Over the last few months (during my hiatus from writing), I've spent a lot of time thinking about the social media outrage cycle around church controversies. Many of you probably come across the same stories I do, and what I keep coming back to is how quickly internet narratives have shaped the way we see the men who shepherd us.
Think about the cycle. When a pastor falls, we usually hear about it, even if we’ve never heard of him. We run across statements he or his elders have released, and before long, we get invested and start looking for commentary from people who make YouTube videos. Those usually all go the same way. They explain why the pastor or his elders' statements should concern us. Then we’ll usually hear those commentators make definitive claims about how the elders should’ve handled the situation, even though they know very little about that church and we know even less.
I think this has become so normal that we rarely notice it happening. We can find ourselves trusting strangers online more than we trust our own pastors. We spend forty-five minutes listening to someone we’ve never met tell us what to think about a pastor in a town we’ve never visited, and then we walk into our own church and use that same judgment to evaluate our own pastor. I suspect that changes the way we hear him far more than we realize.
Now I understand how this sounds coming from someone like me. I produce Christian radio and podcasts for a living, so I’m part of the world I speak of. I want to be careful how I frame this because I genuinely believe there are men doing great work in public discernment ministries, and I have a great deal of respect for many of them. Some of these men have spent years explaining why the prosperity gospel is harmful, and I’m grateful for their contribution to evangelicalism.
But there’s a whole lot more happening now than careful men helping Christians understand false teaching. One thing I despise about our current state of technology is that anyone can have a platform, and many who do aren’t under the authority of a local church, which is concerning. Anyone can get online and start assessing people they don’t know. Once enough people see a clip they’ve produced and share it, their opinions can start sounding like established facts. The thing that should worry us is how common all of this has become in the way we listen.
Let me explain. Think about your family doctor. This may be a man who’s treated you since you were a child. One day, you notice something doesn’t seem right, so you make an appointment. Before you see him, you start researching your symptoms online. By the time you get to the appointment, you think you’ve already figured out what’s wrong. I get why we do that. Our society has made us all impatient and taught us to look for answers online. Some of what you find in your research might be right and good, but do you expect your doctor to explain himself in light of what someone on YouTube told you, even though that person has never examined you? That’s the point, and I think a lot of pastors would recognize that situation.
Your pastor may be a very faithful man who handles Scripture carefully and loves the people God has charged him to shepherd. He’s also likely a pretty ordinary guy without a massive online following. But sadly, today people can constantly compare him with the most gifted men in evangelicalism, and those comparisons usually go no further than how his sermon sounds. Is your pastor as good an orator as one of those gifted preachers you watch on YouTube?
Those comparisons usually don’t take into account the time your pastor spends at the hospital bedside of one of the members of your church during the week while he’s trying to prepare for Sunday.
Those gifted men you listen to online may be tremendous at what they do, and they may help you better understand difficult texts. I listen to those men too, and some of them are good friends.
But your pastor, the man charged with shepherding your soul and leading your local church, has accepted a responsibility for you that none of those men on the internet have accepted.
Hebrews 13:17 says our leaders “keep watch over our souls as those who will give an account.” I think it’s time we considered how easily we let people outside that relationship teach us to distrust the man inside it.
Your pastor should handle Scripture faithfully every time he teaches. That goes without question. But after hearing enough of these controversies, you can start expecting him to keep proving he isn’t hiding some secret sin. It’s exhausting to sit under a man’s ministry while constantly wondering what he’s really up to, especially when he’s given you no reason to distrust him.
Of course, some pastors do give their congregations pause. There are men in pulpits today who have no business occupying them because they’re concealing serious sin, sometimes with help from other church leaders. I believe those cases are the exception, but the way we talk about them has made them the rule in many of our minds.
We have to recognize the difference between a pastor who’s hiding serious sin and a faithful pastor who’s still imperfect. When story after story is about another pastor falling, that distinction gets harder to keep clear.
When Paul met with the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he warned them about what was coming. He was on his way to Jerusalem and asked them to meet him in Miletus. He knew these men well after spending three years with them. Now, as he’s about to leave, he warns them to watch over themselves and the congregation because he knows what's headed for them.
“I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
Acts 20:29–30
Now think about hearing that. Think about being one of these men, hearing Paul tell you that danger would come from possibly some of the men standing right there listening to that conversation.
These elders had a responsibility to protect the congregation, and Paul expected them to do it. But he wasn’t leaving them to deal with it alone. After warning them, he prayed with them and entrusted them to God and His Word. They all wept together, and then they walked him to the ship.
Years later, the church at Ephesus heard from Christ Himself in a letter written down by the apostle John. John was on the island of Patmos when the Lord showed him the visions recorded in Revelation.
Early in the book, John describes seeing the risen Christ among seven golden lampstands. Jesus explained that they represented seven churches, one of which was Ephesus, and told John to write what he saw and send it to them.
Paul had been gone for years, but Christ was still caring for that congregation. He knew what happened since Paul left, and now He was addressing the church directly.
“The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false.’”
Revelation 2:1–2
Jesus knew the Ephesians tested the men who claimed to be apostles and found their claims were false. He commended the church for doing that. They’d taken their responsibility to examine the men who wanted to teach them seriously. But then He said,
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first.”
Revelation 2:4–5a
If you’ve been judging your own spiritual maturity by how well you can identify someone else’s error, that should give you something to think about. The Ephesians had correctly identified false teachers, and Jesus commended them for it. But He also told them they’d left their first love. Being right about those men hadn’t kept them from needing to repent themselves.
Some understand “first love” to mean their love for Christ. Other commentators understand it as their love for one another. I’m not sure we have to choose between those. How can we talk about loving Christ without considering how we love His people? In 1 John 4:20, John calls the man who claims to love God while hating his brother “a liar.” If we love Christ, people should see that in how we treat those who belong to Him.
And look, that still applies when we’re right. We may have understood the teaching correctly, and it may need addressing. But we’re responsible for how we treat people in the process. Getting the issue right doesn’t give us permission to be arrogant or unloving.
That’s easy to overlook when we spend so much time examining everyone else.
Look at what Paul prayed for the Philippians. He asked God to help them grow in love, and discernment was part of the prayer,
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,”
Philippians 1:9
In verse 10, Paul says, “so that you may approve the things that are excellent.” Discernment should help us recognize what’s good in someone’s ministry, too. If we’re always finding another reason to be suspicious, we should ask ourselves why.
Jesus told the Ephesians,
“Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first”
Revelation 2:5
They identified false teachers, but they still needed to deal with what was wrong in their own church. And Jesus warned them that He would “remove your lampstand out of its place” unless they repented.
The Corinthians also struggled with how they viewed their preachers. They started taking sides over which one they preferred. Paul asked,
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul?” He answered, “Servants through whom you believed”
1 Corinthians 3:5
Then in verse 6 he explained, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth”
Those men served them, but God was the One Who caused the growth. Then, in chapter 4, he told them how to think about the men serving with him,
“Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.”
1 Corinthians 4:1–2
A steward takes care of something that belongs to someone else, and he answers to the owner for how he handles it. That’s how Paul understood his ministry. Jesus gave him work to do, and he was responsible for doing it faithfully.
Your pastor can do that without anyone outside your church ever knowing his name. If he’s teaching Scripture faithfully and caring for your congregation, he’s doing what Christ called him to do. He doesn’t need a platform or large social media following for that work to matter.
But the Corinthians had their own ideas about how to examine Paul’s ministry. Here’s what he told them,
“But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 4:3–4
Paul knew he’d answer to the Lord for his ministry. What the Corinthians thought of him wouldn’t settle the matter, and neither would his own opinion.
We should remember that when we’re evaluating someone else. If Paul couldn’t see everything in his own life clearly, how much can we really know about another man from a few minutes of his sermon?
Paul went on to say,
“Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”
1 Corinthians 4:5
The Lord knows the whole story, including why a man did what he did. We don’t have that kind of knowledge, and we need to be careful about talking like we do.
And that’s where a lot of these conversations end up. We start by discussing what a pastor said, but before long, we’re telling people why he said it. Once we’ve convinced ourselves we know his motives, we start hearing almost everything else he says as confirmation of what we already think.
Sometimes there’s evidence to support our concerns, and we should take that seriously. But we need to be careful that we haven’t taken something we suspect and started repeating it as something we know. The Lord knows why he did what he did. We may not.
We should still examine what a pastor teaches and how he lives. Scripture tells us what’s required of an elder. But it also tells us how to handle accusations against him. Paul told Timothy,
“Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.”
1 Timothy 5:19
Then Paul says,
“Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning”
1 Timothy 5:20
So we need to find out whether what’s being said about him is true. If it is and he won’t repent, the church needs to act. The same goes for his teaching. We can explain what he got wrong without pretending we know what he was thinking.
Now, if a man says something publicly, can we respond where others can hear it? Of course. He’s already put it out there for people to hear and believe. Nobody needs to schedule a private meeting with him before explaining why they think he’s wrong.
That’s what happened when Peter stopped eating with Gentile believers. What he was doing went against the gospel he preached, and Paul addressed it in front of others. Paul wrote,
“I opposed him to his face”
(Galatians 2:11)
Then says in verse 14 that he addressed Peter “in the presence of all”
But look at what was happening. Peter stopped eating with Gentile believers, and others started doing the same. Paul could see what Peter was doing and how it was affecting the church. That’s why he confronted him, explaining how it contradicted the gospel.
Before we tell people a man got something wrong, we need to hear enough to understand what he was saying. Sometimes that means sitting through the whole sermon, even if the clip seemed pretty clear.
We may hear the rest and realize we misunderstood him. That’s harder to admit when we’ve already told everyone what we think, and they’re sharing it.
Before we get to that point, we should remember what Proverbs says,
“The first to plead his case seems right,
Until another comes and examines him.”Proverbs 18:17
People may take our word for what we say about another man, especially when we’ve got a microphone and a platform. We need to think about that before we speak. James 3:1 says teachers “will incur a stricter judgment.” Pointing out another teacher’s error doesn’t exempt us from that.
Now, you may say that God uses people who speak up about false teaching to protect His church. I agree. He told us to warn people, and trusting Him to care for the church doesn’t give us a reason to stay quiet when we should speak.
But a public ministry should help people belong to and be involved in their local churches. If listeners start needing an online commentator to explain what their pastor really meant or why he made a decision, that ministry needs to ask how it’s contributed to that. It may be teaching people to trust a man they’ve never met more than the men who actually care for them.
Now, some elders won’t do anything about serious sin in their own church. Some of you know that from experience.
You go to them with evidence of what’s happening, but they seem more worried about the trouble it’ll cause them than the sin you’re asking them to address. Doing something about it might mean confronting someone influential. It might also mean admitting they’ve done something wrong themselves. So they put it off, and after you’ve asked enough times, they start treating you like you're the one causing trouble.
I’ve been there and experienced that hurt firsthand, trust me.
Those elders will have to explain to Christ why they treated His people that way. They can’t excuse leaving sin unaddressed because dealing with it would’ve been costly for them or someone they wanted to protect.
If an elder is the one being accused, the other qualified leaders need to be willing to look into it and find out what happened.
There are churches you shouldn’t stay in. If a church denies the gospel, you don’t have to remain there out of loyalty. And sound preaching doesn’t excuse leaders who keep refusing to deal with serious sin. Leaving a church like that to find a faithful congregation doesn’t mean you’ve stopped trusting Christ.
But hearing about those situations elsewhere doesn’t give you reason to assume the same thing about your own pastor. Look at what he actually teaches and how he lives, and examine those things according to Scripture.
You’ve probably heard someone say, “I’m just being a Berean.” Maybe you’ve said it yourself. Usually, we mean we’re checking a preacher’s teaching against Scripture, and that’s something every Christian should do. But look at the way Luke describes the Bereans,
“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”
Acts 17:11
They were eager to hear Paul, but they still checked what he said against Scripture. They gave him a fair hearing without assuming he was right just because he was the one saying it.
You can listen that way in your own church, too. You can expect to learn from your pastor and still keep your Bible open to see whether what he’s saying agrees with the text. Taking Scripture seriously doesn’t require you to assume there’s something wrong with the man preaching it.
And if something he says doesn’t sound right, ask him about it. You may have misunderstood him, or he may realize he needs to correct what he said. You’ll have a much better chance of sorting that out with your Bibles open than if you’ve already decided what it says about the kind of man he is.
I think some Christian media has helped teach people to listen this way. If controversy is what keeps people watching, there’s always a reason to find another one. After a while, you can start listening to your own pastor with that same expectation. Instead of asking him what he meant, you’re already thinking people need to be warned about him.
We need to think about how what we listen to all week affects the way we hear our own pastor on Sunday. If it’s making us less willing to listen to him or accept his counsel, it may be time to turn some of it off and give him a fair hearing.
Christ is watching over His churches, and that should give us some peace. We still need to do what He’s told us to do, but His care for the church doesn’t depend on how much we manage to uncover. He knows what’s happening, including everything we’ve missed.
That matters when something really has gone wrong, too. People may have refused to listen when you brought a serious concern, but that doesn’t mean the Lord missed it. He knows what happened.
It’s worth giving some of that time and attention to your own church. Your pastor spends the week preparing to teach you, and you should come ready to learn. If something in his sermon helps you, tell him. If something bothers you, talk with him about it before taking it to everyone else.
We also need to be careful about how much we make of a disagreement or a mistake. Your pastor may understand the millennium differently than you do. That alone doesn’t make him a false teacher. And if he words something poorly in a sermon, that doesn’t give you enough to judge his character. We should examine those things according to Scripture without assuming every weakness means he shouldn’t be a pastor.
And pastors, your people need your help with what they’re hearing throughout the week. If they’re being influenced by false teaching, take the time to show them from Scripture where it goes wrong. Explain it well enough that when they hear it again, they understand why they shouldn’t accept it. They need more to go on than the fact that their pastor said it was wrong.
And when someone comes to you with a concern, give him time to explain it. Maybe he misunderstood what you said. But listen carefully enough to consider whether he’s right and there’s something you need to correct. Working through that conversation is part of your responsibility as his pastor.
Paul told Timothy that the Lord’s servant must be,
“patient when wronged”
2 Timothy 2:24
That still applies when someone’s criticism is unfair, even if you’re tired and it’s the last conversation you want to have that week.
And don’t lose sight of the people Christ has given you to care for. You may hear another man preach and wish you could explain things as well as he does. But your congregation still needs you to open the Bible with them and help them understand it. You can spend your life doing that faithfully without becoming well-known, and Christ will know every bit of that work.
Think again about Paul saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders. He loved those men, and he knew the trouble they’d face after he left. Even knowing that, he could tell them,
“And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Acts 20:32
After spending years with these people, Paul knew how much he was leaving behind and what they’d be facing without him. But he also knew the Lord’s care for them wouldn’t end when he got on the ship.
Those who speak publicly about the church need to remember that, too. They’re responsible for being faithful in the work God has given them, but that doesn’t make every church theirs to oversee.
The person telling you what’s wrong with your pastor is accountable to Christ for what he says, just as your pastor is accountable for how he cares for you.
When you walk into church on Sunday, the Lord knows that congregation better than you do. If there’s a real concern, take it seriously. But you don’t have to sit through every sermon wondering what your pastor isn’t telling you. You can learn from him and trust him to care for you without expecting him to be perfect.
The church your pastor serves belongs to Christ. And whatever concerns you have about it, remember who’s walking among the lampstands.
In His Service,
I talk about Jesus and the Bible a lot. Sometimes on the radio, sometimes to people who willingly show up to listen. Occasionally, I write things down.
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