How to Pastor a Divided Congregation to Jesus

Part 1

Previous posts in this series:
* Help! 2020 is about to destroy my church!
* Zooming Out: From Church Distress to the Broader Disaster

In the United States it is customary for a newly elected president to affirm, “I will be the president, neither of the Republicans nor of the Democrats, but of all Americans.” Now whether or not they do is a matter of opinion.

What is not a matter of opinion is whether you as a shepherd can pick a subsection of your congregation to serve. You cannot pastor Republicans and not Democrats, nor can you pastor Democrats and not Republicans.

You are the pastor of the entire flock of which the Spirit has made you an overseer.

Now I realize that for many of you this is not an issue, because your congregation by and large aligns with your own political views. I have many liberally-minded friends who pastor liberally-minded churches, even as I have many politically conservative friends who pastor politically conservative churches.

This is not for you.

This is for those of you who serve a split congregation. It may be a 75–25 split with a few vocal people who raise Cain with their occasional email blast. Or it may be closer to 50–50. Either way this election season threatens friendships and family relationships alike.

And in the church it has the power to rip the people of God apart.

There’s a second group of people I have in mind here: you pastors whose congregations are mostly likeminded politically, but who differ sharply from yourself. This is a very tricky dynamic no matter if you are far more conservative or far more progressive than your congregation.

Trying to lead a group of people whose convictions are different than yours may seem like the impossible task.

But it is not impossible.

It’s precisely your calling.

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In his magisterial letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul addresses a congregation divided along philosophical, theological, and practical lines. His inspired counsel in chapters 14 and 15 speaks to the divisiveness in your church today.

Though many of us have recently spent time with this text, it’s easy for us to miss something obvious.

In this age, after Pentecost and before Christ’s return, division in the church is the norm.

No, it shouldn’t be. We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

But we are still being remade. We are still growing up into the Head who is Christ. We still bring broken notions about one another, about society, about the common good into the church.

And we’re sure we’re right.

I find it interesting that, for both issues Paul addresses here—vegetarianism, holy days—one could present a biblical defense. (Daniel diet, anyone?) And yet the apostle calls them adiaphora. 

Matters of indifference.

And yet the rhetoric, the passion, the heat of the present conflict reveals anything but indifference.

That’s what makes pastoring right now so challenging.

Take heart, friends. The past is prologue. The rhetoric, the passion, the heat did not begin in 2020, or 2016, or even in our lifetimes.

It’s the story of the church. For some reason the Lord Jesus intends for us to address this very challenge until he comes again.

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So how do we help people who are convinced firmly—and often convinced biblically—that their position is the only faithful way of following Jesus. How do we gain perspective for ourselves and our flocks on what really matters?

To be more personal, how do I identify my own biblical convictions that are in fact adiaphora? Convictions that I must abide by (for the apostle says we must each act in faith), but convictions that are ultimately matters of indifference?

And how can I lead others to do the same?

Here are the first two of seven steps you can take today.

1. Fast and pray.

Our inability to effect change in this moment reminds me of the disciples struggling to help a boy possessed by an unclean spirit. And when Jesus steps in and heals the boy, the disciples ask them why they were so powerless.

“This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”

Our impotence, our ineffectiveness, our helplessness is divinely designed to drive us to our knees.

So before you try any other strategies, start here.

Humble yourself. Admit you don’t know what to do. Beg God for mercy on you and the church of Christ.

2. Return to the creeds.

Church history is a mixed lot, to be sure. But one gift from past generations of believers is their summations of faith in creeds (Apostles, Nicene, Chalcedon), catechisms (Luther, Heidelberg), and confessions (Westminster, Thirty-Nine Articles, Second London).

These documents have stood the test of time and summarize for us the faith of our fathers and mothers. Even where we might disagree with the wording, they lift our gaze from the present conflict, unite us with the global Christian witness, and remind us of what holds the church together.

So put the creeds in your worship service and affirm them together. If you can’t affirm every jot and tittle, put in the parts you can. Or if your church has it’s own statement of faith, read parts of it together every week.

We turn down the heat by affirming and reaffirming what binds us all in one: Jesus.