Being a Pastor is an unusual job, I often get told I don’t look like a Pastor, which I take as a massive compliment! When non-believers find out what I do for a living they normally respond in one of the following ways;
1. “Sorry, I’m not religious”
2. “I used to go to Sunday school!”
3. “What does that involve?” Normally with genuine confusion on their face.
It’s quite funny really, there are obviously other answers that have come back in response, but I can’t say those.
Some of the saddest responses I’ve ever received, when people find out I’m a Pastor, have come from the mouths of believers. Sometimes Christians feel comfortable and start to share their life story and their struggles, which is good. Others close up and want to hide because of bad experiences of Pastors in the past. And others start to talk about their own church experience, the joys and the frustrations, the ups and downs, the happiness and the heartache.
The worst thing that Christians can do is start to badmouth other churches. I always put a stop to it because it’s not helpful and the church is not merely an organisation or gathering of people, but the church is the bride of Christ. Jesus gave up His life for the church so we need to be careful what we say.
This goes particularly for cross-denominational chat, or conversations about other Christians who might praise God differently than you.
Too often I’ve heard someone from a more reformed evangelical church refer to a more charismatic church as wacky. Too often I’ve heard more charismatic Christians refer to more reformed evangelical churches as ‘quashing the Spirit’. Just because someone prefers a more liturgical service, or just because a person keeps their hands in their pocket during the singing, does not mean that they are quenching the Spirit or not leaving room for Him to work. Likewise, just because someone raises their hands and maybe even gives a hearty “amen” or “hallelujah” does not mean that they’re disorderly people who have no reverence for God and only focus on emotional experiences.
Being flippant with our speech about other Christians does not honour God or other people. Instead our conversations should be seasoned with salt, encouraging others and building them up in the faith. We might not worship as they do, and that’s ok because we are not the measure of what worship is or is not acceptable to God. It’s also out of our hands. But what we can control is how we speak about other Christians and churches.
In all of our conversations about others and their churches, we need to remember that we are speaking about a person or a church for whom Jesus bled and died. We need to remember that we are speaking of sinners saved by grace, because that’s who we all are as Christians.
Being flippant with our speech about other Christians does not honour God or other people.
Chalmers' Blog 