I just have to quote this great quote from GK Chesterton’s book “Heretics”.
It may be surprising to some that Chesterton wrote Heretics before he became Catholic. Yet he defends Catholic thought and doctrine throughout the book, and never more artfully than when he responds to the well-worn heresy that every great society must be built on strong men:
“When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for its corner-stone neither the brilliant Paul nor the mystic John, but a shuffler, a snob, a coward – in a word, a man. Peter. And upon this rock He has built His Church, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed against it. All the empires and the kingdoms have failed, because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link.”
It seems that the OP’s pastor in question has fallen into this kind of heresy, that the church must be founded on strong men. Since he is a pastor, I wonder, if we looked into his own past if we would find less than desirable qualities and transgressions, or if we would find he was always a strong leader? And, if we found these transgressions and imperfections then would he then agree that he was no longer qualified to be a pastor because of them? But, in actuality it is learning from our mistakes that help us to become the people that we are. One could find more fault with Peter’s denial of Jesus 3 times if he hadn’t also been forgiven by Jesus 3 times when he was asked to feed his sheep. For if the fact that one has transgressed keeps a man from fulfilling his destiny then none of us could do so. But, it is the fact that we can be redeemed from our transgressions that keeps us going in the right direction towards it. For Christianity is in the business of reconciliation.
