It is tempting for the church’s leadership team to go into damage control mode when their senior pastor abruptly departs. After all, it feels as if everything is coming unglued…so the need is to do something to withstand the storm!

But what is happening in the church after the moral implosion of your pastor is not a problem you can fix. Rather it is a season to shepherd.

This is the pivotal moment when a critical choice is made, and a series of realities is faced.

What is the critical choice?

Remember the powerful scene in the 1999 movie “The Matrix”, when rebel leader Morpheus offers Neo, the main character, the choice between a red pill and a blue pill?

“You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

The blue pill represents security, comfort, and blissful ignorance or illusion. On the other hand, the red pill will lead to knowledge, freedom, but also uncertainty, and the brutal truths of reality.

When the senior pastor exits in haste, church leaders face a critical choice: do you want blissful illusion or brutal reality? The decision leads to either trying to manage the damage, or allowing the Lord to reveal reality. It’s the difference between just trying to move on, or facing the unpleasant truth and being instruments in the Lord’s hand for healing.

Choosing to swallow the red pill takes courage and a strong faith that the Lord is at work in the mess of this painful time.

So, how deep does the rabbit hole go when the senior pastor abruptly leaves? Regardless of the specific sin of the pastor, there are at least 5 issues or realities which have damaged the church. As shepherds of the Lord’s flock, if the church’s leadership team swallows the red pill, then they will have to face and address each of them

-Loss of trust

This is the most significant and longest lasting wound. People are disappointed, confused, and angry because trust in their pastor has been broken. This loss of trust easily spreads to the rest of the leadership team. Transference is not fair, as the misconduct of the pastor splashes on other leaders, but it will happen. Those in the church will be easily tempted to question whether they can have confidence in any of the spiritual authority figures.

-Loss of truth

Ephesians 4:25 tells us to “…put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor…”. When the senior pastor preaches one thing, but lives another, how then can we believe him about anything he has, does, or will say? Can I believe anything the leadership says (transference at work again!)? How do I know you’re telling me the truth, or telling me the whole truth? What else could you be hiding or covering up?

-Loss of assurance

When there is a loss of trust and truth, then the mind immediately begins to wonder what I can be confident in? How do I know if others are not also doing what our pastor did? Or what other inappropriate things are going on? What assurance can you give me that this sin won’t happen again?

-Loss of relationship

Those who had a closer relationship with the pastor will feel betrayed. I thought we were friends. I thought I knew you, but you were doing this all along behind my back? Was our friendship a farce or a sham? When transference occurs the loss of trust, truth, and assurance can rock even the relationships between those in the church and the leadership team. People will question how real is our rapport with them.

-Loss of safety

Is our church a safe place any longer? In the case of the pastor having an affair, people will wonder if other men, or women, are abusing their spiritual role to sexualize a relationship? How can I be open and vulnerable to allow my spiritual leaders to minister to me without fear of being taken advantage of? Some of the marriages in the church are fragile, so suddenly fear is injected as wives are unnerved about the vulnerability of their husbands and husbands for their wives.

The leadership team of a church can’t manage the damage of these five realities. These are not problems you can fix. They are wounds that will take time and attention to heal. The church has entered a unique time of transition and the need is to shepherd people in this season.

At this pivotal time make the critical choice: swallow the red pill and allow the Lord to show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Face the harsh realities: allow the Lord to guide you in addressing honestly and authentically each of these 5 realities.

This is a time for the pruning, cleansing, and refocusing work of the Holy Spirit.

The church is Christ’s bride, and as our head He wants to, “…cleanse her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” -Ephesians 5:26,27