Read Chapter 15.
Have you ever had a dispute with other Christians? Have you ever had your church have a dispute in house?
If you answer 'yes' to either of these questions then congratulations you go to a church made up of human beings. Churches and Christians will not always be in agreement even when it comes to issues of our faith.
In Acts 15 we see two disputes. I want to look at the first one to see how we should go about settling a dispute. I believe that from this particular pattern we can see a five step process to solving disputes. Remember, this is not the only example in Scripture of a dispute being resolved and therefore it is not the only way to resolve a dispute.
In Acts 15 we see the early Church dealing with the issue of whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised or not. Let's mirror the five step process they took to solve this issue.
Step 1) Express legit concerns. It does no one any good to ignore a legitimate concern especially when souls are at stake.
Step 2) Appoint mature representatives to discuss the situation. Fewer voices will reduce the noise, but don't make this number too small and therefore non-representative.
Step 3) Back up your position with Scripture. What else should we have as the basis for the functions of a church?
Step 4) Reach a consensus with the Holy Spirit and each other. Do what is in line with the Spirit's leading and do what is in line with the consensus of the representatives in the room. Consensus with each other doesn't mean that everyone agrees 100% with the decision, but rather that they can support the decision made.
Step 5) Live with the decision made. This is perhaps the most important step. Once a consensus is reached do not leave the room stirring up trouble and complaining.
You will not ever be in a perfect church. I guarantee it. However, if we take a Biblical approach to handling internal issues in our churches we will not let the internal stand in the way of the eternal. Try to live in unity, as Christ prayed for us, today.
We spent some time talking about this as well on Sunday night. It's assuring that disputes happened in the early church.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we were in thought about the second one...check out the dispute between Paul and Barnabas at the end of this chapter. What are your thoughts on the results of this dispute? We were looking at verses 39-40 mostly.
Amen! Probably the most difficult but most critical is #5. It does no good to make a decision and then have people continuing to question it. We must remember unity is not equal to uniformity. We can agree to disagree on some things but how do we handle that disagreement? This is where character comes in.
ReplyDeleteKat, on verses 39-40 I've had many discussions.
ReplyDeleteMy Uncle, who is a pastor, says that a church splitting can not be a good thing. He says the end result is more bad than good. I'm not sure. I've seen many cases where two good churches or in the case of this chapter two good missions result. However, that is not the rule.
I don't think verses 39 and 40 are in scripture to say, "Argue and split up and good things will happen." I would venture to say it was wrong for Paul to be so unforgiving of Mark. I could also venture to say Paul was right in not letting anything stand in the way of the spread of the Gospel. I think these verses are in Scripture because it shows that God often works in spite of us. Paul and Barnabas had a fight and split up, yet God still spread His Gospel.
Thank you both for the comments.
I would agree with that completely. Most of understanding scriptures is just trusting God's sovereignty in it all. I just felt it interesting how in these two verses, it appears to say that Paul is being "commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord" for this decision and not Barnabas. Do you take it that way? I probably just dig deeper than I am able to comprehend. See what happens when you miss Young Adult? =)
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