With reports of a local pastor’s resignation from his ministry for reasons of infidelity, those of us fortunate enough to escape the same pitfall by the grace of God experience a wide range of emotions and an avalanche of thoughts.

My default response whenever I hear of such unfortunate and grievous turns of events is 1 Corinthians 10:12 – Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

No one is immune. Everyone is vulnerable. The moment you think you’re morally invincible then the enemy comes in like a flood and plunders your pastoral stewardship.

So in sad circumstances such as these, men of God must take stock of their own lives and redouble their efforts to fight sin and pursue righteousness.

There are so many other things that could be said about this. The obvious are pray for the man, his family, and his church for God to take what Satan has meant for evil and somehow turn it to good. Pray that the gospel so grips those dealing with the fallout that casualties from the debacle will be kept at a minimum. Avoid gossiping about the situation and contributing to rumor or judgment. And no doubt, a great deal more. I resist going too far for the distrust of my own heart in unnecessary commenting about another man’s demise or another church’s misfortune.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t plead for this redemptive response to such a painful development in our community.

Pray for me, Greg, the elders, deacons and any other man of God you know for his relentless ability to watch and pray that he might not fall into temptation knowing the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41).

For a super-redemptive list of ten things to pray for your pastor, church leader, favorite preacher, etc. in light of these things, I commend to you this message by John Piper called Avoiding Sexual Sin. His original title for the talk was Ten Steps to Sexual Sin for Christian Leaders and How Not to Take Them.

It is well worth the read and this pastor would be most grateful for such specific prayers on his behalf.  I suspect any of my brethren would.