A former Methodist pastor, scheduled to stand trial next week on charges that he sexually abused three boys, is considering a judge’s offer of three to four years in state prison if he pleads guilty by Thursday.

Russell W. Davis, 70, of Seabrook, New Hampshire, who until 2015 was a church-licensed but not ordained pastor for the United Methodist Church, was first charged in 2018 after one of the boys went to Newbury police with an account of years of sexual abuse.

But eight years earlier, in 2010, another boy had also reported that Davis had been abusing him since he was 11. Due to the boy’s emotional state, police did not pursue that case at the time, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said in court Tuesday.

Both boys came from what a prosecutor said on Tuesday were unstable and difficult living situations that “made them vulnerable.” Both were brought to the…