I'm Just Throwing this Out for Discussion
Anyone who would like to comment would be welcome. Do any of you find yourselves to be too critical, discerning, whatever you want to call it, to the point of running in circles? I'm thinking particularly in the area of spiritual growth. What pastors do you listen to regularly? What authors do you read? Are there any points of their individual stances where you differ? How do you reconcile those differences?
I'll wait a while for some input before commenting on what brought this up.
Thanks!
3 comments:
Let's see if I can answer all of the questions...
First, yes, I'm often very critical, especially of pastors and teachers. It's usually when they don't preach the Word. I don't even mind disagreeing with their opinion, but only when they've supported it with clear biblical exegesis.
I regularly listen to Phil Nelson (my pastor), Albert Mohler, John Piper, Russell Moore and occasionally Mark Driscoll. I read all of those as well... except Phil. I also read John MacArthur and have started reading some John Owen.
As far as issues that I have a firm conviction on, I agree pretty closely with Mohler & Moore. They are a little too political for my taste though. Piper is great, except for his views on accepting paedobaptists as members in his church. Driscoll is pretty solid, but I'm a little more conservative when it comes to contextualization. MacArthur is great, of course, but I think he sometimes paints the emerging church with too broad of strokes. He doesn't leave room for conservative guys like Driscoll and Darrin Patrick in StL.
I reconcile those differences by understanding that they have those convictions based on their Biblical conviction. It's clear when they talk about those issues that they've not just jumped on a fad, but are convicted by Scripture. I only have hard time reconciling or being united with believers who grossly mishandle scripture or chuch it out the window.
I have recently been learning to become more critical of what I hear either from a pulpit, on the radio, or from a book. For awhile it seems like I fell into the trap of "well, he meant well and was genuine, therefore it must be accurate." The pastoral staff at our (relatively) new church does a great job of sticking to the word.
I've sat through a lot of adult Bible studies where most statements begin with something to the effect of, "What it means to me is..." and it is usually followed by something resembling truth but somehow skewed to make the speaker feel less conviction about sin.
It seems like it has taken me awhile to realize that scripture meant something, and meant something specific at the time it was written. Kind of scary to think that I actually taught a sunday school class huh?
My lovely wife pointed out that some of our former pastoral staff, who are regular visitors to this blog, may infer from my original comment that I felt they did not stricktly adhere to sound Biblical doctrine.
So let me be proactive in my apology, I wasn't talking about Tim or Chad.
Post a Comment