Divorced pastors are needed in the church today with so many marriages ending up in divorce.

However, it seems divorced pastors are treated as inferior to a pastor who had not been divorced.

I was divorced years before becoming a pastor. My ex decided to run off with another man while I was in the Army stationed in Korea. There was not anything I could do about it.

The Bible gives some very clear facts on this.

Jesus tells us that there is only one reason for divorce. That being adultery. My ex committed adultery but even then I was willing to work things out. Even though she was pregnant by someone else I was willing to work things out. But she was not. Am I to be punished for this the rest of my life?

There are those in the church who say that a person cannot be a pastor if they have been divorced. They take the scripture that says a man is to be the husband of one wife out of context.

What it actually means is a man is not to have more than one wife at a time. This is what the scripture actually means. Paul also tells us that if the unbeliever decides to leave, then we are not responsible. We are not guilty of sin.

Now if we move form one spouse to another then we have a sin problem and are not worthy to be a pastor.

Some divorced pastors have found their spouse leaving them while they were pastoring a church. And of course the church surrounds them with love and support.

Not really. They pass judgment and give the pastor the right boot of fellowship. There are circumstances in which we have no control of. One of them is divorce. If one spouse decides to leave there is nothing you can do.

It does not mean that the pastor was evil or uncaring. The departing spouse wakes up one day and decides they want something different, so they leave.

Because I was previously divorced, I had to continually tell my story over and over and over. Honestly, it was no one business. And how was I to heal from it if the church kept bringing it up.

It is kind of like when we leave one job and go to another one. Usually there is a problem that is why we left. But we are expected to go to the job interview and paint a rosy picture.

If I were going through a divorce, I would rather counsel with a pastor who had been there than with one who really had no idea what I was talking about.

If you are called to be a pastor and have been divorced, be ware that many are going to pass judgment on you. Many of these really have no business passing any sort of judgment on anyone.