Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #115： Four Types of Church Members Who Destroy The Flock

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, where each week

00:00:13.120 I offer 15 to 20-minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions. This is a 100% listener

00:00:20.600 supported audio ministry of relearn.org. And for those who don't know, our mission at relearn.org

00:00:27.500 is to educate and equip ordinary Christians to plant biblical, confessional, and missional

00:00:33.380 house churches. For more information, just visit relearn.org forward slash house.

00:00:42.120 A question for you guys. Do you ever want to be a fruitful and biblical member of your church?

00:00:50.360 Is that a desire? Have you ever wondered what type of Christians build up a local church and

00:00:56.400 What type? Tear it down. Better yet, are you one of these people who might be tearing down the 1.00

00:01:03.160 church, but you just don't know it? These are important questions, and we're going to be

00:01:08.120 discussing this and more. But before we begin, I just wanted to make one quick announcement.

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00:01:32.900 We're coming up to the close of the 2020 year, and we've met every financial need so far this

00:01:38.640 year, but we're still short on meeting the budget, the 2020 budget required to fulfill

00:01:43.860 our ministry objectives for the remainder of the year. Additionally, we're actually

00:01:48.820 praying heavily for 2021. We believe it'll be a big year for our ministry. We're planning,

00:01:55.660 as we mentioned before, to film a documentary on house church to establish our first group

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00:02:22.540 and I'm just asking if you would prayerfully consider making either a one-time donation or

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00:02:35.700 always make a donation to our ministry at relearn.org forward slash donate, relearn.org

00:02:42.620 forward slash donate. All right, guys, this is going to be a slightly different episode. I

00:02:47.900 recently had a friend and a fellow house church planter ask me what type of Christians have been 1.00

00:02:53.880 difficult or even dangerous to the health of a local house church community, and I thought it

00:03:01.220 was a great question, and I ended up writing an article on the topic titled The Four Types of

00:03:05.580 church members who hurt the church. Not everyone has the time to read an article and also might

00:03:14.800 not even know that I wrote the article because we have a lot more listeners on this podcast than we

00:03:19.480 do readers on the website. But I thought I would do an episode where I would read an abbreviated

00:03:25.220 version and make some commentary along the way. So we're going to dive into that real quick. This

00:03:30.720 is the response that I gave to that question. One of the more obvious differences between a

00:03:38.480 traditional church and a house church is the degree of impact one person or family can have

00:03:45.840 on the congregation. And since a traditional church typically has, you know, say 100 to 300

00:03:51.940 members, one divisive individual doesn't greatly affect the entire congregation. However, in a house

00:03:59.860 church, one member or family might be upwards of 20% of your congregation, and their immorality

00:04:08.320 or issues without proper pastoral leadership can greatly affect the entire assembly.

00:04:15.340 And so as pastors, shepherds, lay leaders in a local house church context,

00:04:21.760 must not only be vigilant in regards to who is admitted into your church membership, but also

00:04:29.280 watchful within our own members to recognize and lovingly correct those who are walking contrary

00:04:36.460 to the Word of God. And personally, I've been a member of a house church since 2014 and a pastor

00:04:44.380 of one since 2017, and my experience is, sure, it's somewhat narrow. I'm not a novice, however,

00:04:53.320 to the spiritual realities faced in these small biblical communities.

00:04:58.060 To be honest, they're not easy.

00:05:01.280 The relational stakes in a house church are high.

00:05:05.460 We're with fallen saints who sin, and we have an enemy working against us.

00:05:11.360 And so in this episode, I just want to share these four types of church members—these

00:05:18.200 or Christians that, from my own experience, have had a hurtful effect on a local church.

00:05:26.320 And this would be really anywhere, but it's just amplified in a house church context.

00:05:31.260 And how pastors can identify, confront, and gently shepherd these individuals to the feet

00:05:38.440 of Christ.

00:05:38.820 So this is, if you have a pastoral heart, or you're a lay leader, or you're a pastor,

00:05:44.340 this message will be really pointed to you in terms of the application, but I think it's a

00:05:50.980 good message for anybody. So the first person, first character or member that hurts the church,

00:05:58.880 in my opinion, is the lost member. And so sadly, the Western church has created,

00:06:05.480 you know, a Christian population through decisions or decisionism, rather than through 0.99

00:06:11.480 repentance and belief. And many people who regularly attend Sunday assemblies, they've

00:06:18.280 confused coming to church with coming to Christ. And as a result, we have thousands of people

00:06:22.940 within the walls of the church who are moralists, religious zealots, proponents of traditional and

00:06:30.000 conservative values. They're even brilliant philosophers of the Christian faith, but in

00:06:33.860 reality, they've actually never been born again. And as a pastor, this is delicate territory.

00:06:42.040 As men, we know that we can only look upon the outside.

00:06:48.340 We can't look upon the heart.

00:06:50.120 1 Samuel 16, 7 talks about that.

00:06:52.800 But Jesus has offered us a way and a clear path to the evidence that will be present

00:06:59.080 in any born-again believer.

00:07:01.900 It's Matthew 7, 16 through 20.

00:07:04.420 Jesus says,

00:07:05.220 You will recognize them by their fruits.

00:07:08.100 Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

00:07:11.480 In regards to that doctrine in Matthew 7, Dr. Albert Barnes once wrote, and I quote,

00:07:37.820 The Savior gives the proper test of their character. People do not judge a tree by its

00:07:44.240 leaves or bark or flowers, but by the fruit which it bears. The flowers may be beautiful and

00:07:50.980 fragrant and the foliage thick and green, but these are merely ornamental. It is the fruit

00:07:57.320 that is the chief service to a man. And he forms his opinion of the nature and the value of the

00:08:03.840 tree by that fruit. So of pretensions to religion, the profession may be fair, but the conduct,

00:08:12.120 the fruit, is to determine the status of the tree. I thought that was well written.

00:08:19.480 In other words, basically what we're learning from this is Christ has not left the church

00:08:24.200 without the means to identify counterfeits, wolves, or simply lost sheep needing to hear the call

00:08:31.820 of the Shepherd, capital S, Shepherd. That is the word of Christ, the gospel of our salvation,

00:08:38.340 right? Romans 10, 17. And this is critical because allowing a lost person, even if they are moral,

00:08:46.420 to remain in a state of false assurance is dishonest and dangerous. Because these individuals

00:08:54.840 lack the spiritual traits that foster and maintain unity within a local church,

00:09:00.560 they they're often the root of a lot of divisive activities within the body and basically when we

00:09:09.620 see a member who over long periods of time is sincerely struggling to produce spiritual responses

00:09:16.020 in their interactions with other members it's a valid question to to think if they're spiritually

00:09:23.580 alive we can't expect spiritual actions from people who have not been spiritually born

00:09:30.080 And so it is a valid thing as a pastor to go, okay, am I seeing something trending here

00:09:36.960 that I should maybe have a discussion about?

00:09:40.180 But what should a pastor do if he has a spiritually, scripturally, and prayerfully discerned moment

00:09:48.400 and a seemingly unconverted member in his congregation?

00:09:52.860 Unfortunately, there's really no one answer to this fairly common question.

00:09:59.280 The Bible does command Christians to hold anyone who is, quote, named a brother or sister

00:10:05.800 to the moral standards of Scripture.

00:10:07.900 We see that in 1 Corinthians 5, 11 through 14.

00:10:11.200 That is, you know, any member in the church walking contrary to his or her claimed identity

00:10:18.480 must be lovingly yet directly confronted and corrected.

00:10:23.400 But because every situation is different, there's really no step-by-step process.

00:10:27.200 I will offer a biblical principle derived from 1 Corinthians 13.5 that has really served me well.

00:10:36.820 And this is love thinks no evil. That's that verse. The thing that served me well is this

00:10:42.840 statement. It was told to me years ago, be curious before you're critical. Namely, start with

00:10:49.700 questions before making claims. Ask them about their sin, the bad fruit that you're seeing

00:10:55.240 in their lives. Listen carefully to their response. Ask them about their conversion and how their sin

00:11:02.080 sits in light of the gospel and what Christ has done for them. Ask them if they would explain

00:11:07.220 to you the gospel and how their understanding of repentance and faith have shaped their behavior

00:11:14.480 as Christians. And the answers to these questions will offer deep insight as a pastor that will

00:11:20.460 either confirm or disprove your discernment if they're saved or not, or born again or not.

00:11:28.460 And so, in either conclusion, I just suggest that you present the gospel thoroughly to them.

00:11:35.480 The gospel is not just for lost people. The gospel is for saved people. We need to constantly

00:11:42.640 be reminded of the beauty of the gospel. And let me close with just a quick word of caution on this

00:11:49.580 first point. This entire process, if you have somebody that you're concerned may not actually

00:11:56.620 be born again, but is in the church, and you want to have a discussion around these things,

00:12:02.260 this is a deeply sensitive discussion, and it might not even be worth having. It might just be

00:12:08.840 preaching the gospel, but you need to use your words like a scalpel, not a knife. 0.99

00:12:13.620 A knife can cut out genuine assurance and genuine hope in what looks like a backslidden believer.

00:12:24.260 But a scalpel, it's a tool of precision, and it's used only after identifying what it's going to cut out.

00:12:34.240 And so with this, you know, acute device, you can cut out only what is broken, and that

00:12:41.760 would be the false assurance and the false hope in an unconverted soul.

00:12:45.440 So just be very, very, very, very careful in that situation if you do decide to confront

00:12:50.880 this in a brother or sister in your church.

00:12:54.320 And sometimes, again, it's very obvious, and sometimes it's not obvious, and you have to

00:12:59.540 be very careful.

00:13:00.860 So the first one was the lost member.

00:13:04.400 We need to realize that, yeah, we've had so many people come into the church under false

00:13:09.600 understanding of the gospel through, again, easy believism or come and say this prayer

00:13:15.520 and there was really no regenerating moment or it was an emotional experience that never

00:13:20.180 actually produced a born again moment.

00:13:22.780 The Lord actually hasn't sovereignly done that work yet.

00:13:28.080 They're in the church, and the Lord is seeking them in some capacity at this point.

00:13:32.960 He's drawing them.

00:13:34.180 They may need to hear the gospel once again.

00:13:36.500 Number two is the rogue member.

00:13:39.260 The rogue member.

00:13:40.940 The Bible teaches that God is God of order, and it also teaches that the church is a place

00:13:46.520 of order.

00:13:47.100 That's 1 Corinthians 14.40.

00:13:50.380 But we also see that the church is governed first by Christ, who is its head, Colossians

00:13:56.540 1.18, Ephesians 1.22 and 23, and second by appointed elders and deacons. We see that in

00:14:02.020 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. In Acts 20.28, Paul asserts this order that he's talking about

00:14:11.000 when he tells the elders of the regional church in Ephesus, he says,

00:14:16.500 pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you

00:14:22.720 overseers, to care for the church of God, which he, that is Christ, obtained with his own blood.

00:14:29.180 In 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, the apostle offers further understanding as he lists the high

00:14:35.800 standards of qualification for the men holding one of these two offices in the church, the elder

00:14:41.720 role or deacon role. But again, we live in an individualistic and egalitarian culture where

00:14:49.860 honor and respect for both age and maturity are scarce. The idea of submitting yourself to the

00:14:57.200 spiritual care and oversight of elders is often foreign and even offensive to our culture. And

00:15:03.960 any church member who operates in this way and who is unwilling to accept the blessing of shepherding,

00:15:10.960 correction, discipleship, they're working against the order and unity Christ desires within his

00:15:17.340 bride. You can read about that in John 17, 21, 1 Corinthians 1, 10. Pastor John MacArthur,

00:15:24.380 he explains the anguish experienced as a result of rogue church members. And he says this quote,

00:15:33.040 I'll read it here. It says, it's a serious and all too common thing for stubborn,

00:15:39.680 self-willed people in the church to rob their pastors of the joy God intends faithful pastors

00:15:47.240 to have. Failure to properly submit brings grief rather than joy to pastors, and consequently

00:15:54.560 brings grief and displeasure to God, who sends them to minister over us. Grief means an inner,

00:16:02.680 unexpected groaning. It is a grief often known only to the pastor, his family, and to God.

00:16:09.540 Because lack of submission is an expression of selfishness and self-will, unruly congregations

00:16:15.540 are not likely to be aware of or care about the sorrow they cause their pastor and other leaders.

00:16:21.960 That's a reference to Hebrews 13, 7. From my experience, it's best, especially in a house

00:16:30.220 church format, to be upfront and clear regarding the doctrines of church government. You know,

00:16:37.780 potential members need to understand, in any church context to be honest, the biblical roles

00:16:44.140 and responsibilities between elders, deacons, and church members prior to becoming a member,

00:16:49.460 not just a visitor, but a member of the church. And too often I see pastors are overly winsome

00:16:56.700 in the beginning, especially in a house church context, and they allow

00:17:00.580 Christians to join their congregation under false expectations. And this isn't helpful or wise. We 0.73

00:17:08.000 have to realize that we have a fairly untrained church when it comes to understanding ecclesiastical

00:17:14.120 structure and order. This wasn't always the case, but this is a modern problem that we don't

00:17:20.800 understand what it means to be in spiritual submission, not in physical submission, not in

00:17:27.340 oppression, not in your pastor tells you what to do in all aspects of your life, but in spiritual

00:17:32.580 submission to the elders at your church. And a local church member who doesn't submit to the

00:17:40.180 spiritual authority of a church, isn't safe because their concerns are not for oneness

00:17:46.760 and edification of the church, but only for the benefits of themselves.

00:17:50.920 Randy Alcorn, he once wrote, selfishness is when we pursue gain at the expense of others.

00:17:56.980 And I believe that definition best describes what I'm trying to say here.

00:18:00.700 Rogue members do not build up.

00:18:03.040 They seek gain for themselves.

00:18:07.600 They're independent, individualistic entities.

00:18:11.740 And by doing that, they don't build up unity.

00:18:14.620 They actually hurt the church.

00:18:16.760 And for that reason, pastors, they need to confront both the issue and the heart behind

00:18:22.840 the insubordination that may, you know, that again, we're talking spiritual issues here

00:18:30.280 that may restore order, respect, and harmony within the flock.

00:18:35.560 We just, yeah, I actually remember hearing a church planter talking about the churches that he planted in the Middle East and how the culture there, because they have an honor structure where they respect older, more mature, more experienced individuals, there's just an honor and respect structure in the culture.

00:18:57.860 It's not egalitarian. It's ordered that planting churches there was easy in terms of church

00:19:05.200 government because they respected their elders already in their culture. And so we don't have

00:19:11.560 that here. Older people have sadly not been respected. We all want to be the same. And we're

00:19:20.380 going to talk about that in the next point, which is the third point, which is the missing

00:19:25.800 member. The missing member. And so the West has brought forth what I would call a commitment

00:19:34.900 phobic culture. And you can see this by our transient lifestyles, where we move from city

00:19:41.440 to city, job to job, school to school, church to church, marriage to marriage, friend to friend.

00:19:45.820 And the idea of long-term commitment in any facet of life has become incredibly rare.

00:19:53.240 And unfortunately, this ideology has bled right into the church.

00:19:58.260 And as soon as something doesn't meet our personal preferences, it's time to move on, right?

00:20:05.160 That's how we think in America.

00:20:07.720 And as soon as a particular church doesn't meet our schedules or our ideal distance from

00:20:12.100 our home, our taste in music, our selection of personalities, you know, we have to find somewhere

00:20:18.680 else to go and fast. And ultimately, this is simply the result of our self-worshiping society

00:20:25.060 who prioritizes freedom above all else. But this is more than an inconvenient idea when it's played

00:20:32.640 out in the lives of individuals and families in your local house church. Again, remember what I

00:20:36.920 said is that in the house church format, everything's amplified. Because if, you know,

00:20:41.880 something happens with two families, it's 20, 30% of your church. And it's a big deal because

00:20:48.000 everybody knows about it and you have to talk about it. And so it's just a, it's more sensitive

00:20:53.000 in terms of its community structure. So these kinds of things where, you know, you have this

00:20:59.640 rogue independent person, it can be painful. In fact, I recently tweeted a quote, I believe

00:21:06.400 that catches the essence of this pain. I wrote, unreciprocated friendship is one of the most

00:21:14.140 painful hypocrisies in the church. If you just change out the word friendship for relational

00:21:21.100 commitment, meaning that unreciprocated relational commitment is one of the most painful hypocrisies

00:21:27.920 in the church. You know, you kind of understand what I'm saying here. When a community of believers

00:21:34.260 labors to walk out the one-anothers of Scripture. There's about a hundred of those in the New 1.00

00:21:40.720 Testament, but is constantly dealing with a certain church member who fails to participate

00:21:47.460 and reciprocate in relational commitment, relational interest, frequency, or consistency.

00:21:54.800 It fuels a culture of uncertainty and distrust between people, and some of you guys might know

00:22:01.340 what I mean when I say that. For example, when a family, you know, say joins your house church,

00:22:08.940 but has created a pattern where two out of the four Sundays, they have something more important

00:22:15.780 to do. Maybe it's a kid's soccer game. Friends are always coming into town. They woke up late

00:22:22.940 and they don't feel, you know, they didn't get enough sleep. You know, this doesn't nurture

00:22:28.220 the trust and commitment required to fulfill scriptures like, confess your sins to one

00:22:34.480 another and pray for one another that you may be healed, that's James 5.16, or be devoted to one

00:22:40.560 another in brotherly love, that's Romans 12.10, or admonish, you know, correct one another in all

00:22:47.440 wisdom, Colossians 3.16. You know, these types of Christian commands are deeply intimate and only

00:22:57.260 experienced within the type of committed relationships that Christ had with his disciples.

00:23:02.540 You can't do this with hit or miss, unattached, shallow, unpredictable acquaintances within your 0.79

00:23:08.320 Christian community. It's just impossible. And so for those pastors in America who are listening to 1.00

00:23:15.920 this, I'm empathetic because everything is working against you, and I get it as a pastor.

00:23:22.080 We're a busy, preoccupied, and selfish culture, and we've confused proximity with connectedness.

00:23:31.440 We believe crowds equal closeness.

00:23:35.380 They don't, okay?

00:23:36.940 As a pastor or as a lay leader, it's your job to nurture a culture of relationships that's

00:23:44.500 reflective of the bond between believers that's seen in the scriptures.

00:23:48.280 And this isn't easy to do, and it's not a one-time deal.

00:23:51.640 But when you do that, you're finally going to see the sluggishness of your flock or of the church

00:23:59.040 subside. And the love and the connection and the trust between members really rise to new heights.

00:24:05.740 That's creating that culture of consistency and trust. It's a really beautiful thing when it's

00:24:11.620 played out. Okay, the last thing here, and I know we're going a little bit long. This is a longer

00:24:16.200 episode because it's a unique episode. The last point is number four, right? So we've done three

00:24:23.000 before. We talked about the lost member, the rogue member, the missing member, and then number four

00:24:29.460 is the non-giving member. All right. This is last, but it's surely not the least. You know, the

00:24:39.240 non-giving member is a big deal. And as a pastor, it's always been fascinating to me how Christians

00:24:48.160 would never expect free counseling for their marriage, free consulting for their business,

00:24:53.920 free teaching for their children, or free training for their family, but will willingly

00:25:00.440 sit under the weekly counseling, consulting, teaching, and training of their pastor

00:25:05.080 without thinking of compensating them in return.

00:25:10.180 The 18th century theologian Adam Clark, in his commentary on Galatians 6.6,

00:25:16.720 which speaks on giving to ministers who are pastors preaching the gospel,

00:25:23.220 he wrote this really powerful statement.

00:25:25.480 I'm going to read it to you here.

00:25:27.180 He says, and I quote,

00:25:28.680 we must contribute to the support of the man who has dedicated himself to the work of the ministry

00:25:36.100 and who gives up his time and his life to preach the gospel. It appears that some of the believers

00:25:42.780 in Galatia were receiving the Christian ministry without contributing to its support. This is both 0.98

00:25:50.340 ungrateful and base. We do not expect that a common schoolmaster will give up his time to teach our

00:25:57.920 children the alphabet each week without being paid for it? And can we suppose that it is just

00:26:04.680 for any person to sit under the preaching of God's word on a regular occurrence in order to

00:26:10.720 grow wise unto salvation by it and not contribute to the support of that spiritual leader? It is

00:26:16.540 unjust. Okay, powerful concept there. Giving is always a reflection of the heart. Jesus says,

00:26:26.060 for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. And so ultimately, when someone

00:26:31.640 invests their treasure in supporting their local ministry, it's simply a reflection of their heart's

00:26:39.600 location. They are kingdom-hearted men and women. They want to see the furthering and flourishing

00:26:47.200 of Christian ministry in their local area, in their local church. The idea of global fruitfulness

00:26:57.940 begins with local faithfulness. If you want to see global fruitfulness, it has to start with

00:27:05.240 local faithfulness. You have to be willing to give locally in order to see this spread

00:27:12.980 throughout your community, throughout your county, throughout your state.

00:27:17.280 But more than that with these people, they want to sustain and support those ministers who sacrifice

00:27:24.560 and labor to bring about the kingdom of God in their own community. You want to support these

00:27:31.700 people. You know, we support our taxes, we pay our taxes to our government officials who support

00:27:38.600 the kingdom of America, or the kingdom of Canada, or the kingdom of wherever you live.

00:27:44.100 And there is people out there, there are people out there who are laboring to bring about the

00:27:49.600 kingdom of God. And many ministers I've seen over the year, and many ministries I've seen over the

00:27:56.640 year, have been hamstrung and weakened due to the negligence, and I would even say, theft of those

00:28:06.420 receiving ongoing spiritual care without reciprocation, gratitude, or financial support.

00:28:14.260 And so sometimes you're not even getting a thank you. You're not even getting an equal serving or

00:28:22.120 service. And sometimes it's just you're not getting financial support in return. But when

00:28:28.920 you don't get any of them, you're just giving and pouring out and pouring out and pouring out

00:28:33.540 and pouring out. You don't get a gratitude, a thank you. You don't get a reciprocation in

00:28:38.080 service. You don't get a financial compensation for the time that you studied for the week.

00:28:45.160 It can get very difficult as a pastor. But again, as with the previous points above,

00:28:52.500 this too is an opportunity to shepherd souls to a right view of God's commands. And as preachers,

00:28:59.220 we got to be willing to speak what the Bible says on giving. I wrote an entire article on that on

00:29:06.200 relearn.org, and I will post it in the show notes, but it's titled, Why Tithing is Biblical,

00:29:13.620 but it's not Christian. It's breaking down a whole concept of giving, but I think it would

00:29:18.340 give you a clear understanding of who we are called to give to according to Scripture,

00:29:23.120 according to the New Covenant. And we need to be, as pastors especially, willing to

00:29:28.060 remind our flock that all we have, everything that we have is because of the Lord. It's the

00:29:33.800 Lord's. The Lord has given it to us. We are stewards. And so we must be willing to help

00:29:39.060 our people understand that giving is not about the amount. It's about the heart. Okay. It's not

00:29:45.900 about the amount. It's about the heart. And in my experience, this is an ongoing work. You need to

00:29:51.120 talk about this pretty regularly. Preach it every time you get a chance that you pass over these

00:29:56.780 passages of scripture, I'm not one to preach on this regularly, but if I'm passing through it,

00:30:02.200 I'm not going to avoid it. I'm going to preach what the scriptures say about it, and we just get

00:30:07.900 to respond faithfully in obedience to God's desire for the saints supporting ministers who are called

00:30:15.360 into missions and ministry. And our world, we have to remember, is so fiercely competitive

00:30:23.120 for our money. So pleasure, comfort, materialism, they're very real issues to people in the church.

00:30:32.340 And as God's ambassadors, we must constantly wash the minds of our flock with the truth of God's

00:30:36.880 word, including our own minds. And so it's an important issue in regard to giving. And so in

00:30:44.840 a house church context, I get this all the time, I don't think a house church pastor can usually

00:30:52.200 survive on a house church income, but let's just say that you had 10 families who had an average

00:30:58.880 income. I think that it's not a crazy idea for a house church pastor to, if he's studying 10,

00:31:08.800 15 hours a week, making himself available for meetings, one-on-one meetings, doing any counseling,

00:31:15.800 which is pretty common for marriages or parenting or answering phone calls at weird hours or just

00:31:24.560 spending time praying for the church. Basically, there is an investment of time so that they can

00:31:31.860 shepherd the flock. This individual should receive some sort of compensation. Over the years, I've

00:31:38.100 seen house church planters in a situation, yeah, it might only be $1,000 a month. It might be $3,000

00:31:43.660 a month. It depends on what the Lord is doing and who's in your flock. But these things, it's not

00:31:48.940 a hundred grand a year. That's what I'm saying here, is that it's just you're supporting this

00:31:54.640 person for the hours that they're investing in pouring back into your life, into your family,

00:32:01.380 into your soul. And that's an important component. So the non-giving member is something. So if

00:32:07.140 you're not giving at your local church, you should absolutely consider that and look at the

00:32:13.280 scriptures regarding that. You should read that article that I wrote again. I'll talk about it

00:32:16.620 here as we close. But as the conclusion here, these four characteristics, they're actually

00:32:23.700 more common in the church than we might have hoped. In fact, I would say the Bible has warned

00:32:28.880 us of this mixing of genuine and counterfeit sheep. You can read that in Matthew 13, 24 through 1.00

00:32:35.080 30. And for that reason, the pastor needs to be clothed in discernment and have a keen ability to

00:32:41.840 both feed and protect the flock. John Calvin spoke on this matter, and he said, the pastor

00:32:48.700 ought to have two voices, one for gathering the sheep and another for warding off and driving away

00:32:54.600 the wolves and thieves. Now, when he says wolves and thieves, I'm not saying that a believer in

00:33:00.680 the church who's, you know, not giving is a wolf or a thief. But I am saying is that we need to

00:33:09.640 make sure that we are watching out as pastors for those people who might not be believers and who

00:33:14.440 might be corrupting the flock and who might be, you know, showing and revealing themselves through

00:33:20.940 some of these attributes. It takes a lot of discernment to be a pastor and to protect a

00:33:25.420 flock, especially in today's day and age. And so shepherding is a daunting task, and pastors need

00:33:31.020 to be trained because of that. They need to be prepared. They need to be filled with the Holy

00:33:34.760 Spirit, and that they are able to properly face and respond to these difficult realities,

00:33:42.900 and that they may be men of perception who are marked with wisdom, humility, and love.

00:33:50.680 All right, just to leave you guys, again, an article that'll support you guys, I'm going

00:33:56.620 to put this in the show notes.

00:33:57.740 This is episode number 115, and the article is titled, Why Tithing is Biblical, But It's

00:34:03.280 Not Christian.

00:34:03.920 I wrote it last year. 1.00

00:34:06.260 We've had several thousand people read it with very positive responses.

00:34:10.360 It's basically breaking down, well, what are we called to do?

00:34:13.200 We're not called to tithe in the same sense of the Old Testament, but we are called to

00:34:17.360 give.

00:34:17.680 And what does that look like?

00:34:18.820 And where are we called to give?

00:34:20.040 What are the specific commands in the New Testament regarding giving?

00:34:23.800 So you guys can take a peek at that if you go to relearn.org and just search episode

00:34:28.980 115.

00:34:29.960 This episode is titled, Four Types of Church Members Who Hurt the Church.

00:34:35.560 All right, guys, if you guys are a regular listener to this podcast, we thank you for

00:34:38.640 that.

00:34:38.920 Would you guys consider leaving a review?

00:34:40.600 All you have to do is just tap the stars in the podcast app.

00:34:44.520 You could also write something.

00:34:45.600 If you write it, I will read it.

00:34:47.320 Also consider following us on Instagram.

00:34:50.460 We are actively posting on Instagram.

00:34:53.340 You can just type in relearn.org in your Instagram search, and you will find us.

00:34:58.420 We'd love to have you there.

00:34:59.560 We're putting out content every single day, I think usually except Sunday, but putting

00:35:04.080 out content very regularly over there.

00:35:06.740 We'd love to have you there.

00:35:08.400 On that note, thank you guys so much.

00:35:10.300 My name is Dale Partridge, and I will see you again next week.

00:35:29.560 And for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home,

00:35:35.680 you can download our free PDF ebook titled The Basics of Biblical House Church by visiting

00:35:40.460 relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you have a theological question you would like

00:35:45.660 answered on the show? Submit your question at relearn.org forward slash question. Thanks for

00:35:51.200 joining us on this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

00:35:59.560 Amen.

Dale Partridge - October 14, 2020

Real Christianity #115： Four Types of Church Members Who Destroy The Flock

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