By Iris Lennox
Foreword
I will not be writing further about Tyler Arnold. His resignation and the way it has been framed are included here because they illustrate the larger patterns I have been examining on Casual Impact: how clergy misconduct is described, how harm is obscured, and how institutions respond.
To women who have been in similar situations, I want you to know that I see your pain, as do many others — both men and women — and you are not alone.
To those within the LCMS — leaders, pastors, and members — the questions that follow are not for me to resolve. They are for you to confront with seriousness and integrity. What happens next will shape whether this becomes a moment for honesty and renewal, or another instance of silence and minimization.
Tyler Arnold was a pastor in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). He served several congregations during his ministry, most recently Village Lutheran Church in Ladue, Missouri. He also served on the Concordia Seminary Board of Regents in 2019, where he replaced Harold Senkbeil, the founder of DOXOLOGY. In addition, he was named a Collegium Fellow with DOXOLOGY, a program designed to strengthen pastors in counseling and the care of souls. Arnold was not a peripheral figure.
Early in September 2025, DOXOLOGY released Arnold’s resignation letter. In it, he wrote:
“It is with great sorrow and shame that I write this letter. Effective immediately, I resign my Divine Call… The reason for my resignation is that I engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a person outside of my marriage. I believe it is important to tell you that this person is not associated with Village Lutheran.”
He described his repentance, his family’s need for prayer, and his assurance that the Lord would sustain His church. The full text is available on DOXOLOGY’s website.
DOXOLOGY’s statement introducing the letter lamented the “loss to the church of a dear pastor” and cited Luther’s Large Catechism on the Eighth Commandment about covering a neighbor’s sins.
What Disappears in the Framing
The phrase “inappropriate relationship” reduces an affair to a euphemism. Of course, the woman is unnamed, and rightly so. Her privacy matters. But what vanishes is any recognition that she bore harm. Arnold admits to “deep harm,” yet his letter names only his wife, sons, and congregation. One of the people most directly affected — along with her family — is absent from the acknowledgement. That erasure tells only half the story.
The statement centers on the loss of a pastor’s office and the pain of his family. Those are real losses. Yet the harm to the woman is left unspoken. Such situations often fracture trust, destabilize faith, and leave lasting wounds in the life of the woman. The silence here is especially jarring, given Arnold’s public role as an authority on “soul care” and the author of Pastoral Visitation: For the Care of Souls.
What Accountability Means
Accountability is not revenge. It is the work of truth, care, and reform. For example:
Truth-telling — using clear words instead of softened language.
Oversight — examining how long the relationship lasted, whether leadership roles or LCMS-related travel were connected, and whether authority was misused.
Care for the harmed — extending attention and support to the woman affected and to Arnold’s family.
Structural change — building safeguards so misconduct is not hidden under the language of forgiveness, and so that people raising legitimate concerns are not silenced by appeals to the Eighth Commandment.
Accountability cannot stop with Arnold alone. He held positions of leadership in spiritual environments: DOXOLOGY, Concordia Seminary, and the LCMS. When a pastor in such roles resigns over misconduct, accountability must extend beyond his actions to the culture and systems that surrounded him.
The Questions That Remain
These questions reflect best practices drawn from independent church investigations. They provide a framework that the LCMS could choose to adopt in the name of clarity and integrity.
Scope and power dynamics
When did the relationship begin, when did it end, and who initiated contact?
Did any part of the relationship occur in the context of pastoral care, counseling, mentoring, or spiritual authority? Independent reviews (e.g., the SBC’s Guidepost report) stress that power differentials are central to harm analysis.
Are there other individuals who experienced boundary crossings or similar approaches? What patterns appear across timing, settings, and communications?
Use of position and resources
Did Arnold’s titles (pastor, DOXOLOGY Fellow, seminary regent) create access or opportunity?
Were church/DOXOLOGY/seminary/LCMS resources used—travel budgets, conferences, lodging, devices, email accounts? Has an expense and communications audit begun?
Institutional awareness and response
Who first knew or suspected, and when? What steps were taken immediately after?
Reporting upward: Were concerns reported to the proper ecclesiastical supervisor (district president, and as needed, the LCMS president) per LCMS procedures? Was a case file opened?
Conflicts of interest: Where close working relationships existed, were any leaders recused from handling the matter?
Policies, safeguards, and compliance
What written sexual misconduct and boundary policies were in effect at the congregation, DOXOLOGY, the seminary, the district, and the LCMS?
Training: Were leaders required to complete regular misconduct-prevention training and renew their certification at set intervals (not just a one-time seminar)?
For inherently private ministry (shut-in/home/hospital visits), what safeguards existed—companions/chaperones, visit logs reviewed by elders, “two-deep” norms, digital-communication archiving? Where did oversight break down?
Care for the harmed
Has the woman been offered an independent advocate, counseling, and safety planning separate from the church’s legal interests?
Have any non-disclosure agreements (formal or implied) been used? Survivor-advocacy orgs warn NDAs can silence and retraumatize.
Independent review and transparency
Will an independent third-party investigation be commissioned—with a public executive summary—by the LCMS (not only the local congregation)?
Are records—emails, texts, expense reports—being preserved under a non-interference directive across all entities (congregation, DOXOLOGY, seminary, district, LCMS)?
Forward-looking accountability
What consequences follow under the LCMS bylaws, and how will they be communicated to the church?
What synod-wide guardrails will be added now? Clearer counseling boundaries, centralized reporting options outside the chain of command, whistleblower/anti-retaliation protections, periodic audits of travel/communications, and annual public reporting (privacy-respecting) on clergy-misconduct responses?
Further Reading
Guidepost Solutions Report on the Southern Baptist Convention (2022) — an independent investigation that highlighted the importance of power dynamics, survivor care, and transparent reporting.
GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) Investigations — including the 2014 Bob Jones University report, which underscored how absent or inconsistent training enabled harm.
Miller & Martin PLLC Report on Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (2021) — an investigation that examined misuse of position, resources, travel, and oversight failures.
LCMS Handbook: Constitution, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporation — the governing document that outlines ecclesiastical supervision, reporting obligations, and disciplinary processes within the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
It's extremely unlikely that any of your excellent questions will be addressed, because the first official response was "loss of a dear pastor" and citation of the 8th commandment, which is often used as a weapon to silence those who ask for accountability. This indicates closure of a door to accountability. Another question would be, whether this was this a public or private sin. Those are to be dealt with differently.
Thank you for another well-written, thought- provoking, powerful message. I pray that instead of defense and self- preservation- some deep, truthful self-examination will occur in those whose actions or inaction have hurt others.