Why might fellow pastors disagree about how to proceed most wisely in a practical shepherding matter?
Should we recommend that the church excommunicate a certain member? Should we take on a certain amount of debt for a building project? Should we recommend that a certain person join the pastoral team? Should we accept a grant from the government during a pandemic? Should we recognize that a certain wife has biblical grounds for divorce?
Rhyne Putman’s new book, When Doctrine Divides the People of God, surprisingly helps us answer why fellow pastors might disagree about such matters.
I say “surprisingly” because the book analyzes doctrinal disagreements, not disagreements over matters of shepherding.
Part 1 explains why people (especially evangelicals) disagree about doctrine, and Part 2 suggests what we should do about it. In Part 1, Putman suggests five reasons we disagree about doctrine:
We read imperfectly. We read differently. We reason differently. We feel differently. We have different biases.
It’s an insightful book.
Putman’s five reasons for doctrinal disagreements also apply to practical disagreements about pastoral matters. What follows are some excerpts from the book followed by my brief reflections on how this may relate to how fellow pastors
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