THE PROBLEM:

This week's scenario is a tricky church-based dilemma. Some of the names and details have been changed to protect privacy, but the essential problem is this:

Rita is a church staff member. One of her fellow staff members has confidentially shared with her some considerably large personal issues they’re struggling with. We can’t go into too much detail, but essentially Rita’s colleague has some serious moral and spiritual problems to address.

Rita’s now feeling personally burdened with what her colleague has shared, in two ways: Rita’s firstly worried about her workmate’s welfare. And secondly, she’s concerned for the integrity and health of the church itself. While Rita and her co-worker aren’t pastors, her friend still represents the church and the problems involved could reflect poorly in the community.

If they worked for a secular business, it might not be so much of a problem. But this is a church and any pastor will tell you they need to be sure their workers, whether paid or volunteer, are on track morally and spiritually. It would be the same in any other kind of Christian organisation or ministry.

So Rita’s left with a dilemma: What should she do with this information?
1-300 40 20 20—let’s give Rita some second opinions.

PTO
 
DISCUSSION POINTS

• Should Rita pass this information on to their senior pastor? Rita feels that might be an unethical path to take, given the information was shared in confidence.

• Or does Rita actually have a responsibility to pass the information on?

• If nothing is done, it might have greater implications and really affect the church they work for and its standing in the community.

• Not only that, Rita feels that if she shares it with their pastor, her workmate might really be able to be helped. They may be able to get a breakthrough in the things they’re struggling with.

• Also - When can a person’s spiritual struggles, get in the way of them doing their job properly?

EXPERT OPINION:

Barry Chant, Senior Minister of Wesley International Congregation, was our expert on duty this week.

He shared the following thoughts:

* Because the nature of the colleague's moral / spiritual struggles is not known to us, it's difficult to comment on exactly how the person's specific problem should be tackled.

* However, what I can advise for Rita is: She should not share the problem with anyone else, unless she has her colleague's permission. She has been given this information in confidence and must respect that confidence.

* The fact that Rita's colleague has already confessed her problem to her, is a good sign and shows progress. She may encourage the friend to address the problem further and share the situation with their pastor.

* The colleague does need to recognise they have a problem and must do something about it before continuing any further in ministry type work.