9Marks just published my short article “Five Reflections on Pastoral Disagreements.”
I originally prepared this article as a devotional to present to my fellow pastors at the beginning of an elder meeting in which I anticipated we would be divided on a challenging pastoral issue. I had just finished reading Rhyne Putman’s When Doctrine Divides the People of God, and I riff off his five reasons we disagree about doctrine:
- We read imperfectly.
- We read differently.
- We reason differently.
- We feel differently.
- We have different biases.
Related: As churches consider when and how to reopen after closing for the past several months during the COVID-19 crisis, fellow pastors (not to mention fellow church members!) may disagree with each other. Should we open on this particular date or wait until later? Should we require or encourage or welcome face masks? How should we celebrate the Lord’s Supper? In light of that, Jonathan Leeman and I talked on May 22 about the crisis of Christian conscience. (When I first wrote about the conscience, I never envisioned applying it to when a church should regather in the midst of a pandemic and whether people must wear masks!)
Related (update on 6/2/2020): On April 17, 2020, I recorded a podcast with Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman for the 9Marks podcast. It released today: Episode 130: On How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics (with Andy Naselli). For more on politics, the conscience, and the church, see here.
