolled in a program which offered confidential adultery?  Is that ever an oxymoron!

Pastors fell for that come-on.  That is the saddest thing I know.

Most illicit affairs, however, did not start on the internet, but with innocent, harmless connecting.  Perhaps it was flirting, sharing a fun experience, playing on the same team.  The two people worked on a project in close proximity or sat together in a small room discussing personal things. They, for want of a better word, “connected.”

They bonded.

Flirt with temptation and although I’m neither a prophet nor the son of one, I can predict with a high degree of accuracy what’s going to happen.

Someone is going to get burned.

“Flee youthful lusts”  says the Scripture in 2 Timothy 2:22.  The recommended treatment for sexual temptation is simple and clear.  Run! Get out of there as fast as you can!

Do not argue with the temptation or the tempter. Do not analyze it, reason with it, explain it, justify it, or try to convert it. Just get out of there.

Flee! Run. Leave. Now.

First, an uncomfortable truth: There really are a number of people in this world whom you could easily fall in love with.  Stated another way, there are numerous individuals–there’s no way to know how many–with whom you could connect deeply and probably have a wonderful marriage with.

So, get that notion out of your head, friend, that says: “I’ve found the love of my life in this new person.”

You are fooling yourself and playing with fire.

No. You. Have. Not.

You may have found one of the fifty or a hundred or five hundred individuals with whom you could bond and fall in love and have a successful marriage.  Big deal.

Now, let’s go on.

I’m going to assume that you did not intentionally put yourself in a position where you would be assaulted by temptation.  You were doing your job, as you saw it, going about your pastoral ministries when suddenly you looked up one day and realized you were snared in the tangled net of a full-blown sexual temptation.

It felt both wonderful and frightening.  “What have I gotten myself into?” you asked yourself again and again.

A typical situation….

You are a pastor.  She has asked you for an appointment. She belongs to another church in the community, but feels she cannot discuss such personal things with her pastor.  In your office, over several visits she opens up and tells you private things. She speaks of her husband’s failings and how needy she is. Perhaps she confesses to having “a thing” for you, or gets the same point across in some other way. Everything inside you is responding. You know full well what is happening here. You are human enough to want what she is offering free of charge and smart enough to know the cost of such a dalliance is beyond anything you’d ever want to pay.

She tells you–or you tell yourself!–that this won’t hurt anyone, that you deserve it.  She admires you so much and thinks you are the greatest man she has ever met.

I’m not blaming her.  I’m not even blaming you. I’m simply saying this is how these things get started.

Now….

You are not stupid. You know you’re playing with fire.  But surely the Lord understands, doesn’t He?

Or, another variation: She does nothing to “come on” to you.  She doesn’t need to. You are the one overdosing on hormones when she is near. The problem is all from you, not from her.

You find yourself wanting to reach out and touch her.

“Youthful lust,” Paul calls this.  He nailed it. Adolescent hormones rage within you.

You are considering doing the dumbest thing in the history of the world.  What you are contemplating will make Esau trading his birthright for a “mess of greens” look like the champion day-trader of all time.

You are now considering swapping your home, the love of your wife and the respect of your children, your entire ministry, and the influence for Jesus Christ built by decades of faithful service for…what?

Her.  For an hour with her?  For an unknown future?

Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?

It’s time to run. Get away.

Once you determine that you are developing feelings for the woman–whether by something she did or your own weaknesses–you should find a way to get out of Dodge immediately. Make up an excuse. Create an emergency.  Prevaricate if you must.

If this is a counseling situation, thank her, tell her something has come up so that you have to end the session, give her the name of a more qualified counselor, and offer a short prayer for God’s blessings upon her.  If she does not take the hint and leave, you get up and walk out of the office.  Tell your secretary on the way out to deal with the lady, gently and firmly.

What if she gets angry or acts hurt or offended?  Answer: I can almost guarantee that she will.  But at the moment, you are “on guard for yourself” (Acts 20:28) and cannot take responsibility for her.

Here are a few observations for what they are worth on matters which pastors should consider….

–1) Few pastors are qualified to be pastoral counselors.

Pastors who see their primary calling as counselors rather than as pastors should consider going full-time into a ministry of pastoral counseling.  For reasons beyond me, the rules seem to change and vocational counselors seem to be more immune to this kind of temptation than pastors.

–2) Pastors should have readily available information on “approved” counselors in the area. They should share this information the first time people call asking about counseling.

–3) Large churches frequently have on staff an entire corps of counselors.  Other ministers in the area will find them a welcome resource.

As a young pastor in a small city without even one professional counselor, I found my schedule literally filled with people from other churches wanting an hour of my time.  These days, that same city has a half-dozen professionally trained counselors who are available and eager to help people.  No pastor in that city needs to spend his time in counseling.

–4) At the most, a typical pastor should confine himself to one session with the individual, long enough to determine the problem and decide to whom to refer him/her.

–5) The quickest way to end a pastor’s ministry is to have someone running from the office accusing him of something inappropriate.  No matter how innocent he is, the charge will follow him forever and many will choose to believe the accuser.

Not every pastor accused of immorality is guilty. But the rumor is there and will follow him forever. A wise pastor will take steps to safeguard himself against this before it occurs.

–6) Ministers can be the most naïve people in the room.  They tend to trust everyone, take people at face value, and “are just sure” this could not happen to them.  But it can and it has.

Let the pastor beware.

Let him be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

–7) A wise pastor will work with everyone on his staff to head this kind of business off long before it starts.  Bring the team together, discuss it, invite in a professional counselor to discuss it. Or, ask your denominational office to send a qualified teacher to lead your ministers to set up safeguards.

And while you’re at it, give everyone there a baseball bat.  (Seriously.) Put their names on theirs.

Tell them what to do with it and when.

Find an old football dummy and set it up outside the church office. Then, lead your team outside and take turns hitting “the dummy” upside the head with the baseball bat. Practice beating some sense into its head.

Repeat the lesson as often as necessary.  Never assume your staff is immune to temptation.  To do so is playing with fire.

 

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “Flirting with temptation; playing with fire.

  1. This is an incredible amount of wisdom from start to finish. Every time I started thinking about a point to ponder, it was there in the next sentence. This is perfectly written and everyone in ministry and counseling should read it. I can’t fully relate to even considering straying with another person simply because, among many reasons (God and not wanting Jesus to be disappointed in me, two of them) new romance sounds exhausting…but your wisdom is more sound and scriptural 😉

    Truly this is profound and timely. Thank you.

  2. Besides the reference to Rick Warren, I believe that this is truthfully something that needs to be posted in every Pastor’s office…I feel Pastors fall from Grace for many reasons but we all know who the tempter,deceiver is! Satan is taking out one after another Pastor, which in turn hurts a congregation as if there was a death in the family, because actually it is! To have a Pastor fall from Grace is devastating to a trusting congregation, before long the church is ripped in half and hearts are so broken it can lead to physical issues on members of that Pastor’s church! Satan knows when to strike at each Pastor…they are sooo loving, so tender hearted, so caring…it just takes one thought at the right time and wham, you’ve had it…my heart breaks for Pastors who fall from Grace in this way…the devastation is like a simple pebble dropped in water the reproduction of circles out hit, each one is bigger than the last, it is truly like the effects of death on that Pastor’s family and the people who look to him for guidance as a congregation to bring them the truth from God’s Word!
    Thank you for this well put article…but this doesn’t pick up the pieces once it’s happened to your church family…I hope it does help other Pastor’s to not fall prey to the Satanic forces behind it…

  3. If anyone reading this article is here because your pastor, seminary professor, or spiritual leader, has begun flirting with you or has begun a sexual relationship with you, please check out http://www.clergysexualmisconduct.com. This goes in-depth and will help you get a good understanding of what is happening. Consider this your sign from God, if you are trying to make sense of all this!

    Also, if you are reading this article because this occurred in your church, I definitely suggest visiting https://clergysexualmisconduct.com/what-is-csm%3F. I hope this helps you make sense of all this. It’s a difficult topic.

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