What would you do if your pastor was in error?

If you follow the news at all, you can't possibly have missed the Barack Obama/Jeremiah Wright controversy that cropped up again a few weeks ago. To sum it up very quickly, Wright is the pastor and spiritual mentor to Obama who caused a stir by publicly stating a lot of, uh, controversial things. Obama has condemned Wright's more outrageous remarks, but the question has been raised "If Wright was saying crazy things from the pulpit all these years, why didn't you just leave the church?"

We haven't really delved into this controversy here at TC, mainly because we're not a political blog. But putting aside the political angle of this issue, there's a worthwhile spiritual question in there: would you leave your church if your pastor held views you found erroneous, misguided or even a little bit crazy?

Let's make the question a little more focused:

Assume for the sake of discussion that you are very happy with your church and have found it to be an excellent place of fellowship and spiritual growth. Your pastor preaches the Gospel and leads worship in a Biblical manner. But on one issue—maybe it's a particular theological belief, his political opinions, or whatever—you think he's totally out to lunch. And he has stated this view publicly.

What would you do? Would you leave if you thought your pastor was in error about a non-salvation issue? Would you stay at the church and just try to ignore it, because the pastor is doing such a good job otherwise? Something in between?

That's our new poll for the week. Vote in the poll off to the right, and please share your thoughts below!

As for the last poll, about whether or not Christians should attend religious services outside of their faith, over 300 of you voted, and the results were surprisingly almost tied. 51% feel that no, Christians should not attend non-Christian services, while 49% don't see a problem with it.

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Comments (14)

Hi!

I won't just leave right there and then. First of all, I will consult the Bible if indeed he is in error. I will also consult my small group leader if I am not the leader.

If the pastor insists on such views and nothing is being done about it, I will try to personally talk to the pastor.
I love my church and my pastor, However, if my pastor tried to preach something that did not line up with God's word, then Iwould find it difficult to stay there. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.but when you are responsible for preaching or teaching something that could potentially be damaging to someone's sole then that is another whole question. I am sure there are many issues that are non salvational that would not be damming so I would have to evualate the subject the pastor is speaking on. There are many times that I listen to different views from different ministers, you have to learn to dismiss those that are not backed up by the word and keep those that are backed up by the word. Opinions do not matter only the word of God matters. He has the last and final word. That is why we must know what the word say. because "without knowledge, my people will perish says the Lord".
Thank you for letting me express my opinion.
Ms Mary
Matthew 18 says it well.

Everyone matters.

Don't leave out of minor disagreement - talk to the pastor first and then the church leaders and then, if no resolution, don't leave but keep him at arm's length.

Be merciful and forgive.

That's the why the Father in heaven deals with such things.

I still believe the question is too broad. Is your pastor preaching something unscriptural or is he speaking about something that is not addressed in scripture. i.e. you pastor can be out to lunch on a certain political issue like global warming which is a non-salvation issue. Or he may be out to lunch on a theological issues like the virgin birth which is also a non-salvation issue. There is a big difference in my conviction to stay or leave the church.
I'm happy that I'm part of a church which teaches respect for the pastor/elders, but recognition they are fallible humans, too. Our teaching elder welcomes discussions and challenges to his preaching, as long as its based on what the Bible says. Is there total agreement on every single thing? No. But we have love and respect for each other and a commitment to learning and proclaiming God's truth.

By the way, I and many fellow church members have strong political beliefs, too, and we believe biblical principles should affect political beliefs. But we stop short of equating the two. That's a good thing, I think...
If I were Roman Catholic or Mormon, possibly even Anglican, and the priest, pastor, elder, whatever made a pronouncement that all church members must believe X, I would leave the church. That is what inspired the Protestant Reformation. Being a Protestant, inclined toward congregational church governance, but drawn to a Methodist (AMEZ) church where I found the worship and fellowship inspiring, and the episcopal leadership acceptable because it is administrative, not setting theological litmus tests, I would not leave a church merely because the pastor erred, in either his personal life or his pronouncements from the pulpit. I might, or I might not, make my differences known to the pastor, depending on how important it was to me. It is obvious that Rev. Jeremiah Wright built a church where 8000 people feel at home, find warm Christian fellowship, find ministries that are good for the community, all of which is according to the Gospel. It is sad that when Rev. Wright was thrust into the national limelight, he chose to highlight some of the more paranoid utterances that he has included in an obviously rich ministry. Much of what appears in the full videos of his sermons I can fully embrace. But the pastor is not the church.
The first thing I'd suggest was to make sure that I was not in error in my own opinions on the subject. Obviously the way to do this is through prayer and study and even discussion with others (although a majority vote, so to speak, is not always the correct one). Secondly I would discuss my concerns privately with the pastor after all it may not be a big issue and we sometimes are entitled to have differant opinions. Look at the divisions over the Rapture for example.
The major thing about being a christian is that our lords message was very simple and to create a stir over some issues, in the long run, may simply just not matter. The devil loves people arguing amongst themselves. Look at the Anglican church, as a matter of fact, look at all the differant 'christian' churches.
What is the MOST important thing? Jesus came to save us all. He sacrificed his life and rose again so that we should all be free. It's not rocket science.
Yes sometimes the issue may be serious enough to leave a church, I've done so myself, and this was because the pastor took control of the entire church standing down the worship team and not letting anyone else take a part in the church. Basically he made us all sit there while he did the entire praise & worship, communion and preaching. He would not listen to the elders and the church was dying as a result. He was a control freak and had stifled the spirits movement. Time to move on. It was tough because we had been there almost 20 years through lots of crap. But we moved Up, not on.
I was in a similar situation many years ago. I was going from Christian Church to Christian Church over a period of years like a smorgashborg. My Father`s family was going to this large religious organization that had church`s in many cities around the world. They used other books in addtion to the Bible. I joined this religion without really reading their religious books. Until I heard on a christian radio program an expose` on this church`s teachings. I did the research I should have done years before and found this church was preaching about another Christ and taught another gospel. When I approached the local head of the and asked him about the differences they taught over everyother Christian Church I had attended before. He said I was an "aspostate" and to leave I was no longer able to attend and my position in that church is no longer valid anywhere in the world. So I left but I said I would pray that they would see the error of their ways.
What if your pastor preaches Arian, Pelagian, Sabellian, or other heresies, or if you don't accept the Athanasian orthodoxy? I once ran across some positive commentary on Pelagius, which turned out to be posted by a Mormon. I wondered about this when ChrisWeller noted that our Lord's message was very simple. On principle, I agree. How simple is it? Are any of the vexatious disputes I just mentioned essential to the simple message? Many Christians have killed each other over the difference. Personally, I don't think how a person thinks about any of them matter. But then, I don't much care about the Trinity either. I'm not Trinitarian, but I'm not militantly Unitarian either. I can worship in a church that sings "Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Jesus never did define what those are, or what their complete relationship to each other is. And he never called himself the Son of God. He called himself ben Adam, the Son of Man.
Does inviting non-Trinitarians to speak prophesy to your (reformed) church, having a "prophet" perform an impartation on the pastor's wife in the Sunday morning service, and sending the youth group to New Orleans to work, stay and worship with a congregation that is aligned with Word of Faith non-trinitarians count as "error"?

Been there, done that.

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