Anonymous Asks (412)

“I believe our pastor is trying to introduce teaching and practices inconsistent with our church’s statement of faith. Should I respond, and if so, how?”

It’s not at all uncommon for Christians to attend a church whose statement of faith they disagree with in small ways. I’ve yet to fellowship with any congregation that was monolithic in its faith and practice. Doctrinal differences are to be expected, and our Lord anticipated them in his letters to the seven churches in Revelation. To the church in Pergamum he twice says some among them held teachings contrary to the faith.

Quietly holding a doctrinal error is a problem, but not as big a problem as being in a position to teach it. Being in a position to teach it weekly is worst of all.

Analyzing the Problem

I have a good friend who has attended, led and taught in Dispensational churches his entire life, but who leans Reformed on two or three of their major distinctives. If you ask him what he believes about these things personally and privately, he’ll tell you, but I’ve never once heard him try to subvert any church’s documented beliefs from the platform despite having regular opportunity for decades to do so. That’s the right way to hold variant doctrine in good conscience, especially when you can’t find a church whose statement of faith you agree with 100%. Sneaking it into your sermons, if that’s what’s happening with your pastor, is absolutely the wrong way, but it highlights one of the more predictable consequences of departing from the pattern of the first century New Testament churches.

A word about statements of faith. I am not the world’s biggest fan, but I understand why they exist and why nearly every local church formulates and adopts one. Some are more detailed than others, touching on matters nowhere near the heart of Christian orthodoxy. It’s hard to assess the seriousness of this particular problem without specifics. Before you do anything else, ask yourself if your church’s statement of faith really reflects the beliefs of its current regular congregants. COVID churn has resulted in significant turnover in many local churches. The people who formulated your statement of faith may be long gone, and many of the folks currently in the pews may never have read it, let alone agree wholeheartedly with it. Before you move on something like this, you need to be realistic about whether others are likely to stand with you, or whether you are the doctrinal outlier and your pastor’s views reflect those of significant numbers attending.

Do the Elders Have a Plan?

Let’s assume the problem is serious and the statement of faith is an accurate reflection of what the majority believes scripture teaches. Doctrinal drift is a problem church leadership ought to anticipate and plan for when they adopt a policy of one-man ministry or anything close to it. Perhaps your elders have done so. Before making any accusations against a man they vetted and selected, it is wise to quietly find out if they have a contingency plan in place for hirelings who go off the rails. Keep your tone light and your questions purely hypothetical at this point. Do not criticize their choice of a man to shepherd the flock or their motives in bringing him in. If it turns out they have anticipated this possibility, you may not have to do anything; they may eventually do it for you. They may also appreciate finding out people in the congregation have their backs.

On the other hand, church leaders who have already drifted away from the NT pattern in one respect or another are unlikely to have prefabricated solutions to problems they have willingly created. I suspect you will not find strong allies among them so long as the pastor’s departures from local “orthodoxy” are not blatant or frequent.

The Matthew 18 Method

Having gotten a sense of where the elders are in their thinking, you are now in a position to act. The question of how any individual should respond to suspicious platform utterances depends on a number of variables: age (both yours and the pastor’s), personal level of involvement in church leadership, the type of doctrinal variance the pastor is smuggling into his sermons and the way he presents it. I would start by trying to clarify the pastor’s real position on the issues you have noted. Go directly to the source of the problem. That’s the Matthew 18 method, and we don’t really have another to follow. I strongly recommend against any course of action that involves blindsiding a man or making accusations behind his back.

No reasonable pastor should take offense at questions about what he believes and why. Politely and calmly get him on record about that. Pay close attention to what he says and how he says it, then make notes after your meeting to refresh your memory later. He may turn out to be quite orthodox. If not, it gives you opportunity to point out where he and your current statement of faith are at odds, and possibly to get a feel for what he intends to do about it. I have seen situations where the pastor genuinely had no idea that some idea he was trying to introduce was unwelcome until people in his congregation started pushing back in no uncertain terms. This where age comes in. A man fresh out of seminary may not be so invested in some of the ideas he picked up there that he’s willing to face serious opposition over them. A veteran is more likely to have encountered opposition to these ideas before and will be less inclined to back down.

Scaling Up

Having done that, I would sit back and see what happens next. If he stops pushing the teaching you object to, problem solved. If he doesn’t, I’d book a second visit, this time with a witness, again following the Matthew 18 pattern. The ideal witness may even be your wife, assuming you have one and she’s doctrinally solid and respected by her peers. A woman, especially a quiet one, is usually less threatening and a more natural fit for a chat with the pastor than any other option. Alternatively, a calm, quiet friend, preferably senior, will do just fine, though the pastor is less likely to speak freely in such a situation. Your “second’s” role is simply to listen and confirm the facts. Avoid asking intense people, people likely to overreact or people likely to gossip about what is going on.

If at that point you are unable to get a firm commitment from your pastor to steer clear of the subjects at issue, that’s when I would start thinking about a visit to your elders without him present. If you decide to move forward, bring your witness and lay out your concerns, giving every benefit of the doubt where possible and representing the pastor’s stated position on the issue faithfully and precisely. Then commit it to the Lord, zip your lip and see what happens, allowing sufficient time for your elders to move at their own pace if they have indicated they are going to do so. I can tell you right now that it’s unlikely you will get an immediate commitment from them to do anything specific. Wise elders tend to go away and pray together before moving on anything, and they will want to do their own due diligence before confronting any major issue. That’s good. Be patient.

Maintaining a Good Conscience

Beyond that, without knowing the specific error or errors you have spotted in your pastor’s sermons, I can’t tell you what to do if your elders refuse to deal with the issue and the variant teaching continues or intensifies. That’s something you’ll have to work out for yourself in good conscience before the Lord. A major departure from Christian orthodoxy is worth quietly leaving over. On the other hand, there may be things in your statement of faith that do not rise to that level. Often there are. What’s not a good idea is to share your story with other members of the congregation or, worse, on social media.

You would think serious Christians would know that, but I have learned otherwise. Sometimes the obvious is not as obvious to all as we think it is.