How Pastors Should Respond In This Cultural Moment

Charlie Kirk, Pastors, and the Local Church

“If your church didn’t address the demonic murder of Charlie Kirk this weekend, the pastor is a coward and needs to repent and resign"

Really?

I spent the past week fielding calls from pastor friends. The common thread for each call: a desire to be faithful to the Gospel and steward and disciple the church that the Lord entrusted them with. The challenge: a horrific assassination of a man who proudly professed his love for Jesus, unapologetic about the hope of salvation through Christ. The complexity: a platform that was primarily political. A goal to help college students think critically about their values, the nation they lived in, and the future.

The means: public debate.

(Source:¹)

The Nature of Debate and Rhetorical Strategy

Now, let me talk a bit about the nature of debate. There are debate strategies employed by the best debaters, strategies that include philosophical reasoning and a specific kind of rhetorical style that has a purpose. The nature of certain rhetorical styles, whether they are effective, and whether they should be used by believers is an honest question, one that deserves to be explored with depth.

Why get into all of this? Because this is the foundation of the complexity many pastors found themselves in. They lead multi-ethnic, politically, and socio-economically diverse churches. Christians have different opinions and have been impacted by words and phrases used in political debates by Charlie Kirk to varying degrees.

Some have no problem with it because they understood the strategy and method that was being employed.

Others had serious issues with it as they felt it was demeaning to people groups.

A Moment of Honest Vulnerability

I find myself in both places. There is something about the rhetorical strategy that I appreciated. How he dismantled political arguments with finesse. And, I found some of his language painful, even in spite of understanding his method. A personal example is his view of Indians and the visas that America gives out.

"America does not need more visas for people from India…Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We're full. Let's finally put our own people first."²

As you can imagine, this is hard for me. I'm a child of those very immigrants who migrated here legally on work visas. My parents are now American citizens. My mom is a Nurse Practitioner. My Dad, a retired X-Ray Technician. If you have been blessed or encouraged by my work, you can draw a direct line to U.S. immigration policy allowing my parents to come here (and of course, first and foremost, the sovereignty of God).

With all of this in mind, maybe you can see what I mean by "complexity." In the midst of this, we have pastors who are doing what they can to pastor their people well, disciple them in the way of Jesus, and encourage them to move beyond division and into unity in Christ, while still working out the tension of diversity of opinion on politics.

The Problem with Calling Pastors Cowards

So, to have someone call a pastor a coward for not speaking out during a Sunday morning in the way they determine is right, another pastor at that; is shocking. Further, I believe it is playing into the tactic and strategy of the enemy who is desperate to create disunity and division amongst the body of Christ. How much sweeter for the enemy when the ones doing the dividing are themselves pastors, ministry leaders, and fellow Christians?

The Biblical Approach to This Cultural Moment

It's not like the Scriptures are silent about the approach of believers in this cultural moment. Here is breaking news: it is the same approach Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount (I did a pop-up Bible study on this you may find helpful on my Instagram). It's the same approach the apostle Paul gives as a framework to each of the churches he plants and to those he discipled. The approach is the way of humility and gentleness, because the very essence of the Gospel itself is offense. We don't need to add offense to the very conviction of the Spirit.

I think Paul gets at this in a powerful way in 2 Timothy 2:24:

"The Lord's servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth. Then they may come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. But know this: Hard times will come in the last days." (2 Timothy 2:24–3:1, CSB)

Just some context for this letter. Paul is nearing the end. Rome is on the horizon, and I think Paul has it in his mind he won't leave Rome alive. This is an important letter to Timothy who is pastoring what I believe was Paul's favorite church, Ephesus. I am biased—I wrote a PhD dissertation dealing with Ephesus. The church in Ephesus was going through it. There were opponents to ministry for Timothy. Many from outside of the church. But for sure, some who were within the church. Paul gives specific instruction on how to deal with opponents.

Another interesting detail: in this section Paul moves from direct speech to Timothy to general speech. Paul says, "The Lord's servant," which has in mind Timothy and others. Who are those others? Us. We are in mind, especially those of us that are in vocational ministry leading in a local church setting. What about the Lord's servant? The first thing is that they must be "gentle to everyone."

What? The Greek word, ἤπιον/epion, means one who is "gentle" and "kind" towards everyone. I appreciate how one New Testament scholar comments on this saying, "Although the Lord's servant may not be able to be at peace with all (v. 22), he is still called on to be kind and gentle to all."³ It is only after this call to kindness that there is a call to teach (or at least have the ability to teach). I think this is so fascinating. Kindness precedes teaching. And this makes sense because the very next call is a call to patience. A combination of gentleness/kindness, ability to teach, and patience frames how the Lord's servant should approach conflict. Towner says it this way:

This attitude gathers together the qualities of gentleness and tolerance into a disposition of patient openness that is particularly necessary for the Christian response in confrontational situations.⁴

Why is all of this so important? Because it is all part of the cosmic unseen battle we find ourselves in.⁵ Notice at the end of the Timothy passage, Paul refers to the "trap of the devil." I'm worried that when we participate and promote disunity within the church, we are in fact setting the trap that the enemy has been constructing since Genesis 3.

The Failure to Discern

I believe we are in a culture of polarization. There is a certain comfort to extremes. But typically this kind of living leads to echo chambers of thought and division of living, not the image Christ gives us for the church. Let me ask you a question. Going back to the opening quote in this article, what exactly does this statement mean in reference to local church pastors? If they didn't address the demonic murder of Charlie Kirk this weekend…⁶

So what if they did this:

• They mentioned the evil of murder, shared the tragedy of a follower of Jesus being assassinated and the heartache of a mother and her children losing their father. Spent time in prayer and then moved into the message.

• Sent out an email prior to the service encouraging everyone to be in prayer. Didn't mention it from the pulpit, but had a plan to have it addressed specifically in small groups.

• They were enraged by what happened. Their hearts were not in a good place. So out of self-restraint they waited a week to process, fast, and pray before addressing the situation in a reactionary way?

• They just didn't mention it at all.

Would any of these responses be adequate? Clearly the last one is the most blatant example of something that would be viewed as cowardly. But does it require repentance? And further, does it require that person to resign from ministry? Would it deny a lifetime of Gospel faithfulness because of this one decision? Do you see what I'm getting at?

It seems to me these are issues of the local church that are being discerned in real time with real people. We could categorize responses on a spectrum from wise versus unwise, or helpful versus unhelpful. But failure as a pastor and calling them to repent or resign seems to me to be more about pursuing a monolithic thinking and acting. It has less to do with prompting godliness and more to do with ensuring the optics are right.

Slow to Speak, Quick to Listen

Here is another principle we seem to be overlooking altogether: the idea of being slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to anger.

"My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness." (James 1:19–20, CSB, emphasis mine)

We are in a cultural moment that seems to prefer being quick to speak, slow to listen, and furious in our anger. James goes on to remind us all that not all should become teachers because of the stricter judgment. Further, everyone stumbles. And this is why he goes right into talking about taming the tongue.

"Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." (James 3:1–6, CSB)

What if your pastors are doing the very best they can to just not stumble? To keep control of their tongue. To use their voice in a way that cultivates health for the body of Christ. An approach of gentleness that is still convictional.

A Call to Support Our Pastors

My concern is an approach to ministry and pastors, particularly where they must say things a certain way, they must approach the cultural moment with a certain level of aggression. I think some would call it "boldness for the Gospel." But maybe what is being bold for one pastor is being filled with anger and wrath for another. Each pastor and ministry leader is wired uniquely, gifted, and set apart for a particular work.

Your pastors are in a tough moment. I would just leave you with this: If they have shown longevity in ministry and Gospel faithfulness, maybe this isn't the moment to determine whether or not you belong to that church. Maybe this isn't the moment to determine their vocational calling. Maybe this is the moment that we bend our knees in prayer for our pastors as they lead these local churches under the guidance and leading of the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Because at the end of the day, dealing with us is nothing compared with being held accountable by the Lord Himself.

~ Joel

1. Randy Petersen, “What about Paul?,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 17: Women in the Early Church (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1988).

2. Again, what makes this hard for me is that I understand the sentiment and reasoning behind this statement and why he said it. I think it could have been said differently. I also recognize that by saying it differently, it would lose its rhetorical edge. You can find a news article exploring these comments here.

3. George W. Knight, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1992), 424.

4. Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006), 547.

5. I truly believe that all of this is part of the Unseen Battle. This is exactly why I turned my PhD dissertation into a theologically substantive trade book. It is available now for pre-order.

6. I am intentionally not referencing the pastor who said this. Frankly, I don’t desire to give him any more airtime. I’m sure you can figure it out pretty quickly. Also, my IG reel is a direct response to his quote, so the connection is made there. My primary issue is with the content of the message and approaching it with theological clarity.