Charity Over Judgment
Never before in ministry have I experienced a year where the church has faced more divisive issues. We are bombarded by the discussions, and social media has only increased the noise. Everyone has an opinion. It is easy to want to retreat.
As the lead pastor and elder of Christ Church, I have not been able to retreat from the chaos of one particular issue: our church’s response to the Coronavirus. If you are not aware, our elders decided to make our plans based on a careful assessment of Scriptural principles, counsel from an advisory team of medical professionals from our church and other pastors in our area, and a continual assessment of the impact of the virus in our local community.
However, I am not writing this post to discuss the details of the path we chose. Instead, I want to highlight an article from 9Marks that sums up my heart for churches in this season. I believe in the autonomy of the local church. Each local church’s leadership must wrestle with Scriptural principles along with their conscience regarding decisions that are not explicitly clear in Scripture. The decision to have services or not have services during a pandemic is one of those difficult decisions.
Regarding the response to the Coronavirus, everyone is making different decisions. And because of the proliferation of the Internet and social media, everyone knows everyone else’s decision. This gives people the opportunity to find counter-arguments for every local church decision. Even in the Great Commission Collective (our network of churches), churches have made different decisions, emphasizing different Scriptural principles, and among the GCC churches in West Michigan, there is also disagreement.
At a national level, this subject has been hotly debated. John MacArthur, a well-known pastor in California, published a statement calling pastors to lead their churches to disobey civil authorities when they restrict or prohibit churches from gathering in person. In the linked article, Jonathan Leeman wisely responds to MacArthur’s statement. Leeman emphasizes the autonomy of the local church and calls us to unity and charity in our response to each other in the larger body of Christ. He states, “Once more, my goal here is not to necessarily disagree with much less condemn either judgment. My goal is to open up a little space of Christian freedom for other churches to make different judgments, and then to encourage all of us to exercise patience and charity with one another and our churches as we make different decisions.”
These are difficult decisions in divisive days. If the leadership in your church is striving to process through their decisions through the consultation of Scripture, with counsel, and walking forward in faith, then we should exercise patience and charity with one another. Consult with your local leadership if you have any questions or concerns, but be slow to rush to judgment. Yes, you can always find someone who agrees with you or supports your argument. But in this day when everything seems to be extremely divisive, it is refreshing when people seek peace and mutual upbuilding. I hope and pray our church and other churches would learn important lessons during this season that would lead us to unity and a deeper love for one another in a world that only grows more divisive.