When Pastors Fall Below Reproach: A Lesson in Public Repentance and the Stricter Judgement

The long road of shame, humiliation, and fear when a pastor disgraces his office.

Yet another adulterous pastor was exposed recently. Samuel Renihan resigned from Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, California, after confessing to adultery. He has unpublished his books and entirely withdrawn from public life. As painful as it is to read his confession, apology, and plea for God’s mercy, it is a helpful and instructive situation. I don’t recall ever seeing anything similar from a lapsed Lutheran pastor, unless it’s speed-running to grace, grace, and grace.

Keeping the seven deadly sins at bay. Source: ChatGPT

Learning from Renihan’s humiliation

Sin, Exposure, and Accountability

• He acknowledges that sin, especially hidden sin, is lethal to the soul and always comes to light, because our God is not idle or disinterested. 1 Thess. 4:6, Num. 32:23.

• He appeals to the fear of the Lord and the necessity of humility.

Personal Responsibility

• He self-rebukes for being “nearsighted, having forgotten that they were cleansed from their past sins.” 2 Peter 1:8.

• 1 Timothy 5:20 informs his public repentance, so that others may be warned.

• He acknowledges that he fell far below the standards set out for pastors in 1 Corinthians 4:2.

Judgment and Mercy

• He admits that pastors are more severely judged.

• He appeals for God’s mercy and that he would be redirected to Christ.

• He reverts to basics. His hope is in Christ’s atoning sacrifice (Galatians 2:20) and the faith of a child that God really promises to “remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

Visible Repentance

• It’s not a private or even corporate confession. He has owned his shame and the damage he has done.

• He has stepped out of the preaching office, made a public confession, submitted himself to discipline, and quit all pulpit-adjacent activities. taken steps to remove himself from ministries. It is public turning away from sin that comports with the teaching and confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

• Most importantly, he is demonstrating accountability and submission to the Holy Christian Church’s requirements for pastors.

• There is genuine humility rather than defensiveness. To call yourself “exceedingly wicked” is not performative pre-meditated repentance. He has made himself notorious and a pariah, yet only through that humility is there a path to restoration (but never back to the preaching office).

The Stricter Judgement

• Pastors must be “blameless”. Nothing in the man’s life should stand to discredit the gospel or the church.
  1 Timothy 3:2 (NKJV)
  “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach”

  • Titus 1:6–7 (NKJV)
    “…if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money”

• Even an accusation against an elder requires multiple witnesses and public rebuke if proven
  1 Timothy 5:19–20 (NKJV)
  “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.” Parishioners are to be corrected privately; pastors who continue in sin are to be publicly rebuked because of their higher office and the accountability it draws.

• Pastors who rule well are worthy of double honor
  1 Timothy 5:17 (NKJV)
  “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.” Double honor means both a greater reward for faithfulness and a greater accountability for unfaithfulness.

• Teachers will receive a stricter judgment
  James 3:1 (NKJV)
  “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” The demands of the office are not trivial and very few men make the required grade.

• Unfaithful shepherds
  Ezekiel 34:2–10 (NKJV)
  “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.

  My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: “as I live,” says the Lord God, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”--therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”

• Pastors are going to have to account for the souls under their care
  Hebrews 13:17 (NKJV)
  “Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”