Celebrated prophetic minister Paul Cain apologized last year for serious moral failures and withdrew from public ministry, promising Christians that he would seek help for his addictions. Today, more than a year later, I tried to find out if Cain is making good on his pledge.

 

The answer to that question? It depends who you ask. And not too many people are talking.

 

I believe restoration is a serious issue. If a leader makes moral or ethical mistakes that hurt other people, especially ones as serious as Cain made, then he needs serious accountability. That’s not being harsh. The Bible says those in public ministry have a stricter standard.

 

Those who worked closest with Cain during the last decade say he hasn’t taken the steps they prescribed. But a group of ministers in California who began ministering to Cain a few months ago say he is walking through a rigorous recovery process.

 

I pray the folks in California are right.

 

Cain’s story is tragic. He was once involved in the healing revival of the 1950s. He disappeared from the scene for 25 years and re-emerged in the 1990s as a modern prophet who could read people’s mail from the podium and even give their street addresses, supposedly by revelation from God. But his ministry ended in 2005 when he admitted publicly that he struggled with homosexuality and alcoholism for an extended period of time.

 

“I am guilty as I can be,” he told Charisma in March 2005. “I am going for counseling. I am getting as much help as I can.”

 

Cain told me at that time that he planned to take a “low profile” and would discontinue all speaking engagements. And he issued this guarantee: “I promise to seek immediate help for my problems and submit to leaders in the body of Christ who will supervise my restoration.”

 

But pastor Larry Alberts, who has known Cain for years, says Cain did not submit to a plan of restoration that would have required Cain to move to Minnesota where Alberts lives.

 

“I can no longer run after Paul,” Alberts says. “Without exception, everyone I know who knows Paul has strongly encouraged him to move [to Minnesota] for his healing and recovery.”

 

Three prominent charismatic leaders, Mike Bickle, Rick Joyner and Jack Deere, promoted Cain’s ministry to charismatic audiences in the 1990s. When they confronted Cain about his moral failures in 2004, he initially denied all charges—prompting Joyner to place a statement of public discipline on his MorningStar Ministries Web site. Later the three men publicly apologized for endorsing Cain’s ministry.

 

These three men then asked Cain to submit to a process of restoration with Alberts, who had enlisted help from a psychiatrist. Today, Bickle says he won’t accept Cain’s restoration unless Alberts is involved.

 

Says Bickle: “I made a commitment to only go through Larry Alberts. I made that abundantly clear last year.”

 

Meanwhile, a pastor in Baldwin Park, Calif., says Cain began attending his church six weeks ago and is now receiving regular ministry from a team of leaders there. David Diaz, who pastors the 350-member independent congregation, says Cain sits on the front row on Sundays and is receiving spiritual counseling and prayer. (David Andrade, another minister involved in the restoration process, asked that we not reveal the church’s name in order to protect Cain’s privacy.)

 

Says Diaz: “Since mid-January, we can affirm that Paul has been free from any use of alcohol and has placed himself at the discretion of [a] group of men and women concerning all his issues. We are holding him to the highest standards of moral behavior. He is really coming along. My job is to keep him as open to the Lord as possible.”

 

Cain, who is 76, suffers from declining health. He reportedly broke three ribs in a car accident in January and is being treated for high blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation and a hernia. His Web site includes a statement that implies he had two mild heart attacks because of emotional “heaviness” that was “placed upon him by certain other ministers.”

 

Cain obviously needs our prayers, and I commend any leader who offers him help. But I have some advice for everyone involved: Love must be tough. Although we must have mercy for a broken individual, we must face the fact that Cain deceived the body of Christ, broke a trust and brought great shame on the ministry. Restoration in this case does not mean returning him to the pulpit.