A few years ago at my church, I was assigned the task of screening and hiring a new deacon. After several interviews, I felt I located the perfect choice, and he was scheduled to preach the following Sunday. During his sermon, he said quite few things that were over-the-top/border line insane, and he had the entire congregation squirming in their seats. The church leaders confronted me after the service, clearly outraged.

“We told you to hire an associate pastor!” they angrily told me.

“Associate pastor?” I responded. “I thought you guys said ‘a sociopath’. What the…”