3. Ask what your church believes.
I recently met a man who lost his job because he supported a movement on Facebook that his church openly differed with. This was an unfortunate way for this man to discover something really important about a place where he was dedicating a great deal of his energy and time!
Learn from his mistakes. Ask questions.
Your church’s collective beliefs and policies are as important to know as your individual convictions for so many reasons. It helps you answer questions that come your way, to work toward unity, and also to decide how you’re going to handle (as a community) the situations that have been getting the most attention recently.
4. Stick to your convictions.
Asking questions and discussing controversial topics is healthy—it’s something that can help us get to know each other, our culture and God even better. But it can also be rough water to play in. Church culture often lands on the opposite side of popular culture, and sometimes that can be a difficult tension to navigate.
Wherever you decide you land on particular issues, be willing to discuss it, but also stand your ground.
Just because “church people” disagree with you doesn’t make you wrong, and just because the world disagrees with you doesn’t mean you should change.
Politics, race, sexuality and religion are all hotly debated in the public eye these days. Our world certainly needs pastors weighing in and adding their perspective. But our participation should be intentional—not in the heat of the moment.
When you’re in a position of influence, people listen to what you have to say. This is a privilege, and it also carries with it great responsibility. It’s so easy for comments to be taken out of context, and we need to engage in debates wisely and intentionally.
As a pastor, do you engage in public debate?
Have you ever said something that landed you in hot water?
