At least that's what it looked like. Todd has denied that there was any inappropriate relationship before his divorce, but appearances speak louder than words, and he certainly was not exercising any wisdom throughout this entire whirlwind of events. If the public is guilty of jumping to wrong conclusions, then Todd is certainly guilty of providing them with a trampoline.
What's done is done. The divorce is final, and the second marriage is final. Neither of those things can be wished away. So what about Todd's future in the church?
The Restoration Process
Enter Rick Joyner. On March 9, he announced on his website that he would be leading a process along with two other pastors to restore Todd fully to his ministry. Not just restoring Todd to a place where he could be a Godly husband and father, or a contributing member of a church, but to actually return to the kind of public ministry he had before his divorce. Rick's basis for this action is Galatians 6:1, which says "If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted."
While Rick stated that this process was just beginning and the timeline for Todd's restoration was not known, the original announcement also stated that Todd was forming a new U.S. charity (the Canadian charity he founded had severed ties with him) and that people could start sending money for his support immediately. It seemed that the question of Todd's restoration to ministry was already decided, and that the only thing left to work out was when it would become official.
Questions About Restoring A Christian Leader
All of this lead me to ask a number of questions about what Biblical restoration really means in a situation like Todd Bentley's.
1) What Does Gal. 6:1 Mean?
Rick Joyner justifies this restoration process for Todd based on Gal. 6:1. The verse is fairly clear: a person who commits a sin of any kind should be helped by those who are spiritual to be restored. The Greek word translated "restore" is a medical term, referring to the setting of a broken bone so it can heal.
Rick presumes "restore" includes the return to one's original leadership position or ministry in the church. While it could include that, it is not the common understanding among Bible commentators. The primary restoration is understood to be one of restoring the person to a relationship with God through repentance of their sin, and then to restore their relationship to the church.
The context of Gal. 6 is not church leadership. While it certainly could include church leaders who sin, it should not be the only passage we base our decisions on when dealing with fallen leaders.
2) What Other Passages Apply?
We are not to put just anyone in leadership in the church. 1 Timothy and Titus have some clear prerequisites for those who aspire to carry church authority. There is no guarantee that once a person is put in leadership, they should always be in leadership. Just as a person can disqualify himself for church leadership before being appointed, he can also disqualify himself after being appointed. Gal. 6:1 does not supercede these character requirements for leadership.
For example, 1 Timothy 3:4 gives the following requirement for a church elder: "He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect."
If a leader leaves and divorces his wife, moves away from his children (in Todd's case, thousands of kms away), and remarries, it's very difficult to argue that he is managing his family well. It's hard to teach your children to obey you when you are absent from the home.
Therefore, Todd should be disqualified from church leadership on this criteria alone. Some would argue he could qualify himself again in the long-term after carefully building a new marriage and family, while others would consider this a permanent disqualification. I don't think Scripture is clear on this detail, so pick your side.
3) Committees Cannot Restore the Trust of a Church
Somehow in recent years, an assumption has crept in among some Christian groups that fallen leaders can be restored to their positions or ministries after a committee announces that they are ready. I'm not sure why this is, as it is not a Biblical concept from what I can see.
While a process led by a small group of leaders may be fruitful in bringing about repentance and progress with the leader who has sinned, it is not how trust is restored with the church. Trust takes a long time to build, and once it has been squandered, an even longer time to rebuild. Committees cannot change that fact. Trust must be earned in relationship over the long term. There is no quick road to restoring trust.
We certainly wouldn't apply this solution to other situations in the church. No one would ever suggest that a spouse who has been unfaithful should meet with a pastoral committee for a period of months or years, and when the committee decides the time is right, the wronged spouse should accept the person back into the marriage and return to life as it was before the sin occurred. That is a complex, long-term, personal process that does not have a clear outcome or timeline. Sometimes the marriage can be fully restored, and sometimes it cannot, but it's never done using a committee of marriage experts.
The church functions as a network of relationships, and broken relationships cannot be restored by committee.
Conclusions
Unfortunately, not everything gets restored after a person sins. Stolen money cannot always be returned. (Bernie Madoff recently reminded the investment community of that.) Murder victims are not brought back to life. Divorces are seldom undone. Abused children carry emotional scars for life.
To view Galatians 6:1 through the lense that everything a Christian leader had before they sinned should be restored is naive at best.
Todd's marriage will not be restored, no matter what happens with his ministry. Todd's parental relationship with his children will now be distant and occasional, no matter what progress he makes with his relationship with God. Why shouldn't his ministry and church responsibilities also be permanently affected by his sin?
More on this in the next post.
