1Ti 5:22 Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.
We all know, anyone knows (unless they are completely lacking in discernment) that evil people, counterfeit Christians, narcissists looking for self-glory, and other such types very typically seek out the local church as their stage of operation. How could anyone not know this? There are regular reports of pastors and church officers and church members being busted for molesting children, stealing church funds, being caught in adultery, and on the list goes. You know this. We know this. Who doesn’t know it?
And YET, in spite of the clear commands of God’s Word, one such command cited above, local churches, pastors, elder boards, denominations, Christian schools regularly (dare I say even typically) NEVER look into the background of a person they want to appoint as an elder, a deacon, a youth ministry leader, a Sunday School teacher, or, believe it or not, sometimes even a pastoral candidate!
I have seen this evil over and over and over. Here is a man, for instance, relatively new to a church and having come from another church, who appears to be a fine, godly saint. So, he is appointed as an elder. But no one bothered to look into his background. To check with his previous church or to interview other references. The thing is unthinkable but I can tell you it happens over and over again.
Why? That is a good question, is it not? Why? How does such a church know that he is not a pedophile, or a divisive man of whom Paul commands us:
Rom 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.
How does such a church know that this man is not an abuser of his wife? Or a full-blown narcissist? They do NOT know because they do not really know the man. So, they go right ahead and appoint the man into a church office or accept him/her as a member or Sunday School teacher. They have just welcomed a wolf into the flock. They are guilty and as Paul told Timothy, they will share in such a person’s sins.
But back to the question – why? Secular businesses and organizations regularly do background checks. Has the person ever been arrested? Has he or she ever been terminated from employment? And yet churches not only rarely ignore such investigations, they actually believe that this man or woman who they don’t really know, is what he or she says they are. What about Jesus’ teaching about wolves in sheep’s clothing? Well, these people just ignore that.
And, therefore, local churches have domestic abusers, narcissists, even pedophiles serving in various church offices and positions. The pastor himself may be such a one. No one checked. And guess what happens if you suggest that such a background investigation be made? You will be labeled a troublemaker, unspiritual, lacking faith, or even somewhat slanderous.
The devil and his servants are so very, very subtle and deceptive. Churches that hastily accept a person and judge by appearances (the appearances they see on Sunday mornings that is), are being disobedient to God’s Word and unbelieving of that Word.
What might be other reasons for such willful carelessness? Well, ignorance of evil would be one reason. Ignorance of how narcissists and sociopaths and socially charming pedophiles operate. Such church leaders who are this careless are not fit to shepherd Christ’s people. Another reason is that well, “we just don’t want to risk offending the man.” I have personally informed people on a couple of occasions that we would be looking into their background and guess what? They never came back. Good!!
I am sure there are other reasons – perhaps you can suggest more in the comments here. But I can tell you definitely – the common, typical practice of local churches is that they never look into the background of a candidate for membership or appointment to a church office.
Such so-called shepherds will give an account to the Chief Shepherd one day.
Lele
Mine and my son’s abuser was accepted immediately onto the worship team at all three churches we attended together for the 2 years we were married . Eventually they would see the real him and we’d have to move on. Cycle would repeat.
After we got divorced I warned the pastor of the church he was with. That pastor rewarded him by making him pastor of a new church plant. I went online to it’s website where he and his new wife were talking about how his church is a place for healing for woman who have been in abusive relationships.
So to answer your question my ex would not be interested in background checks for his staff because he is the RASN.
Lele
After a couple years had past of being divorced I went back to one of the churches my ex had us leave from because he had disobeyed the pastors rules of not doing music projects with young woman alone. He argued with that pastor that his rule was stupid and shouldn’t apply to him. Even though he was an exposed adulterer as a youth pastor with one of his youth girls.
I went back there hoping to find out what changes they had made to how they deal with claims of abuse from a spouse. Since that young pastor had seen first hand how angry he could get when he doesn’t get his evil way. He and his new assistant pastor were dismissive and actually tried to make me feel like I was potentially the problem.
I don’t see change in the church coming anytime soon
Jeff Crippen
Thankyou very much for both of your comments. You have grown to be wise. Your experience validates what I said in this post and it supports my own experience. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are very few real pastors and true churches. No genuine pastor would do the things you have seen and yet it is all too common.
Lele
As I’ve said in the past I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t found you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do for us.
Jeff Crippen
Thankyou for the encouragement!!
Free
This is VERY relatable!….. The RASN abuser I was married to was a Sunday school teacher until his approach (aka abusive style) was no longer tenable. The church quietly removed him from that role (actually very quietly so….) and he moved to church security (even worse!). That is until the associate pastor became very fearful of the RASN after an encounter he had with him….. At that point the RASN was then very, very quietly removed from the church…..No one said a word to me – his wife!! All I knew was the RASN didn’t like that church any longer, he was not going back and we were going to a find a new one…….
Until later – after I fled the abuser, literally for my life…. Then – it slipped out from a reliable source what had happened with the RASN / abuser at the church…
Fast forward to when I was long gone from the RASN and that church …. There is a silver lining in this rare story….. following all of the above, the still somewhat new lead pastor at that same church tried desperately to make right of the situation he had basically inherited from the roots of the prior pastor’s leadership style….
The somewhat new pastor spoke to the entire congregation about abuse – and asked permission to tell some of my story – he protected the anonymity but, praise God, he really tried to set the record straight with what abuse is….. and where he, the under-his-lead church, and the Lord stands on it….
Although what he was trying to correct started under someone else’s watch…… He was still up against all who looked the other way… which included some of his inherited church staff. And in the Lord’s corrective way, by what the somewhat new lead pastor did…. he made some good come out of something that was so horribly bad…. In this aspect of the horror of the RASN’s abusiveness…. there was victory…..Amen….