Observations on Carl Lentz and the Qualifications for Ministry: A Word for Pastors

Many of you have already heard of Carl Lentz's dismissal from his church because of what seems to be a long lasting affair with one or more women. Let me first say, I don't really care to jump on the bandwagon of people saying, I told you so. Largely, I don't think it is helpful to attribute a desire for other women as something with which only people with bad theology struggle. There are pastors who can be completely qualified when they go into ministry and become disqualified, and so this is not a post about how only disqualified ministers commit adultery. 

Secondly, I will and forever say that everyone I know is an adulterer. We are unfaithful to God even as Christians and therefore unfaithful to our spouses in various ways. We are breakers of the covenant by our sinful nature. This doesn't mean that all adultery is the same. Most people are adulterers in their desires but not their actions. Some are adulterers in their thoughts, some in what they watch, others in how they interact with women, and still others by actually becoming physical with other women. No one is clean but there are "better" and worse manifestations of a sin. 

For instance, a person may hate his brother, which is the seed of murder, as Jesus says, and that sin is worthy of hell, but there is an expression of depravity in actually physically murdering one's brother that goes far beyond the hatred. Likewise, a desire is not a sin but the enacting of the desire is and to the degree that one enacts the desire is the degree to which his lack of self control has left the desire unchecked. 

However, having qualified my statements with these above, I want to also say that Carl Lentz was never qualified to be a pastor and his adultery is merely one of many proofs of that fact. The fact that he was never a one-woman-man, as Paul describes it, is seen in his behavior throughout his ministry and in his very ministry itself. A qualified man may fall into the fullest expression of a sin but an unqualified man almost always will. There is a reason why sexual immorality characterizes false teachers and the wicked world in general. It is the last stop on the train out of Eden. Again, it is possible for anyone to have traveled so far away that he makes it to that stop but some people have lived their whole lives at that station and were never in Eden. I believe that this was evident long ago in the life and ministry of Carl Lentz. 

Let's begin with the most controversial, which is the fact that he became a pastor at a young age. Despite the fact that Paul warns Timothy not to set anyone in place who is a novice, which I take to mean someone who is not a seasoned Christian who has grown up in a solid Christian atmosphere of discipleship, we put young men in the pulpit because they went to seminary where they magically became qualified due to the fact that they can now quote some Greek and put a three point sermon together. Many young men are put in the pulpit with even less than that. But pastors are referred to as "elders" for a reason. They are "older men" in the faith. They have been seasoned. I am not arguing that they all must be physically older, but that a seasoned younger man is a rarity and the pattern is more often that one becomes a seasoned Christian, especially in our heavily abbreviated Christian culture that exposes God's seed to very little water at a time. A younger man in the ministry is a danger for this reason alone but there is more than this that makes youth a threat and that is the issue of beauty.

 He will, if for nothing else, often be more attractive, simply by way of his youth, to the younger women in the congregation. It's funny to say but you kind of want the old man who looks like a troll. That's the opposite of what most churches are looking for. I remember when I was hired at the age of 28 years old that one of the elders said, "Our church doesn't have many people but now that we have a handsome pastor we might attract more people." We're looking for the more handsome because we are trying to attract people using the wrong means. Although no one likes getting old and uglier, I actually thank God that I have this consolation to the quality of "trollness" I have acquired through sickness, weight gain and age, so that I no longer have to deal with such nonsense. But many churches still think this way and so they want the youngest most attractive pastors they can get. This dynamic makes ministry all the more perilous and apt toward producing situations where adulterous desires, both on the part of the pastor and on the part of the women in the congregation, can take hold and come to fruition.

Lentz also displayed a large amount of immodesty in his ministry. He looked for opportunities to take his shirt off to show his ripped physique. Whereas most of us start out as naive in thinking that women do not lust over men when they see their chests and abs, it only takes one or two times to learn that this is a myth. I remember being shocked by this when I was younger but once I discovered that what I had been told was a lie, modesty compelled me to cover up in the same way we tell women to cover up. 

But immodesty is not only in how one dresses but in how one acts with the opposite sex. It is signaling to the other that you are sexually available to them. This can be done with words or body language while one is fully covered up to the hilt in clothing. It is being flirtatious or talking about things that should only be discussed between a husband and wife. Often, it is becoming emotionally tied to someone by sharing things one does not feel comfortable sharing with his or her spouse. Whatever form the immodesty takes, it is often the second to the last stop out of Eden.

One might also note here a common foolish practice I have observed among many pastors, and that is to be alone with a woman who is not your wife. I cannot tell you how many times this situation has presented itself in ministry and how many times I have had to say, "Keep that door open," "I can't drive with you alone there," "I'm bringing my wife," or "I'll be bringing my son," etc. As daunting as it may sound, however, it takes the littlest of effort really. I confess that it is not really because I was worried that I or the other person would do anything but simply that it takes any possibility of even the thought of it off the table. No opportunity is created for the flesh to wonder. Yet, it is painfully obvious that if one is not alone with a woman it becomes a little difficult to fall with her. A pattern of accountability is often not in place and we wonder why our flesh takes advantage of such a situation. 

Another thing to consider is that pastors must be mature enough to have a sense of sufficiency in Christ so that they do not seek it in the opposite sex. Anything left over should go to one's wife. There should be nothing left for anyone else. If you have someone in ministry who needs the attention of the opposite sex in order to feel valuable or alive, that someone is not qualified for the ministry. 

Pastors are also fathers to the congregation, not young men on the prowl. The women in our congregations are family we are there to watch over and love, not romantically but as family. They are our mothers and sisters and daughters. Once we are married, they are no longer prospects for intimate relationships. They are family only, and any breach of that is incestuous in our thinking. The man who commits adultery, in mind or deed, with someone in his congregation has forgotten that, and is not qualified for the ministry. Women are preyed upon enough in their lives and they themselves are distorted in their sexuality. They need our help to grow out of that depravity and they need a safe place, the home of God, to do so. They don't need another predator or man in their life lacking self control to feed into their destruction. We are to be shepherds of these sheep but if they become objects of desire in place of our wives then our only possible relationship to them at that point is that of wolves. 

Furthermore, it is clear that Lentz needed to be accepted by the group as a peer and not a father. This was obvious in his interactions with Justin Bieber. He wanted to roll with the boys rather than be a man who taught the boys how to be men. Again, this is a telltale sign of immaturity in that the person lacks a sense of sufficiency in Christ.

It should also be said that there is a certain greed in what Carl Lentz did. I was talking with my wife about it and if you have seen pictures of his wife, she is a stunningly beautiful woman. In fact, I would venture to say that she is far more beautiful of a woman than the woman he slept with. I would further speculate that she is likely far more beautiful than all of the women he slept with if there are many more. But that isn't always why men commit adultery. It reminds me of the story Nathan tells David after he has committed adultery with Bathsheba. He could have had any woman he wanted in the kingdom and God would have given her to him but he wanted what God did not give him. He was the rich man with all of the sheep but nothing is more desirable to one who is spoiled than having what he doesn't. It's all he can think about. His cup runneth over but he can't enjoy drinking it because he is too busy wondering how much wine is left in the barrel that he didn't get. Adultery is just the fruit of a life lived in the flesh. The flesh is never satisfied because it has replaced God with itself, its own pleasures, and now must feed an infinite black hole with anything and everything that it can, never satisfied, never filled. If it is given a throne higher than all thrones except God's, by the very side of God Himself, it wants God's throne instead. This greed, this spoiled brattiness, that all fallen men have, it is carnal, and if one's life is characterized by a dissatisfaction in what he has, it is a major sign that he is not a mature Christian and is not qualified for ministry.

Finally, the qualifications of a pastor can be seen in the type of people he produces in his ministry. Paul says to the Corinthians that they are his letter proving his qualifications as an apostle. Lentz's ministry produced people like himself. Even if they are not theologically and morally shallow, immodest in their dress and behavior, and driven by emotionalism, which I think many in his congregation actually are, they also show a severe lack of basic Christian love, which is the worst you can say about any church anywhere. This man was in sin, it was painfully obvious, but no one did anything about it. Gossip went every which way but no one loved the very man they believed God had placed over them as their shepherd. Now, I don't believe Lentz ever was this for them but they did. They believed that he guarded them from wolves and when the wolves turned on him they watched and even joined in. 

These types of false churches exist all over. They are not only seen in their bad theology and ethics, their emotionalism in singing and preaching, their gimicks that replace the Spirit of God in an attempt to attract the fleshly eye, but in the way they deal with sin in the congregation when they actually believe someone is sinning or has sinned. If someone sins, they ignore it until it is brought out and shamed. Once shamed, they join in on the condemnation of the person, expelling him or her from the group even when the person has repented. One congregation not only expelled their former pastor from the church but from the very town and his own house after he had repented. But it was supposedly OK because they were really mad and they needed time and counseling to deal with his betrayal. And that is precisely what displays the problem. Bad theology and ethics is evidence of a Christless ministry. Oh, yes, Christ is proclaimed a lot in name but the cross is not seen as the sufficient answer to sin. We still need our pound of flesh. And now you have a church displaying an attitude that is a very denial of the gospel itself. It either looks past sin in a denial of the holiness to which the cross calls us or it denies the cross in its need to seek retribution for the sins committed. And that is the fruit of unqualified men in the pulpit. They don't plant and cultivate gardens because they aren't real gardeners. They destroy the roots and then wonder why all of the trees died and there is no good fruit to eat. 

The truth of the matter is that anyone can drift slowly out of Eden and end up at the furthest desert from no matter who you are, but some people build their houses in that desert, and it is no surprise when we discover that their fruit is thorns and thistles. All of the above indicate that Carl Lentz is not a one-woman-man, and therefore, was never qualified, something known long before his train made that last stop.

May we all pray for Carl Lentz, his beautiful wife and children, and the group of believers he betrayed, not merely in committing adultery during ministry but by taking the ministerial role to begin with, who need to be discipled in the truth. May he one day become qualified and may we all watch ourselves with great care, in thought and deed, that we may remain so.