We cannot abandon our young men to these peddlers and charlatans. They need the church, and the church needs them, as we together grow “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood” (Eph. 4:13).


“Is there room for me in the church?” This is a question many young men are asking quietly, often to themselves, and rarely out loud. Not because they doubt the truth of the gospel or reject the authority of Scripture, but because they sense that certain social, cultural, or political opinions — opinions not addressed directly by the confessions and not forbidden by Scripture — have become socially disqualifying within the church.


For a growing number of young men, the unease created by this sense can be subtle: raised eyebrows, cautious silence, selective outrage, or the unspoken assumption that faithfulness requires alignment with a particular set of modern social sensibilities. Over time, these signals communicate a message that eventually leads to the question: “Is there room for me in the church?”

How we answer that question is really important. First, when the Apostle John wrote to Gaius, he warned about a man named Diotrephes. His sins were many, but one that drew the Apostles’ condemnation was that he refused to welcome the brothers, and his effort to stop those who did (3 Jn. 10). Diotrephes wanted control over access and welcome, imposing personal preferences as conditions of fellowship. Such divisiveness is not the fruit of the Spirit but a work of the flesh (Gal. 5:20).

Second, Scripture recognizes that real differences can and do exist within the church. Uniformity of opinion and practice is not always required for true unity. The Apostle Paul masterfully navigated this when he addressed the strong and the weak.

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