The Necessity of The Minister's Self-Watch

By now many of you have heard of the controversy surrounding former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church, Ted Haggard. He was accused of paying for sex from a homosexual male prostitute (which he denies). However, what has surfaced is that he did pay to receive massages from him and purchased methamphetamines from him. All of these discoveries were made after he denied even knowing his accuser. It is a horrible, horrible situation and I can't imagine what his wife and five kids are going through.

However, this blog post is not to rant about that, but to point you to a recent blog post by Mark Driscoll on the dangers of pastoring and a bulleted list of practical helps that ministers should pay heed to in order to flee from sin and temptation. I learned much by reading it and I think it's profitable for anyone planning on doing faithful ministry.

Also, a reminder to anyone who chooses to exalt himself over Haggard as though they have a better ability to resist sin...I quote you Allen Duty: "The only difference between us and him is inches...we are all only inches away from temptation and sin all the time." We are not good people; and we sure as heck do not have any power in and of ourselves to resist sin. We must press into Christ to know him and love him more; building a hatred for sin and an intense love for holiness.