Why Do Leaders Mess Up?

by Michael Desgrosseilliers, Elijah House President 

Recently a number of well-known Christian church leaders have been accused of serious moral failure in their lives. The evidence suggests a pattern of sin that began long ago and has continued for years.

I won’t name any names in this article—you probably already know the names I would mention anyway—but one pastor was exposed for sexual abuse (including pedophilia). He’s a writer and preacher who built a successful megachurch that has worldwide influence. The man is very anointed, and even though he has lived in sin for years, he remains very anointed. The anointing didn’t leave when he chose to step into sin and then continue to live there. 

Many of us assume, “If somebody blatantly chooses sin, the anointing becomes invalid. This sin proves that this person was never of God!” 

But sin does not negate our God-given gifts and calling. There are two key reasons for this.

First, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). He won’t ever remove what He imprinted into our design, even when we sin. This is great news for us because we all sin! None of us is perfect. God’s gifts and calling remain within us, regardless of what we do or don’t do. 

Second, God has a greater purpose for His anointing than most of us understand. That purpose is much bigger than one person’s actions, and it is definitely bigger than that person’s sin. According to Isaiah 55:11, not one word of Scripture will fall to the ground void. God’s Word will fulfill its purpose, even when His Word is preached by someone who is or was in moral failure and remains unrepentant.

So, it is possible for a Christian leader to do amazing things for God—and, at the same time, hide a lifestyle of sin that would shock somebody even outside the Church. 

What Does “Moral Failure” Really Mean?

A familiar caution for someone in ministry is to beware of the “Three Gs” or girls/guys, gold, and glory. Some believe only one of those is an actual moral failure: girls/guys (or adultery, pornography, fornication, etc.). 

However, a moral failure is any lack of character that could lead to engaging in activities that are below God’s righteous standard (even when we sin in ignorance). Moral failure is when a person makes a choice to do something wrong even though they know the difference between right and wrong. It is a selfish act for their own benefit.

A Slumbering Spirit

How does a Christian leader get to the place where they willingly choose moral failure over the ways of God? What happens to harden their heart in this manner? 

Several years ago, John and Paula Sandford noticed how certain Christian leaders fell into sin and kept repeating that sin, even though they appeared remorseful afterward. They made horrific choices that tore people apart and yet remained unrepentant in their hearts.

The Sandfords asked the Holy Spirit, “Why are these men able to speak the anointed word of God that really moves people, and yet they think committing adultery doesn’t matter? How is that possible?”

They later wrote about this phenomenon in their book God’s Power to Change (pages 26–27). When a believer is in a state of unrepentant sin, areas of their heart have grown hard. Those hardened areas are like a rock in the middle of a river. The Spirit is the river flowing through and around the individual, but part of the person’s heart has grown hard, and that part is incapable of responding to the Holy Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit enables the person to preach brilliantly, work miracles, and deliver mighty prophecies—but the person’s own heart cannot participate. It lies asleep, encased and nonfunctioning. 

That is the condition of many believers (leaders and laypeople) in the United States, which is why we are seeing blatant sin in the Church. Many believers make shocking choices that go against God’s holiness, and they remain unrepentant. Why? Because parts of their hearts are as hard as that rock in the river.

A hard heart is the result of a slumbering spirit, which is often a slippery slope that can lead to moral failure. In the areas where their spirit sleeps and their heart has hardened, that person cannot respond to the Holy Spirit. (A person’s personal spirit will always be awake in certain areas because it can’t fully fall asleep while the person is alive. If their spirit fell completely asleep, they would die physically.)

Unfortunately, if this condition continues, it could demonstrate what Jesus meant in Matthew 7:22–23:

Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (NKJV)

The human spirit is directly linked to our conscience, and where our spirit sleeps, we have a lack of “conscience awareness” in that area. Though we’re addressing fallen leaders in this article because of the recent exposures, it’s good (and humbling) to keep in mind that all of us have some measure of a slumbering spirit—some just have a more severe case than others. Generally, men are more prone to a slumbering spirit than women because from an early age, men are taught to shut down their hearts and emotions. Though I cannot state this as fact, my experience as a pastoral counselor leads me to believe the heart is what the spirit flows through.

In the areas where our spirit is slumbering, we don’t know what is happening. We aren’t aware in those places. We might sense or even know we are doing wrong, but our conscience and moral character aren’t healthy enough to choose to do the right thing.

For some of us, our unawareness could be a “small” matter, like watching a TV show that Jesus wouldn’t sit down and watch with us. But for others, a slumbering spirit is the reason we are tempted to do sinful things that will bring great harm to other people.

People need to understand why they are making bad decisions and not turn their reasoning into an excuse. I find this to be a continual challenge for those I counsel. I encourage people to look at the “why” behind a sinful issue, so they can recognize and deal with the root cause and not remain a victim. Making excuses causes us to remain stuck in victimhood.

Sadly, the enemy goes hard after people in ministry, because if he can bring down a high-level leader, how many other people can he take down at the same time? When someone we trusted or even idolized commits horrendous sin, many of us are left disillusioned: “I trusted this man, and it was a mistake! He was supposedly anointed of God! How can I trust any ‘man of God’ now? In fact, how can I have faith in God? How can I trust Him with anything?” If the enemy can kill our faith through someone else’s moral failure, he will.

The Heart vs. the Head

If a person’s spirit isn’t nurtured appropriately during their childhood, it will go to sleep in certain areas (see our book Awakening the Slumbering Spirit for more on this). It’s just too hard to stay awake. Every time we hear about a leader who failed morally, the problem isn’t new! Their core issue started way back when they were a child. Everything starts there. 

Every leader who fails morally did so because their spirit doesn’t function in that area; therefore, their conscience isn’t strong enough to resist temptation. They might believe the truth with their head: “It is wrong for me to cheat on my wife.” But they don’t believe it with their heart. Instead, their heart attempts to justify them: “Well, I’m doing such a good work for God that He’ll allow me this indulgence.” 

The heart is incredibly powerful because whatever a person thinks in their heart, that is the way they are (Prov. 23:7). We might have all the head knowledge in the world, but intellect is not what leads us into the truth—the heart is. Repentance comes from the heart, not the head.

A Slumbering Spirit and Deception

Where our spirit is slumbering, there is an awareness of sin, but our conscience is not strong enough to resist temptation. This continues to the point of self-justification, which leads us to deception.

One famous biblical example of this involves King David. After committing adultery with Bathsheba, and then trying to cover it up by having her husband murdered, he knew he was in sin. He was very familiar with the laws of God, but he justified his actions and was deceived: he did not have a repentant heart.

That is where some leaders are today. They realize their sin, but they think God looks the other way because of all the good works they are doing. In their deception, they continue to lie about what happened, and many of them truly believe those lies. That’s the thing about deception; like David, we can get so embroiled in our deceptions that we continue to ignore the truth! 

Godly Repentance Is the Solution

When Nathan the prophet confronted him, David reacted like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. His spirit jolted awake to the reality of his sin, and he threw himself before the Lord in repentance.

Godly repentance is necessary, and it comes only through godly sorrow. Godly sorrow precedes godly repentance. We can’t work out godly sorrow in our intellect, nor can we work it out in our will. “I’m going to do this! I will change my life! I will be different next time.” No. Godly sorrow is a gift from the Lord and a matter of grace—we can’t muster it up on our own. All human efforts to be righteous, including repentance and sorrow, are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). We have to ask God for repentance.

How Do We Process a Leader’s Failure?

We are in a season where sinful leaders are being exposed more and more. 

For years, we have put our Christian leaders up on a pedestal. We unintentionally take our focus off God and put it on them instead. That is a contributing factor that exacerbates the problem. We put people in a place of idolatry, especially in megachurches led by men and women with big names. That is a setup for destruction. A lot of people don’t realize they idolize their leaders, and it just devastates them when those leaders fall. 

Multiple times in the Old Testament, Israel fell into idol worship and unbelief because the two go hand in hand. When we elevate a human leader above God (which also happens in smaller churches, by the way!), we set ourselves up for a great crisis of faith.

When we see people fail, we don’t respond by condemning them or passing judgment on them. The Bible talks about judging righteously: having discernment. When the Holy Spirit reveals an issue in someone’s heart, we need to respond in righteousness and not in condemnation. We don’t sweep sin under the rug, but we deal with it appropriately. 

We also don’t respond in unsanctified mercy. “Oh, this isn’t a big deal! They can do this, and it’s fine.” Or “I can’t tell anyone about this because God is using this man. I don’t want to ruin his ministry.”

Nor do we want to go the other way and reject the person. “This guy never heard from the Lord at all. His ministry is completely worthless. I’m going to burn all his books and CDs.”

That isn’t necessary. In most cases, the anointing is real and from the Lord, despite the person’s sin. God can use a leader to do amazing things in the world, but if the person has a slumbering spirit, they are unresponsive to the Holy Spirit in certain places.

Putting Our Trust in God

Someone else’s moral failure can feel like a storm in our spiritual life that leaves our faith shipwrecked. “I felt a kinship with this person. How did this happen?” As we continue to see this type of thing in the Church, it is important for us to place our trust where it really belongs: not in a person but in God.

Let’s keep our eyes on Him. He alone is faithful at all times. Though some leaders will fail and disappoint us, our faith will not be shaken if we keep our trust in the Lord. He will never fail or disappoint us.

If someone’s moral failure has left you reeling and you aren’t sure how to move forward, you may want to check out Elijah House’s pastoral counseling services. Pastoral counseling helps people hear the Holy Spirit in their hearts, which is exactly what a wounded heart needs. Click here to learn more.

Also, check out our books Awakening the Slumbering Spirit and God’s Power to Change.