Newsletter #78
On Making a Proper Deal Out of Things
I’m praying for those with leadership and speaking roles at this week’s Free Will Baptist National Association, especially my friends, Mason Polk, Andy Rains and Faron Thebeau.
How Much Does this Matter?
We’re frequently in situations where we evaluate the relative weightiness of a matter.
Just last Thursday I consulted with a member of a district association’s Executive Committee. They are in the process of revising their questionnaire for prospective pastors. No one can undertake a project like that without making some decisions about what is most relevant to the role of a pastor.
Last Wednesday I saw a specialist about an ongoing health problem that I’ve been experiencing for months. While he said he didn’t think anything I said sounded “alarming,” he wanted to do an additional test to investigate the matter more closely. The test could wait until August, but it still needs to be done.
Last Tuesday, I spent a lot of time thinking about how our church would partake of the Lord’s Supper and Feet Washing in the next Sunday morning service. Some aspects of that service plan were crucial, while many others were matters of prudence and practicality.
Just today, you have already engaged in a series of decisions. Many of them are seemingly small, but implied in each deliberate act is an assigned value. “This is urgent.” “This is important.” “This can wait.”
This dynamic of evaluating the importance of things runs through our entire lives. We could not function without our minds and bodies doing their proper work in this area.
Sometimes we go overboard. We catastrophize. We jump to the worst possible conclusion with incomplete information. It’s actually a serious problem. Catastrophizing isn’t just a nuisance to those more measured temperamentally. It’s a cognitive distortion associated with multiple psychological disorders. It can be debilitating.
Conversely, some people take a laissez-faire approach to everything. They seem to think that the biggest problem with everyone else is that they make too big a deal out of things. They want people to calm down, turn the volume down a notch, and get some perspective. Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.
And yet there is a ton of space in between those two ends of the temperamental spectrum. Wisdom comes at a premium when trying to locate yourself properly on it.
A Recent Debate
Recently my denomination has been discussing a few controversial issues. One that has directly implicated me (on two different levels) is the question of whether a divorced and remarried person could be considered eligible for ordination to the office of pastor or deacon.
Before going any further, my first caveat is that I don’t intend to turn this newsletter into a lengthy commentary on the topic. Some of this is being worked out this week in the context of a meeting that I am unable to attend. (See below).
I have, however, participated in the preparation of a report on the topic by our denomination’s theological commission. The report can be downloaded at this link: On Divorce and Remarriage of Ordinands (fwbtheology.com). I hope it will be read carefully and in its entirety.
I stand by the work of our commission, who labored over this matter for the better part of a year. The report isn’t intended to discuss every dimension of the subject. Our directive from our national church body was limited in scope, and this is reflected in the report.
As an extension of this, my second caveat is that there is a great deal more I would like to say on this subject. I’ve spent far more time thinking about it, researching it, discussing it, and praying about it than any other single project in a long time. When we investigate matters—even ones we’d already spent time on in previous years—we always discover a new nuance or facet of the discussion that deserves attention. This should humble us all.
All this being said, I feel that one aspect of this controversy sets us up to consider the task—the Christian task—of knowing how to assign the proper value to things. To put it more awkwardly, “how to make a proper deal out of things.”
Stick with me.
It’s Relative, though Not Morally
“Relative” or “relativism” scare the daylights out of many Christians. It’s much like “secular” or “agnostic.” Of course, all four of these words can only be understood in context. For example, if I say that “I’m agnostic on the question of who has the best chance of winning the World Series,” nobody gets worked up too much. That’s not the normal way we use “agnostic,” but it is a grammatically acceptable use of the word.
Likewise, some things are relative in terms of their meaning and significance.
How your hair looks while mowing the lawn is objectively not as important as it is when preparing to give a public lecture.
The oil level in your car is less important when it’s already at the mechanic than when you’re in the middle of a long road trip.
The significance or relevance of some things—your hair’s appearance or oil level—differ depending on the context. So, how important is it for a denomination to think carefully about the marital status and background of a candidate for ordination?
There’s a few different moves people make here. I believe some of them arise from a pure heart, but intellectual shallowness. Some arise from a conflicted heart, but intellectual acuity. Our goal, of course, is for spiritual sincerity and intellectual integrity to align. How we handle the aforementioned question can reveal how successful we are in demonstrating this convergence of virtue.
Some will say that for a denomination to even be discussing a topic reveals a lack of focus on the Great Commission. After all, we all agree on that. Why be sidetracked with petty squabbles over matters indifferent?
The obvious problem with this point of view is two-fold: (1) it assumes that God’s people can’t discuss a divisive issue while also being focused on the main thing; (2) it begs the question.
On the former count, we must observe that unless a group of people are constantly having conferences on a specific topic, writing books on it, and obsessing over it online, it’s simply untrue to assert that they are entirely distracted. Couples, families, churches, and companies are all enterprises that have a central mission. Sometimes, if for no other reason than to clear the deck, they must engage with topics or questions that may indeed distract from the mission. Of course, sometimes clarifying the topic or question may be vital to mission fulfillment itself.
On the latter count, if one has already prejudged the question of divorce and remarriage to be an unimportant issue relative to everything else, then it becomes easy to sidestep.
While one person will relativize the significance of this issue by comparing it to something like the Great Commission (obviously, a central concern), others will relativize its significance (in a different way) by comparing it to other important things. They may assert, “The purity of the church is of first importance.” Or, they may say that, “The standard for pastors should be higher than for Christians in other forms of service.”
Like the first person, they’re making assertions based on premises that their interlocutor couldn’t help but agree with. Who thinks the Great Commission isn’t important? Who thinks church purity isn’t important? Who thinks pastors shouldn’t be held to a high standard? The issue becomes, relative to what the Bible teaches on this topic, what level of discussion and even disagreement is appropriate?
I don’t know anyone who calls this a “first-tier issue.” Even those who assign it less significance still think it’s important enough to contend for their perspective. They might even reconsider their partnerships on this basis.
So in a way, we all think it’s important. It seems to me that our challenge is three-fold (at least!): (1) to give ourselves fully to try to understand God’s Word as best as we can; (2) to try to find appropriate kinds of consensus at different levels of partnership and in different settings; and (3) to keep finding the connection between the debates that most stir us and the gospel.
If we fail to face any of these three challenges, I don’t expect that we’re going to fare well.
Lord, help us to make a proper deal out of things, as you see them.
Follow Up:
Recently the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision which struck down President Biden’s plans for student loan forgiveness. You can read the full decision, or a summary. I wrote on this topic back in Newsletter #63. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of this. On a related note, it’s never a good idea as a president or presidential candidate to say definitively what you cannot legally do, only later to decide that you can do that thing.
Currently Reading:
Miscellaneous studies on gender dysphoria
Quote of the Week:
Since 2008, two major trends in the United States have been much discussed but little compared: the declines in religion and in the humanities. . .Churches and humanities departments find themselves facing mergers, consolidations, and closures. These trends, perhaps seemingly unrelated, are parallel manifestations of the same social ethos: our obsession with means and neglect of ends. For Jacques Ellul, a twentieth-century Christian intellectual, forgetting ends is the defining trait of our modern technocracy that can only recognize what is efficient and useful. . .Of course, the useful is inherently teleological: calling something “useful” invokes the question “useful for what?”. . .We resist the question “for what?” because to think about ends requires not only deliberation but thinking. While deliberation is oriented toward doing things, thinking seeks to understand why we do things. Thinking forms the horizon of meaning, while deliberation enables us to choose among means available for fulfilling goals. When we reject thinking, we are left deliberating about means without understanding what they’re aimed at.
Terence Sweeney, “Why Religion and the Humanities Are in Decline.”
On My Mind:
For only the third time since 1994, I am not attending the Free Will Baptist National Convention this week. It’s sad, but necessary. Perhaps there are other readers unable to attend. Let’s come together and try to enjoy the meeting from afar this week. You can access the Convention livestream by visiting https://nafwb.org/convention/ or https://www.facebook.com/NAFWB.
Great article! Missed you at the national!