Trouble in Paradise: A Story of Ministry in the Aftermath of Clergy Misconduct

by Sarah York, Deborah Pope-Lance (Foreword)

162 pages, Paperback

Published August 18, 2026

Reviews

[Laura]

This memoir is an accounting of one minister's experience serving a large, affluent and educated congregation in the aftermath of the clergy sexual misconduct. In the ecclesiastical world, serving a congregation that has experienced some type of ethical breach or violation of boundaries is known as being an "after pastor". I'm a lay person who had never heard of this term, but it seems quite apt as church members have all been harmed to one degree or another, and their trust in clergy or lay leaders has been destroyed or wounded. I have been involved with my own congregation for 30 years and have been involved as a lay leader, though nothing like this has occurred in my church to my knowledge. Despite my lack of this specific type of experience, I found this book to be a quite absorbing story of an extreme case of dysfunction. My sense is that anyone involved with a faith community or a non-profit organization would recognize features of this dysfunction in their own group. The audience for this is probably seminaries and clergy groups, but it might be a helpful book for lay groups processing clergy misconduct. There are questions to facilitate discussion at the end of each chapter.