| Countless pastors whose names will never enter the zeitgeist shepherd their flocks with faithfulness. Yet it seems that we can’t go a week without hearing a new story of a well-known Christian leader misusing their power. The details often shock us. How could someone who steps into the pulpit, or the counseling office, or the board room each week act this way behind the scenes? The dissonance can feel confusing enough to drive us away from even attempting to make sense of the tragedy. In “How to Prevent the Next Evangelical Leadership Scandal,” Heather Cirmo describes five steps that organizations can take to prevent abuses of power in churches and Christian ministries before they happen. As a public relations professional with over two decades of experience assisting ministries after the fall, Cirmo knows that her role typically only comes into play when many, many steps have not been taken beforehand that could have saved people and ministries from harm: accountability, deep friendship for leaders that helps them withstand the temptation to live secret lives, checks and balances, and no carte blanche for anyone, ever, because, well, because pride comes before the fall. While not all of us will find ourselves in the types of positions to implement Cirmo’s suggestions, better understanding how scandals and abuses occur empowers us to prevent them within our spheres of influence. All of us can sharpen our vision to see our brothers and sisters—both those we’d consider fellow sheep and those we’d consider the shepherds—as so precious that we would speak up, risk embarrassment, or offer a timely corrective word in order to protect them from harming themselves or others. And, beautifully, it seems that so often what is needed to prevent these heartaches begins not at the place of correction but at the place of community—cultivating spaces where all, leaders included, can confess and cry and celebrate and question. |
