Pastors, say the unpopular things.
Over the years I’ve seen that sometimes pastors can be very afraid of speaking up about what they see. Over the years I’ve seen pastors stay silent when they should speak; I’ve seen pastors who shrink back when instead they needed to step forward.
And I hear all kinds of reasons: they wouldn’t listen anyway. Now is not the right time. Let’s deal with another issue first. I need to build more trust before dealing with this issue. I haven’t really preached on it before. There are lots of different views on this Bible passage so we don’t really know what the Bible says anway. The leaders won’t like it. Our official position is such-and-such so that’s what we believe…
But behind a lot of these things is the fear of pastors that they might lose their job. Because after: all who is it who employs them? It is congregations. it is church leaders (depending on the denomination). And so you better not make people angry. Why raise this topic when you could speak on fifty other things? Why raise this now when you know that people are against you?
And so be aware: there are pastors out there who are loud and forthright on the safe issues where they know people are on their side… but who become strangely quiet and circumspect on the other ones.
In the first part of 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul is trying to win back the trust of the church in Corinth. But remarkably when he comes to an issue of godliness that he sees emerging in the Corinthian church, he writes to them boldly about it (2 Cor 7). And you need to realise that by doing so, he completely jeapordises the good relationship with them that he has worked so hard to recover! He is willing even to cause them sorrow (7:8) – he knows that it might well do that.
Yet he writes it anyway. Knowing that it will be ugly. Knowing it will be like a hand grenade in the midst of their cosy little Christian fellowship.
Happily in that case at least, things turned out well. In that case, their sorrow was a godly sorrow – it led to repentance and self examination (7:10-11). But just because it ended well, don’t lose sight of the fact that Paul wrote that letter knowing full well that it could do irrepairable damage to their relationship.
And you can imagine how difficult this can be in churches where you have people coming from Confucian backgrounds. In such churches the virtues of harmony and unity are highly prized – often to a greater extent than doctrinal integrity and biblical godliness.
Despite this, what you want to have are pastors who love God more than they love their jobs. You want pastors who fear God more than they fear their church. And who will not turn away from saying unpalatable and potentially disharmonious things. We need pastors who are resolved to be God’s spokesmen first and foremost.
If you are a congregation member, you can imagine how a pastor’s lack of resolve to speak in certain areas might undermine the integrity of his ministry to you. Because how do you know if he is bringing you the full counsel of God? how do you know that he is saying the things he does only because of his desire to keep his job? Here then are two axioms:
Never trust a pastor whose silence can be bought.
And this is the corollary:
Flee from a pastor whose convictions are up for sale.
In the period of English history known as the Restoration, many faithful Puritan preachers found themselves out of favour with the authorities. Many Puritan pastors found themselves squeezed out of their churches and left without support - because they were unwilling to conform to high church practices and Arminian theology. Some pastors such as John Bunyan were even jailed several times for preaching without a license.
This period of history not very well known - but the Puritans actually have much to teach us. Because in the end you want are pastors who are unafraid of losing their jobs. You want pastors who will intentionally anger the significant people in their congregation. You want pastors who cannot be silenced…
[ PS: what are the pastors of your church like? ]
