The past few years have witnessed a steady stream of high-profile church leaders being removed from leadership as patterns of abuse, impropriety, and pride have been brought to light. And there are likely more to come, along with many others whose profiles are not prominent enough to gain attention. It’s not just the leaders themselves who are in the spotlight, but also the churches whose culture tolerated such behaviour as long as it brought “success.”

It’s enough to make a godly person think twice when considering a call to pastoral ministry. Why would I want to be a part of that? Is that how pastors—or at least, effective pastors—inevitably end up?