We must be careful not to treat people, especially young people, as unintelligent (much less as apostates!) for simply having questions, or for having thoughtfully investigated a viewpoint different from the church’s position. Sometimes church leaders do this without realizing it.

As a society, we’re scrutinizing much more closely the adults and young adults who want to work with and on behalf of children. And rightly so. We should do all we can to ensure that children are safe in every situation and that their caretakers are held accountable for it. In addition to submitting our public record to background checks, though, and thinking beyond the obvious, atrocious kinds of emotional and physical abuses those evaluations are meant to mitigate, we need to do some biblical background checks on our churches. We need to look with Scriptural scrutiny to see if they are truly safe places for questioning hearts, especially young ones.

There are all kinds of safety checks we could make based upon the biblical criteria for what constitutes a truly Christian community. For this blog, and because Gentle Reformation espouses a Confessional, Reformed theology, I want to focus upon how we in such assemblies teach our doctrines and handle the hearts of those who doubt or don’t understand them. Because Jesus teaches that the church is a people and not a place, and because God’s word searches far deeper than surface-level, observable behavior (Hebrews 4:12), we need to place beneath a biblical spotlight not only our congregation’s teaching, but its collective temperament.

Do people feel truly safe to voice their questions and misgivings? And even if they say they do, how do we know they’re not hiding their true hearts for fear of ecclesiastical retribution?

What we’ll think about can apply to every church member as caretaker and protector of fellow believers, but it’s especially incumbent upon those of us who are elders in the church to care well for the flock. I’ll aim these thoughts most directly at those of us whom Christ has called to church leadership, given the stricter standards of Christian belief and conduct to which the Great Shepherd holds us undershepherds.

Do we church leaders feel threatened by questions? We might answer immediately with “No! Of course not. I love to teach truth so I’m happy to answer questions.” But our heart’s true posture is revealed in how we react to questions, both the content and character of our response (Matthew 12:34b).

We must be careful not to treat people, especially young people, as unintelligent (much less as apostates!) for simply having questions, or for having thoughtfully investigated a viewpoint different from the church’s position. Sometimes church leaders do this without realizing it.

As an undergrad student, I once sat across from a pastor who knew that I was struggling with the question of whether infants should be baptized. He looked at me, quizzical eyes shining with incredulity, and asked a (sort of) question, “You don’t mean to tell me that you’re actually considering something as stupid as infant baptism, do you?” Guess how long that conversation lasted? As you can imagine, I became quite sheepish in revealing my thoughts to this shepherd of souls.

It might not be baptism; it could be anything of relatively small or very large doctrinal and therefore practical and personal import. Do we give off a vibe that gives people every reason to expect a gentle and respectful hearing of their hearts, no matter what they ask us, no matter what truth they tell us they’re struggling with? Or does our general comportment tell people that they’d be far better off keeping their mouths shut, their hearts unexpressed, especially on the most substantial and therefore sensitive issues?

Sometimes we think a no nonsense approach to truth means allowing for no nuance in our understanding and teaching of it. When this mentality hardens, it’s a brick wall which forbids even the consideration of other ideas. Do we get antsy or angry when someone moves beyond a question and, perhaps for the sake of further learning, articulates a divergent theological opinion?

One pastor, upon hearing a young adult articulate an understanding of Scripture’s creation narrative different from his own, asked a fellow pastor later on, “Where would he hear that kind of stuff?!” (Which is a rather surprising question to ask in the information age!) But notice how this question expresses offense if not outrage at the mere fact that this young person had been exposed to a different viewpoint. It’s good and right and necessary to know what’s being taught within the church, especially by its leaders. But were the student to hear the pastor reacting this way, the message to him would be clear: You are not allowed to even investigate opinions other than what you’re taught. Does this approach really encourage a deep and personal embracing of the doctrinal position this pastor holds so dear? Or does it suggest to the deeply thinking young adult his belief has something to hide from the critical evaluations of other perspectives, and thus might not be as sound as the teacher of Scripture assumes?

Read More