Pastor's Circle - Todd Hudnall

Todd Hudnall is the pastor of Radiant Church in Colorado Springs, CO. He joined the Pastor's Circle to discuss sin in the pastorate. Here are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

What are the particular things that we struggle with as pastors?

I think it's easy for most of us to fall into competitiveness with other pastors.

Paul says that's not very wise.

You either feel this inflated feeling of yourself if you're doing well, or you feel this feeling of failure if you're doing poorly.

Another of the biggest ones in the pastorate is found in Hebrews. It's discouragement.

When things don't happen the way you wished, or people's lives don't turn out the way you prayed they would, it's easy to fall into discouragement.

What's the antidote?

The scripture gives us a lot of clues to this.

A lot of it goes back to asking God, "What do you want me to do?"

I think that so much more happens than we see the fruit of.

God places us in certain places at certain times. I think the churches that are small and don't seem to do much are doing

I don't think we're going to know until eternity the impact that we've had.

If we're just faithful to everything we're called to do, God will work through us.

Do you think pastors have a profound enough prayer life?

I absolutely don't think we do.

I've seen statistics that have 5 minutes to 15 minutes every day that pastors spend in prayer.

That's definitely one of the sins of the pastorate.

This is an often-quoted phrase, but I believe that if there's no prayer in a pastor's personal life, then there's no power in the pulpit.

Another sin we struggle with is worldliness.

We can get into a place where we've done this for so long that you can go into autopilot and do it when your heart and life are not where they should be.

We get caught up with the things of this life instead of the next

I think there's a lack of love and passion for Jesus that can even be invisible from the pulpit.

Talk to me about pastors and sexual sin.

Men and women are going to be tempted that way, and men have to be on guard against lust.

With pastors, there can be this tendency to think we're exempt from certain things, and we're not going to be tempted by certain things. That's a deception.

Do pastors need people praying for them?

Absolutely. Paul would even beg people to pray for him.

I have 8 or 9 people that come to my house periodically just to pray for me.

It's so reassuring to have those people.

People want to help. They want their pastor to succeed. They don't want him to fall.

It's amazing how many people will get involved in that.