Is Your Pastor Corrupt?

“Shopping” for a Pastor

In the United States it is common for a conference to let a local church in need of a pastor interview potential candidates. Typically the ministerial secretary and local leaders will facilitate this process to determine which pastor is the best fit.

I remember well the first time I went through this experience and the anxiety surrounding it. “Will they like me?” “Am I too young for them?” “Is not being American myself going to be a hindrance for this congregation?” If I recall it correctly, the leaders asked me about my level of passion for evangelism, my typical sermon length, and other things. My wife, who was with me, was as much “on trial” as I was, and we did our best to communicate who we are and what kind of ministry they could expect.

In other parts of the world this process is done differently. There the local church has to (more or less) accept the conference executive board’s decision on who will oversee their congregation for the upcoming years. To be honest, I don’t know which approach is better.

In either case, I’ve noticed that some members seem to have unrealistically high expectations of their pastor, or consider anything short of a superstar-TV-evangelist level of charisma and baptismal success second-tier, which can quickly lead to a withdrawal of their support.

Pastors are held to a high standard, and rightly so! Theirs is a sacred calling. Yet they are also human, with various gifts but also individual challenges. Some may not have top-quality preaching skills, and others may, at times, because of personality or cultural background, create socially awkward situations. Sometimes mistakes happen, or imperfect decisions are made. And when they do, and it’s public, it can produce unfortunate dynamics.

On rare and sad occasions some pastors experience a moral failure that ruins their ministry and typically ends their church employment, depending on the situation.

The Quintessence of the Priesthood

Truth, faithfulness, peace, integrity, humility, and passionate devotion to religion—these are the qualities God desires from His representatives, specifically His priests, but also the laity, in the book of Malachi.

He chose for Himself a tribe, the Levites, whose men were to bring honor to His name above all else. Their task: to provide instruction in proper worship and to proclaim the ordinances of God, which He had preserved through His Word for all generations.

The quintessence of the Levitical priesthood is laid out in Malachi 2:7:

“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”

What a high calling; what a high standard!

Leading up to verse 7, God seems to reminisce about the “good old days” (He’s had about 1,000 years of history with Israel so far) of the covenant with the tribe of Levi when He says:

“My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; so he feared Me and was reverent before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity” (verses 5, 6).

Sounds like the perfect pastor!

When You Don’t Like the Pastor

I remember well, in my late teenage years, when I finally started taking God more seriously, I decided to make an intentional effort to listen more attentively to the sermons on Sabbath morning. I chose to seek a blessing, whether I liked the pastor, their preaching style, or not. This has helped me, over the years, not to tune out when a “boring” sermon is on the horizon. Of course, the blessing always ends up being there, even if the sermon delivery occasionally may be nap-inducing; amazing what the Holy Spirit can do! (And just to keep things real: I have had my own share of people fall asleep when I preach, too, so no judgment here.)

God is asking us to consecrate our tools of power (money, time, support, etc.), which the world so loves to wield in actions of censure, cancellation, and tearing down, and trust His process.

Of course, pastors are more than just sermon-spitting machines (even though preaching is unfortunately often judged above all other factors because of its immediacy). Besides possibly not enjoying the preaching, one may also not always “click” with a (new) pastor in terms of personality, ministry style, theological leanings, or cultural background. For some, then, the temptation can arise to disengage, start attending other churches (I’ve seen it go both ways in the churches I pastored after I arrived and after I left), or even withhold their time, gifts, and financial support.

The biblical truth is, a pastor’s level of performance, success, and likeability or disagreeableness, yes, even their immorality, should not determine one’s individual dedication to the church, one’s church membership, and active involvement. We are not the pastor’s members; we are members of the body of Christ.

Which brings us to what Malachi is best known for: money.

Corrupt Priesthood

The book of Malachi paints a less-than-ideal, dare I say disastrous, picture of the fifth-century B.C. pastors—the Levites.

Just to give a little taste:

“Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name” (Mal. 1:6).

“ ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘nor will I accept an offering from your hands’ ” (verse 10).

“Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts” (Mal. 2:3).

That is some strong language for censuring the ministerial team. It must have been a tough pastors’ retreat to sit through when Malachi delivered this message. But God is not messing around. The Levites truly needed a major revival and reformation. Space will not allow a detailed discussion about all the apostasy and compromises God’s workers were guilty of. But what followed His rebuke is fascinating!

Returning in the Heart

Malachi not only delivers a straight and heart-piercing message to the Levites and the rest of God’s people, who—to some degree, influenced by the Spiritless, halfhearted service of the priests—had also fallen into various forms of unrighteousness.

In His call to repentance from unacceptable service, idolatry, spousal mistreatment, divorce, and partial surrender, God then mercifully points to the hope of the coming Messiah.

“ ‘Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:1).

With the promise of the coming Messiah comes the promise of His power to heal and restore all this aforementioned brokenness.

“He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness” (verse 3).

This promise is not only for the priests but also for the general population. Hallelujah!

“ ‘Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts” (verse 7).

Awesome! There is always hope in Jesus. Turn to Him!

But: “In what way shall we return?” (verse 7).

Faithfulness Despite Corruption

God’s ways can seem quite radical, especially in our day and age of cancel culture and collective outrage. He spent a good portion of the previous chapters calling out the corruption of the priests. We are talking about dynamics far worse than a boring sermon, personality dislikes, or unfulfilled, subjective expectations. In His appeal for repentance—despite the blatant Levitical corruption—He leads with this:

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. . . . Bring all the tithes into the storehouse. . . . And try Me now in this” (verses 8-10).

Malachi’s time was challenging. God’s people were in deep spiritual trouble. Into this apostate period God spoke to all who had a serious desire for Him, calling for a repentance proven through serious commitment: Put your money where your mouth is. Let your words of commitment be followed by actions of faithfulness. Faithfulness, even when it seems that the called-for action—the giving of tithes and offerings—is counterintuitive and a waste, with it going toward what was an unfaithful, undedicated priesthood.

Worry About Yourself

I have served the church in various roles, on various levels, and in various places. I have never witnessed anything that could even come close to the widespread corruption described in the book of Malachi. This is not to say that bad things don’t happen. They do. There are situations that could have been handled better. Yes, mistakes happen. And yes, rarely, there is an actual case of apostasy, immorality, or corruption involving a worker of God. Generally, however, our pastors, teachers, and administrators are dedicated, Jesus-loving workers who are giving their best and more.

But God is saying here that even if that were not the case, even if your pastor is disagreeable, making one mistake after another, or has a moral fall, even if, God forbid, there was actual corruption going on with the pastor or in any administrative level of the church, we must be faithful nonetheless. The book of Malachi is proposing faithfulness in stewardship—which is not only about the returning of tithes and offerings but the continued support of the church’s mission through our time, talents, gifts, resources, influence, and a positive, faith-building attitude (especially when leadership fails).

God is asking us to consecrate our tools of power (money, time, support, etc.), which the world so loves to wield in actions of censure, cancellation, and tearing down, and trust His process.

Of course, the church must address corruption should it become apparent. Thankfully, there are systems in place to do just that. But Malachi’s point is this: Focus on your personal relationship with God and steward well—proving faithfulness to His Word.

In dealing with our resources and abilities, faithfulness to our perfect God and His perfect will should remain unaffected by the actions of imperfect pastors or other church workers supported by our giving.

May God grant us fully surrendered hearts, committed and actively engaged in His mission and in our giving of our resources and talents, no matter how much we like or dislike a pastor, no matter how much we agree or disagree with them, or how successful or how weak their ministry may be.