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How exactly would you have discerned his lack of worthiness to be in the church? Obviously some thought him arrogant and overly aggressive in his duties while others thought he was only doing his job at work the last ten years as conpliance officer.Some neighbors considered considered him polite and helpful.

Obviously he played the role of Christian very well in his congregation. He was very good at completely fooling others for many years.

Obviously he played the role of Christian very well in his congregation. He was very good at completely fooling others for many years.

The book of Jude has a warning about impostors like this -- impostors that virtually nobody else but God knows about. If he gives the testimony and obeys the rules, the church can't be expected to read his mind.

The problem is twofold. One, many churches, the ELCA in particular, have abandoned the historic doctrines of their faith. They are, in truth, apostate. Posturing as Christian, many such collections of people find themselves into all sorts of the problems and issues laid out in the central document (the Bible) that they reject as supreme authority. Secondly, since their allegiance to historic doctrine and the absolute nature of Biblical authority, they do not employ standards and measures for authenticity or judgement in their selection of leadership.

What you end up with, ultimately, is a solely human agency caught up with doing good works. In this day and age, under the rubric of small-c 'christianity' pushed by many Protestant congregations, this also means that they are shot through with liberation theology heresies which render Christ as a social revolutionary. It is a short hop to find that apostate organizations like the ELCA often harbor a nearly pure Marxian world view, hence the usual leftwing social agenda, female and gay clergy, explicitly political agitation, inability to make judgements, etc., etc., etc.