But my view is Biblical!

If you haven’t faced disagreement in ministry yet, today must be your first day. The very nature of working with people means we will have conflict. Humans don’t always see eye to eye on all matters, and when we add in the multiple cultures, histories, and church backgrounds of the international church we find ourselves face to face with potential arguments.

Some pressing areas of potential disagreement:

What is the capacity of women in leadership?
Do all believers require the gift of tongues?
Can someone be a member of our church without believer’s baptism? What about sprinkling or dunking? What about being baptized in another church?
How do we elect leadership and what should our leadership team look like?
What color should the walls be when we repaint?

What do we do when we face disagreement?

Here is a no-brainer answer with complications: The best way to navigate a way forward in conflict is to hear what God has to say in the Bible…but what if after going away and studying God’s Word we find out that your view and my view can both be supported by the Bible? If you and I disagree on one of a myriad of issues and are both convinced our view is biblical is there a way forward?

Yes, and we need to be aware of some key dynamics. Perhaps at a conference breakout session sometimes we can chat through this more, as I believe dialogue in loving community is the best way forward, but for the sake of this article I’d like to propose two crucial dynamics of which to be aware.

Disagreement Dynamic 1: Centered set thinking
MICN has mentioned centered-set thinking in the past so I won’t take long to explain. Instead of focusing on the pasture fences of upholding tradition, denominational alliances, or rigid theology, we want to turn our attention to the Great Shepherd in the center of the field. We can agree to disagree on secondary and tertiary issues and focus on primary issues of Jesus.

As we embrace centered-set thinking about Jesus and His church, we must not water down theology. Centered-set thinking is not wholly about agreeing to disagree and moving on, but rather majoring on the majoring issues. In a disagreement we should both sharpen one another by asserting our perspectives. We need to refine one another through time in God’s word.

In order to disagree and search the Scripture together, we need to embrace two realities:

1. We both want to focus on the Shepherd at the center of the field instead of “winning” an argument or convincing the other.
2. Even though I use the Bible, my view may not be biblical.

Yes, you read that right. We need to be able to have enough awareness and humility that the view we hold may indeed not be wholesale from God himself. There are other influences on how we view the Bible. If you think I’m becoming “liberal” or that relativism has seemed into and polluted my brain, I can understand if you stop reading. I hope you continue reading, and I assure you I have my own convictions on absolute truth in God’s word.    

Disagreement Dynamic 2: Roadside dangers
As global nomads we really enjoy traveling, so imagine biblical discussions as a road trip. God’s word is the road on which we drive, guiding us into delightful and adventurous kingdom ministry. Each car on the scripture road moves forward with all traffic heading in the same direction. To stay on the road, every car needs to avoid the ditches on either side of the bible interpretation road.

Ditch #1: Culture has NO impact on interpretation
People or communities that drive into this ditch wreck themselves in a collision of pride. We all know culture shapes our thoughts, feelings, behaviors…so why wouldn’t it impact our understanding of the Bible. To believe we are not impacted by culture at all is a distracting inattentive hubris that will lead to ruin.

One of my favorite questions to ask leadership teams is from Jesus’ parable of the 2 sons. When Jesus talks about the prodigal son at his lowest, longing to eat what the pigs were eating, why was he starving?

Think about it for a second, why do you think he was starving?

Research has shown that there are three answers biblically literate, well-informed, Spirit-filled people give:

He was starving because:

1. He squandered what he had been given
2. There was a famine in the land
3. No one gave him anything to eat

So which one of these is biblical? Read Luke 15 and you will see that all of them are biblical. Each answer is in the text. Culture impacts how we read the text.

Ditch #2: Culture has ALL the impact on interpretation
If we hold cultural influences above God’s word we find ourselves intoxicated by humanity and neglect our deep brokenness and need for God. When we read God’s word it should rattle us and stir us out of the brokenness that is in our culture. We desire for God’s word to mold us to be more like Jesus, not attempt to cram the creator and sustainer of the world into our own cultural cardboard box.

If every one of our answers to a text when we disagree with it is “Well, that was cultural then but now it is different.” We will find ourselves ignoring the authority of Scripture and attempt to mute the very God who speaks to us. We don’t want to make truth relative and need to have convictions about what the Bible teaches.  

What a gift the International Church is when studying God’s word together. As we read Scripture in intercultural community we hear from other brothers and sisters about how they view Scripture and together we can point out how we may not see something in a text because of cultural blindness.

The Journey ahead
As we search the Scriptures together from hundreds of different countries, may we be deeply grateful to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to interpret everything on our own. We don’t have to know all the ins and outs of culture and the bible…we have the Great Interpreter, God himself, dwelling in each of us. As concerned as we may be about having a “biblical” view, God is more passionate that we get to know Him deeper in community through His word.

I look forward to the road God has the global IC movement on. As we search the Scriptures together, may we avoid the hubris of humanity and the intoxication of worshipping culture so that we direct all our hearts to a Revelation 7 picture of Jesus.

Bill Koogler
Church Strengthening Coordinator