Sin and Pastoring

Back in undergrad I took a class in the Theology of Sin and in that class I was assigned the individual project entitled "Sin and Pastoring." Being a relatively new Christian this was quite an eye opening experience and even now I still struggle with how exactly a pastor, or anyone in leadership is to deal with sin. I had the aMAZing opportunity last night to spend some time with my pastor's wife and she confided in me many things that she feels she can't "let a lot of people know about" This grieves me, as I could tell it grieved her. Where is the line of community and fellowship when it comes to leadership? Where do you hold back things? When it will cause a stumbling block? She made a very interesting comment to me while she was sharing her heart - she said, "I just would hate for you to get to know me and then find this out later on..."

Part of the discussion for me about this is glorifying sin. I don't think past sin (either passive or active) should be some sort of badge of honor. I struggle myself with sharing with peers my past because I don't want to glorify any of the things that I did or were done to me. Yet, like in the case of this dear sister in Christ, I don't believe we go through things to keep them secret.