January 05, 2007
Trust Me
Recently one of my fellow church members said, “I don’t know why you don’t trust the leaders.” Actually I don’t consider questioning situations and motives as being a trust issue. I’ll admit that I’m a suspicious person by nature, but I don’t believe that to be a negative character trait. For me, blind trust is closely akin to the blind leading the blind. Paul tells us to ‘test everything’ (1 Thess 5:21) and Luke observed that the Bereans examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true’ (Acts 17:11). I can’t quite picture Paul turning to the Bereans saying, ‘So what...you don’t trust me?’
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Gail;
----Even with Paul's trustworthiness, the Bereans searched the scriptures daily. The Bible is silent about whether they continued to check out what Paul said as they continued to find corroboration. But it is reasonable to think that they began to trust him more and more.
----I do not believe there is a point at which one can stop evaluating what anyone says. People are not like stones, they change a lot faster. An extra nuance here, a shift in attitude there, and in a few years it is possible to find a person quite different than before.
----The real question, though, is, "Who is your relationship with, Jesus Christ, or the church leaders?" Of course, it is with Jesus Christ. But within that realationship are all your relationships with one another. Some brethren are going to look at you as a leader, while you will look at others as leaders. But always there should be the trust/trustworthiness obligations. Those who look at you as a leader are obligated to continue evaluating your trustworthiness, as you are obligated to do the same for those who are your leaders. That obligation is to the spiritual health of the body, including yourself. On the other hand, there is the obligation of the leader to continue to evaluate his own trustworthiness, for the same reason.
----Finally, the real statement put to you was, "I don't know why you don't trust the leaders." In light of the bonafide need to evaluate trustworthiness, as you and I have both demonstrated, what do you do when you find a leader untrustworthy in some or most ways? Ideally, if your evaluation is born out by Scripture, facts, and correct reasoning, and if the issue is significant, then it is only proper that the leader should not be a leader (recognizing the need for witnesses and others with similar, humble evaluations). But if those other witnesses and evaluations are present, and the leaders continue to be leaders, why would one want to respond by ceasing to distrust? In this case, continued distrust is called for, as well as communication with one another concerning the matter (Mal 3:13-18).
----I want to take the oportunity of this topic to restate that I do recognize the efforts the leaders at your church are making for the Lord. They are zealous about their sevice, and I believe from what I know of them, that they are sincere in their zeal. I hurt everytime I discuss the problems there, because I think they do dedicate their efforts to His service.
----Dedication and zeal are good for motion, but that motion can be in any direction possible. Therefore, direction is every bit as important as motion. It must be precisely congruent with Scripture. That is the call for evaluation. And the results of humble evaluation are why I distrust the leaders at your church.
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