Byrnesys Blabberings

There are many times in life and in Christian leadership where we have to address a problem, there could be minor problems or more serious ’sin-issue’ problems. A few from Church were discussing the best ways to confront, or address these types of situations last night in relation to Christian Ministry and a few good points were shared that I thought were worth sharing here.

Love the Sinner, Hate the sin

I was listening to a talk from Simon Ponsonby (St Aldates Pastor of Theology) from VineyardUK NLC08 who said that Love the Sinner, Hate the sin was in practise often short hand for hate the sinner, needless to say, the church has not mastered the practise of confrontation. If the person you are confronting isn’t completely convinced of your love for them the confrontation will probably never work, there will always be a get out clause for the confronted and a lack of mercy and desire for reconciliation for the confronter.

On the flip side of this, the amount of ease you have in confronting the person can sometimes give you an indication as to how much the confrontation is "in love". Sometimes we can take a degree of pleasure in confrontation, being assured we are right and that the other person is DEFINATELY wrong. This is not the Lord’s way for confrontation, it is not the action of a people who are defined in their mercy as much as their truth.

Wickedness or Weakness

In approaching confrontation their needs to be careful consideration on the part of the confronter to assess whether the motivation for the point of contention is motivated from wickedness or weakness, once this distinction is made our approach and response is defined by it, a well made point from Peter Sturrock was that in a situation where weakness is the foundation behind the issue, disciplinary language such as "unacceptable" is not helpful. This distinction as I hinted at before I think creates a psychological and pastoral shift in how we view the sin or offence which is being addressed, we should be moved to compassion and a desire for restoration instead of a desire to rebuke.

The Importance of Confrontation in calling one another to follow Christ 

In a community such as the church who have moral and ethical distinctives which they are defined by (not solely but as a product of their identity) in contrast to the wider culture who’s morality is a moving goalpost defined purely by social acceptability, confrontation is an important part of the relationships within the church. Although its practise is difficult and problematic in a culture which promotes a plurality of ethics defined by an individuals conscience or lack of one, we must continue to address each other with a desire to see the church transformed to maturity in its faith.