QUESTIONS - What Are Common Signs Your Pastor Lacks The Courage to Defy Tyrants？
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
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Toxicity
2
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss what it means to be a Christian leader who lacks courage, and why it's important to have a leader who has the courage to stand up for truth and stand up against tyrants. What are common signs that your pastor or elders lack courage to lead and equip their flock, stand for truth, and love God and defy tyrants? A follow-up question: when should you consider leaving the church and finding another one?
Transcript
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And what are common signs that your pastors or elders lack courage to lead
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and equip their flock, stand for truth, and love God, and defy tyrants?
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A follow-up question would be, if they lack courage,
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when should you consider leaving the church and finding another one?
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I think what Aidy talked about was probably the closest to the spirit of that question.
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because I don't want to cause any trouble at your churches, right?
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But the thing is, like, when your pastor's policies or opinions on controversial everyday issues are identical to MSNBC, except they sprinkle a little Jesus on top, that's a big sign.
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And when they don't show a willingness or even an ability to take a little time to think it through, you know, like, they just jump on it, that's a big sign.
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And I think that you shouldn't just, at that point, you don't just leave, right?
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And I think most of the people in this audience know that, right?
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Have the conversation with the pastor, try to talk to him.
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And I think that those conversations, sometimes they go really poorly.
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But I think it's in those conversations when you realize his willingness to sort of stand up to some of this stuff.
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It's in the kind of back and forth, the questions, hearing them out, where you find that kind of thing.
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But my thing is, like, so many guys sound like me.
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It could be, what's that woman with the short hair on MSNBC?
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Like, they sound like Maddow, and they kind of look like her, too.
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Except they're, you know, they have Bible verses for it.
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So I would add to that, kind of like the quote that I think I shared in my talk,
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the Martin Luther quote? Oh, it was to you guys. Yeah. So the Martin Luther quote that I really
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like, and we talked about it in our recording yesterday, but it says, and I'm going to do my
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best to paraphrase. I don't have it memorized, but it says, wherever the battle rages, the fiercest
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there, the loyalty of the soldier is tried. If he is faithful in every battlefield across the
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gambit, but he flinches, he fails at that one point that is currently being contested.
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He's like going to a Baptist church as a Presbyterian.
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And the reason why is like some of the Presbyterian guys,
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some of the PCA, you know, Revoice and stuff like that,
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not all PCA churches, but then there's like OPC.
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But for me, as a Reformed Baptist, 35 years old, it's like I've got like two cylinders,
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but I'm firing on both of them constantly, right?
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And there's other guys who have got like a V12, but all they do is rev it up in the driveway
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And so my thing is, if you're Vantillian, right, and you're presuppositional, and you're OPC,
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and you've got a podcast, and you've got lectures, and you've got dissertations,
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but you have a mass service and no singing, you failed.
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So my point is, how do you test courage with a pastor?
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It's not just, don't just look at comprehensive theology.
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He affirms the Trinity, he's a Calvinist, he checks all these theological boxes.
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Does he flinch at the point that is currently contested?
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And so what I would say is that true courage is willing to fight Goliath before David kills him.
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So when the armies of Israel run after the Philistines after David is holding Goliath's head in the air, that's not courage.
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And so I think there's a lot of guys who it's a thin veneer.
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It's a fake courage, a pseudo courage, counterfeit courage.
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that what they do is they go around to giants that have already been slain in a circle and
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they're kicking them and spitting on them reviling them you know so so right like so toxic masculinity
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like are there actually men who abuse women and abuse children yes yes is that though is that
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the giant of this hour is is our problem abusive masculinity or is our problem jezebel
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in feminism, right? So, so what you have is, but there was a time when that was pervasive.
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Yeah. And you're 50 years too late, right? So if you're Amazon prime, you say, uh, elevating black
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voices, that would have been great 50 years ago. That would have been courageous. It's not courageous
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now. It's not courageous now. And, and so that, that's what I would say is courage is not just
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fighting against actual sin and actual problems, but it's fighting over, over the giant that's
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still at large, the one on the wanted poster who hasn't been brought, brought in yet that that's
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courage. And, and, but like AD said, um, don't just get up and leave, challenge your pastor to
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be courageous and see how he responds. But if he responds poorly, um, then I think you can leave
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respective respectfully, but do him a loving service. Tell him why the Lord might use it.
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You know, I had to face this with my wife, uh, at a church. So, um, I'll just very briefly say
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there's a number of questions that I had to ask myself. This is the main one. And this is what I
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tell people who are in this predicament, especially, and it's tailored for guys, but if you're a mother
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and, and, you know, the situation, uh, you know, it pertains to you, you know, it may, but so if a
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guy comes to me, it's like, I don't know about this church. I usually ask him, okay, well, like, what
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if you died tomorrow and your wife and your kids are still going to this church? And so, and if
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you're a single mom or something, you know, what if your kids are there? These shepherds are
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responsible for the spiritual development of your children, of your wife. Would you be comfortable
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with that? Would you entrust the pastors there to do that? And if the answer is no, if you can't
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trust them, then I think you have your answer. Like you shouldn't be going there because that's
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their whole purpose is to watch over your souls and the souls of your family. So if you have to
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like everything they say, you have to have a conversation about or correct what the pastor
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just said to your children, then you're at the wrong church. It's pretty simple in my mind.
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thanks so much for listening but real quick before you go do us a small favor take a moment and leave
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