This was originally publish at Joel Rainey’s blog “Themelios.” I appreciate his willingness to share it with us.
About 13 years ago, Pastor Trey Rhodes was sitting in a meeting of other pastors who were considering the sponsorship of a new church. The local Baptist Association had called this meeting to discuss “concerns” that several of the pastors had relative to this new church proposal. Church planting wasn’t nearly as “cool” back then as it is now, and in fact was held in high suspicion in several segments of my denomination. In particular, these guys were concerned about the theology, evangelistic philosophy, and church growth methods this young church planter under their inspection wanted to employ.
Before long, the meeting turned caustic, with accusations of heresy and being “unBaptistic” being leveled at a young guy who wasn’t in the room to defend himself.
That young guy was me.
After hearing several very negative comments about me, Pastor Trey obtained my phone number and called me directly. Over the next several months as we got to know each other and he came to understand who I really was and what I wanted to see accomplished through planting new churches, he became a fan, and later on, a very dear friend. Two years after this, our new church had the opportunity to play a small role in helping Trey launch out himself to start a new church.
Such was the Kingdom advance that resulted from the decision to make a single phone call, and actually get to know someone. It’s a shame that doesn’t happen more often.
As a guy who spends most of his time working with pastors and seeking to bring the churches they lead to greater missional cooperation, I’ve spent more time than I want trying to de-fuse misconceptions and get past misunderstandings, and toward the commonalities I know are present for us to be on mission together. To be sure, I’m convinced I serve with some of the finest pastors in the country. I’m thankful that in the northeast, we don’t have the luxury of so easily dividing over silly issues and gross mischaracterizations of each other. When you represent less than .01% of the total population, you simply cannot afford to divide on too many things! Nevertheless, even in an area like ours the propensity exists to hold fellow pastors in suspicion, merely on the word from a third party, and without talking to them directly.
We who dare to pastor churches should know better! We preach from a Bible that clearly instructs us to refrain from making judgements on fallacious grounds, and we serve a Lord who was crucified precisely because of the same kind of rumor-mongering, slander, and character assassination that, regrettably, some in pastoral leadership sometimes commit without thinking.
This scenario happens every time we say of one of our fellow pastors “I heard he is a Calvinist! He must not believe in sharing Jesus,” or “with the way his church is growing, he MUST be compromising something!” or “I’m not so sure he is ‘one of us’.”
It continues with assignment of motive without any basis in reality. If he employs a church growth tactic we don’t agree with we assume he is “all about the numbers.” If he hosts a Super Bowl party on a Sunday night we assume he is “bowing to the idol of professional football.” If he engages a segment of his culture in a way we think goes too far, we declare that he has “sold out.”
When such claims are thoughtlessly made without so much as a shred of evidence, or without actually trying to get to know someone, those actions say more about us than those we are accusing. To be sure, putting someone else down often makes us appear better, more holy, and closer to God in our own minds, but it does nothing to help the reputation of our Lord Jesus or the advance of His Kingdom.
Making matters worse, too many pastors don’t go right to the source, but instead rely on so-called “discernment ministries,” organizations who make it their life’s work to destroy the ministry of anyone they deem heretical. Funny thing is that many of these so-called ministries are themselves guilty of malpractice, since the overwhelming majority are not directly accountable to any local church, and that should tell you pretty much everything you need to know. Pastors have the intelligence and ability to seek out accurate answers about a fellow pastor simply by reading original source material. When it comes to the “big name” guys, make sure you have read their books before you say anything publicly so that whatever you say you can say with accuracy.
Oh, and when it comes to the pastor across town, the solution is easier still. Don’t say a word about him from your pulpit until you have sat down with him personally.
Am I suggesting that pastors should not warn their people when they believe false teaching is present? Not at all! Paul warned us that wolves abound who look like sheep, and part of our role includes the protection of our flocks. But I am suggesting that our current practice of third-party sources and hearsay means we “cry wolf” way too often, and lose the respect and attention of our people in the process, thereby opening them up to REAL attacks from REAL false prophets.
We are not politicians in competition with one another for the “party nomination.” We are a band of brothers on the same side of the battlefield, and who need to ensure that, in the midst of all the casualties that already result from the degree of spiritual battle in which we are involved, “friendly fire” isn’t the cause of those casualties.
We rightly lament the rampant gossip, backbiting, slander, and character assassination that so often takes place in our churches. We wonder to ourselves how on earth people who are supposed to know and walk with Jesus can act in such ways.
Gentlemen, the sad truth is that many times, they act in such ways because they are following our example! We need to set a better one!
The pastorate needs more good men like Pastor Trey Rhodes. And the evangelical church needs its present leadership to commit to better discernment that is guided by actually getting to know other people. Stopping this kind of ungodly behavior in our churches begins with us.
Thank you, Joel Rainey, for a most helpful and inspiring blog. I would like to respond to the matter of hearing, “he is a calvinist! He must not believe in sharing Jesus.” I have a son (both spiritually and physically) in the ministry, who seems to be doing very well at sharing Jesus with his theology of Sovereign Grace. In fact, he is not only doing well at it, he is crossing racial lines (so-called). On the 5th of Feb., Black History Month, he had a fellow join his church, a Black man, married to a White wife, who had… Read more »
People used to say, “The Christian army is the only one that shoots its wounded.” It goes beyond that.
The Christian army is the only one that intentionally fires on its own ranks.
Great stuff, Joel.
“We are a band of brothers on the same side of the battlefield, and who need to ensure that, in the midst of all the casualties that already result from the degree of spiritual battle in which we are involved, “friendly fire” isn’t the cause of those casualties.”
Excellent. Words we all need to hear.
Great post, Joel.
Very needed.
My experience is nothing like this. From my pov as a pastor who occasionally has had occasion to listen to planters, I don’t recall any that were viewed with suspicion. The last few, however, did toss out a church planting/launching/rocketing budget that was substantially above the average annual budget for churches they were looking to for financial support.
Superbowl parties are perfectly fine around here except for with Dour Dave Miller and a few others.
It’s funny how we are impacted at the right place at the right time. I was a strong believer in church planting before it was cool. When Joel came into our meeting, I was very excited to hear what he had to say. I was also very disappointed in the response of my fellow pastors. Joel was truly instrumental in so many ways in getting our church planting gears turning. I now know, it was was divine Providence that brought us together. God bless you, Joel, for being God’s man at God’s time in my life. I’m so glad that… Read more »
Let’s stop shooting our wounded and those who fail to keep lock step and get on with our business of spreading the gospel to the best of our understanding of it. Allowing, that there are areas that we do not fully comprehend. Just wait until you folks who believe in Sovereign Grace run into some of those Reformed foks who think slavery is okay and bat you over the head due to your not submitting to the teaching of Scripture!!! You know what is funny. No one ever told me I was going to Hell, when I was atheist. But,… Read more »
AMEN AND AMEN! It is amazing to me how many of our denomination feel it is more important to protect boundries than accompish God’s mission for us. I beleive some state and association people beleive that there is a figurative barbed wire fence protecting thier territories and thier primary responsibility is to protect that line, even if it means squashing the ability of resources being used more appropriately. God Bless