Good and Bad Pastors

 Many have experienced very painful spiritual abuse, and I have been badly mistreated myself.

We are familiar with many tragic stories. We see in the daily news how preachers abuse women and children. We can start looking at pastors and priests as enemies, but that would not be fair.

Who has never been misunderstood and hurt by their parents? But imagine a world without parents, a world without a mother's love.

Many pastors are wise counsellors, preachers who pass on God's love and give damaged people new hope.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not only a great theologian, but also a faithful pastor. He was a good shepherd in Germany during the Nazi era. He was not only the leader, but also a role model for the faithful Christians in the Lutheran Church.

Before the end of the war, he laid down his life. He was hanged by the Nazis. He was a heroic pastor and he was by no means the only one.

In 1941 at Auschwitz, a prisoner managed to escape. In retaliation, ten prisoners were selected at random to die by starvation. One of the ten cried aloud, not for himself but for of his wife and children.

The priest Maximilian Kolbe was not selected, but he volunteered to go to his death for the traumatised father. 

He spent three weeks with the other nine victims in the death bunker, comforting them with faith and love. He was a true shepherd.

Countless preachers have suffered voluntarily in prisons, not only in Nazi Germany, but in communist and Islamic countries.

As a young man I was depressed and needed a therapist. As a newly converted Christian, I also needed a good pastor.

Unfortunately, my first pastors were very legalistic, manipulative and authoritarian. Instead of understanding and compassion, I experienced spiritual abuse.

I was rejected and excommunicated, and I had a complete breakdown. But I did not stay down. I thank God for good pastors and medical staff who helped me to recover.

My father was a psychiatrist. He became a believer only when he was 88, but he was a good doctor. I have met Christians who were very grateful for his care.

I have also seen terrible abuse in psychiatric hospitals, but I never want to reject good psychiatry because of bad psychiatry.

I also never want to reject good pastors because of bad or even cruel pastors.

I have often been disappointed with pastors and sometimes badly hurt, but I would never have got to where I am now without good pastors.

Pastors are only human. So of us many have also been hurt by parents, but imagine how we could live without parents.

In the Bible, Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11 NRSV

He is our example whether we are fathers, mothers, pastors or employers.

I thank God for good fathers and mothers, good teachers and therapists, good doctors and nurses, good pastors and preachers.