Podcast Episode #125
Moral failures can be devastating to a church and to a church staff. Today, we cover nine specific ways to deal with this often cataclysmic event in the life of a church.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- There is an inclination to keep quiet when things go wrong in a church, but that often hurts more than helps.
- Christ-like grace is forgiving but it understands that sin has its consequences.
- The transition from denial to anger is often quick in the wake of a crisis.
- It typically takes at least a year for a church to recover from a moral failure on staff.
- The pastor can become an easy target for misdirected anger after a crisis in a church.
- Once a moral failure has occurred on a church staff, the church’s character is redefined.
- There are few occurrences in the church which require greater leadership than when dealing with moral failure on staff.
The nine keys to surviving a moral failure on church staff are:
- Be as transparent as possible.
- Understand the different parties impacted by the failure.
- Demonstrate grace in the midst of fallenness.
- Understand that the church will go through the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
- Be prepared to be the object of anger.
- Recovery and acceptance is usually longer than we anticipate.
- The church will likely lose members.
- The church’s character is redefined.
- Strong leadership is required.
Episode Sponsor
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Feedback
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