Is it possible for God to use a pastor who has experienced a moral fall? Or should we assume that such individuals can no longer be used by God?

It is true that the details of each person’s actions will be important to consider when answering such a difficult question. Some are unrepentant and repeat bad behaviors and make wrong choices over and over again. I am not asking whether or not God can forgive pastors who make serious mistakes. Surely, He can—and does—regularly.

We might also ask whether or not the Seventh-day Adventist Church should employ ministers who have, in the past, lost their ministerial jobs because of a moral fall but who have demonstrated their repentance and re-conversion over time.

Christian history and the pages of Scripture reveal pastors, evangelists and others with positions of authority in the Church who have fallen to sin. But does God continue to use these individuals? The subtle assumption we may hold is that no, God cannot continue to use such people.

When Jacob, one of the great patriarchs of Scripture, was very old, he his son, Joseph, took him to see the pharaoh of Egypt. The pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, and Jacob answered, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life” (Genesis 47:9). Jacob’s answer confused me. Why would he consider his life to have been evil? After all he was, without question, being used by God as his chosen one.

I began to read into the details of the life of Jacob and his family. I discovered why he would say what he did. The ugly, immoral details of Jacob’s life and the lives of his family are shocking. None of it is hidden, none of it is ignored, none of it is condoned. The pages of Scripture clearly present a fallen family being used by God to advance His purposes in this world.

So, I’m pressed to answer my own question in the positive. Yes, God can continue to use ministers who have fallen into sin. Of course, this does not necessarily mean our Church should employ such persons as congregational pastors. Occasionally, this may be acceptable, although it surely will not always be so. We do well to deal with such matters openly as does God in the Bible. No hiding, no ignoring, no condoning of mistaken and sinful actions. Rather, a grace-filled effort to bring healing into the lives of shattered individuals and congregations.