RESTORATION
PLAN ASSIGNMENTS
Following are the “restoration assignments” for a
three year process toward restoring the person, the relationships, and possibly
the ministerial credentials following a moral fall on the part of an ordained,
licensed or commissioned minister. The
list is generally sequential and the process requires considerable written
records and twice-monthly meetings with a “restoration coach” and regular
reports (and sometimes meetings) to the “restoration committee.”
1.
Meet monthly with your restoration
mentor.
This starts now and
continues three or more years.
2.
Start a Restoration Journal
Keep this journal with
precision throughout the entire process… only to be seen by your restoration
coach unless you decide to share it with other people.
3.
Write out a full and complete
confession
Come clean with no excuses
or defenses. Write the details of your
infraction (without being too graphic) place, dates, events—come clean, hide
nothing, including how you “got caught” or decided to confess.
4.
Records.
Keep a detailed record of
meetings with your restoration mentor including a record of the assignments
done for each meeting in your restoration journal.
5. Sign
the “Covenant of Restoration” agreement.
6. Tell
the unedited story.
Find two persons (not your
restoration coach) and tell the full unedited story in order to seek their
forgiveness as representatives of the church--- and establish an ongoing
accountability relationship with both individuals which will last throughout the
restoration process.
7. Establishing
accountability.
Establish monthly
accountability with two persons—one in-person and another by email. Develop a list of questions approved by your
restoration coach to be used in these sessions.
8. Damage
assessment and repair strategy
Write out a carefully
detailed “damage assessment” showing damage to those who were affected and
emotionally damaged by your moral failure.
9.
Repair Strategy
Write out a detailed
strategy for repairing the damage detailed in the “damage assessment”
above. List the actions and “penance”
you will undertake in each case, and keep a detailed record of your efforts
throughout the restoration process.
10.
Letters asking forgiveness.
Write carefully-worded
letters asking forgiveness from those you have wronged. Get your restoration coach to revise and
approve those letters. Your restoration
coach may ask you to send some letters, and other letters will be given to
surrogates to respond to (in some cases there are people you should not write
to—your restoration coach will decide which ones). Make the list with your coach, send the ones
selected, and then send others to surrogates with an attached note as directed
by your coach. (Some telephone calls may
be required instead of letters.) Keep an
“accounting record” of forgiveness granted by these people VIA letters, notes,
e-mails or other responses—follow your coach’s instructions on how far to press
for forgiveness and with whom.
11.
Read the book Rebuilding Your Broken World by
Gordon McDonald.
12. Full
written prayer-of-confession and repentance.
Memorize Psalm 51 then
write your own prayer of confession and repentance
13. Written
forgiveness from God.
Write a letter from God to
you detailing what you believe God is saying in response to your sin. Be detailed and as far as possible, writing
it the way you believe God would speak.
14. Reporting
plans on the restoration process.
Keep a running record of
your reporting to your restoration committee supplying a copy of your report to
your restoration coach for revision before submitting it.
15. Restitution
penance plan.
While we know God forgives
us without any penance on our part, penance is good for us---and good for
others in the body. Design a plan for
“restitution” which includes regular deeds of “penance” for your sin. Such
"penance" can be a means of grace which God uses to mold and
improve you during a "time out" from ministry. In a sense, you are to "go sit in the
corner" apart from ministry for a time.
What else will you do for “penance?”
Again, not to entice God to forgive you—nothing you can do (beyond
repentance) will entice God to forgive.
But what will you do for you and others—to make practical restitution
and penance for your sin? List the
activities and keep a running record of your penance.
16.
Contributing patterns and practices.
Develop a list of the
“contributing patterns and practices” which may have led to your sin. Not that these were directly the “cause” but
that they contributed to the a pattern of life which opened you up to this sin.
17.
Plan to correct the “contributing
factors.”
Make a detailed plan to
correct the underlying factors which contributed to this sin. Keep a running record of your corrective
actions.
18.
Running the red lights reflection.
Nobody has a moral wreck
without running a series of red lights first.
God always provides a “way of escape” to us, even if we are driving too
fast to see the exit. Make a careful
list of how you ‘ran red lights” in this instance and then develop a list of
“red lights” for you to stop at in the future.
19.
Spiritual life graph
Reflect on your spiritual
life from your conversion and develop a spiritual life graph showing your
spiritual high's and low's from the year you were saved to the present.
20.
Plan for increasing return to service.
Develop with your
restoration mentor a plan for gradual and increasing return to service. In the first year you will participate in no
formal ministry or service except “penance-service” like cleaning up after
church, or janitor work. In this first
year you will tithe and attend faithfully all services and keep a running
record of that attendance and tithe in your journal. In the second year you will gradually accept
some minor assignments in your local church—“laity service” not in a
ministerial capacity. In the third year
you can gradually develop some up-front speaking assignments
21.
Scripture study.
Do a Bible study on certain
Bible characters as assigned by your restoration coach—of people who, for
whatever reason, had to wait on the Lord. It is your job to find these people an
develop the written study and journaling.
22.
Establishing a life-long group strategy.
You will realize in this
process that you will always need accountability—especially group
accountability—on a regular basis.
Establish a plan for a lifetime group accountability and report this
strategy to your coach, then keep a running record of meetings with this small
group.
23.
Advice from a restored person.
Meet in person with another
minister who has fallen morally, lost their credentials and then later been
restored to ministry. Get their advice
and help on your future. (Expect their
resistance to meeting with you—they want to forget the past—but you must do
this and be wiling to do it in the future—remember Psalm 51. “Then will I teach
others…”
24.
Life planning segment.
(At about 18 months into
the process) It is time to quit looking
backward now and to look forward.
Develop some life planning work as you look toward your future.
Make a “wish list” for your future—things you’d dream of God letting you
do again some day. Maintain this “wish
list” adding to it as you move toward the next half of the restoration process.
25.
Psalm 51:13 plan.
Make a plan for
"teaching others" from your own errors. How will you enable and challenge
others? How can God use even this sin to
help others? Make a plan of surrender to
God—things you’d be willing to do in the future.
26.
Calling and anointing reflection.
Reflect on the concept of
God's “calling” and “anointing” and how they may be related. Relate this to your own life to date.
27.
Continued mentoring and coaching
sessions.
For at least one year in
the process keep a running record of your “third year meetings” with your coach
as your process moves away from restitution and recovery to growth and
development. These “third year sessions”
will sometimes not even touch on your past but will become enabling and
strengthening sessions focused on your present and future. Though they may not relate directly to
“restoration” (in the looking-backwards way) they are extremely relevant to
your future . Keep a running record of
your “third year meetings” with your coach including the topic of conversations
and a summary of your meetings.
28.
Reflection on the restoration process.
You are nearing the end of
this process. Write a careful reflection
on the process, draw a “map” or diagram, labeling the stages you came
through. Share this with your coach and
keep it in your permanent record of restoration
29.
The restoration application notebook
At this stage you will be
happy you kept all the record as required above. Now you are to compile an “application” for
restoration by summarizing all of the above activities for your restoration
committee. If you have kept up with your
regular reporting, all you will now need to do is to compile and update the
reports given to date. But this
restoration application should be a complete report on your
restoration—including all the details of dates met and (sometimes) even certain
letters you wrote etc. It is likely to
be a 20 page document or more.
30.
Planning the final celebration.
Make careful plans for a
final celebration to end the process.
Who will be there? Where will
this occur? What sign-act will you
select as signifying the end of this process?
Make these plans and share them with your coach while you are waiting
for your denomination to act.
31.
Restoration of credentials &
celebration.
At the proper time your
denomination may restore your credentials.
This may take additional time of waiting, or repeating some
activities. Your job is to complete the
application and wait patiently. Once
these credentials are restored follow through with your celebration and your
relationship with your “restoration coach” will now be ended—any continued
relationship you retain will be as peer, friend or mentor.
© Keith
Drury, 1994; revised 2001
You are free
to copy this resource provided these lines are included