Bible Students

Some Thoughts on “Shrinking the Integrity Gap” by Mattson (Chapters 1 and 2)

This week’s reading covered the first couple chapters of Shrinking the Integrity Gap. This introduced the idea of pastoral accountability to other people, and seeking to keep on top of self care. 

The author was sparked on their journey through a certain call of a pastor who was having an affair with a woman, and was ready to commit suicide. Integrity must be a serious concern of pastors. Integrity is often ignored, especially on the higher level of ministry. There must be accountability in ministry. Many people are chosen based on their skills in leadership and ministry, but their integrity is not considered. Integrity must be a concern of those who hire ministry workers and pastors. Leaders with integrity know where their weaknesses are and have accountability. 

Making mistakes is not the same as not having integrity. Having integrity is not so much an action as it is a whole way of life for people. Leadership is a serious call, and there must be serious accountability. Many pastors and leaders take their difficulties and never resolve them, pushing them on to the next generation. A leader can finish well if they consciously choose to address their shortcomings. 

Many leaders do not finish well. They leave behind healing and seek to hide from their trauma. They do not allow boundaries on their life and end up hurting people along the way. Many people react to trauma through a never-ending drive for success and achievement, which helps them to hide from their shame. Many leaders are unaware of this and will not address it until many people have been hurt. 

Many people, leaders especially, do not know where their trauma lies. They need to do serious self-evaluation if they will be leaders of integrity. Leaders who lead without hurting or using people are only born out of self reflection and knowing oneself. Without reflection, one can go down a serious spiral of hurt, shame, and destruction. All people have gaps, especially pastors, who are always being looked at by the public. Pastors need to strive to finish well. 

People often do not expect failure from pastors. They believe pastors are above sin, and above integrity. However, all people have a sin nature and are subject to failure. There is a large integrity gap in pastors, meaning they should be full of more integrity than the regular person, but often are not. 

Many emerging leaders are young and inexperienced. Young leaders can have far worse accountability and integrity than older pastors. All leaders, regardless of the age, need to have accountability and integrity. Pastors may have intense influence, which brings an immense pressure. The longer a leader holds off to get help, the more hurt will happen. 

Anyone can be an abuser. Anyone, including ministry partners, can stab others in the back, cheat on their wives, steal money from the ministry, and even kill others. Everyone needs to have accountability. Those who do not plan to avoid these behaviors may find themselves slowly slipping into that way of life. 

Trauma is common in ministry. Trauma may not seem big, but all trauma must be addressed, otherwise it will be allowed to fester. When it festers, leaders will end up hurting those who they are supposed to help. High-level leaders may be more predisposed to high levels of trauma, stress, and anxiety. These things fester until they break through in extremely negative ways, especially in the area of sexual sin. Everyone has some sort of justification for committing adultery, along the lines of having their needs met through the new person. This is not something that happens in a moment, but something that happens through a long time of wearing down one’s character. Leaders need accountability and margin in their lives in order to keep themselves from this kind of failure. 

Overall, this week opened up a very sobering topic. All people, leaders especially, are vulnerable to crumbling under pressure. This failure can, and likely will, result in a catastrophic moral failure. There is, however, a simple resolution: Accountability. Leaders can easily develop pornography additions, especially because it is a quick method of comfort for many people. This kind of “comfort” in the face of stressful situation can ruin a relationship when the culprit is exposed. However, the situations which result in a person being ruined are, in every instance I know of, because the person allowed sin to fester without being transparent. Many people struggle with pornography, leaders included. Leaders have not defeated sin yet. However, leaders can not keep their sin a secret. One of the most helpful things in the area of pornography I have heard from a man I respect is that he has kept no secrets from his wife. This was in the context of a men’s only chapel, which covered sexual purity. While he was not speaking explicitly about pornography (he was speaking broadly about all kinds of behaviors of the past and current struggles), this seems to be a proper way to deal with struggles, especially when in a marriage. Husbands need to be transparent with their wives about their struggles before it is too late. Being a leader in the family or the church does not mean being emotionless, seemingly-sinless people. Being a good leader means being open about one’s struggles and desiring to change while leading others to do the same. Leaders and husbands are normal people who should want to do better, and have the help of others in the process.