Do members of a church have responsibility
to alert the pastors when they see
divisions arising in the church?
How important is communication
of the sheep with the shepherds
in order to maintain unity in the church?
Clint: Well, when there's a report
given to a pastor,
it's very much different than one person
reporting to another person in the congregation.
And I'm thinking along the lines of gossip or slander -
things like that that are not good.
But nonetheless, there are times
when a pastor may be oblivious to something
that's going on in the church
and it could be very helpful
in heading it off at the pass
or dealing with it before it becomes a major issue,
for him to know that.
I think of the Apostle Paul.
1 Corinthians 1 -
we've been informed by Chloe's people
that divisions exist he said there.
I think that's how he worded it.
So here was a case where someone -
Chloe's people - came to the apostle
and alerted him something was going on.
In another place, "it's been reported
that there's immorality among you,"
he said in 1 Corinthians 5.
In another place, 1 Corinthians 11,
he speaks about another report of division.
So there are occasions when that's helpful
and I think maybe a duty.
Someone might be duty-bound
to say something to the pastor.
But there's a fine line between tattle-telling
or being a gossip there.
So we have to definitely be on guard against that.