Some friends at CCAANZ asked me to write an article for one of their publications, “Ministry Matters” planned for distribution to their churches soon. I was given the title and a fairly specific brief for what they were looking for…. this is what I wrote. Lord willing it is helpful and edifying.
September 2024
Pastor or Political in the Pulpit
CCAANZ: Ministry Matters
Often when we meet up with friends or family, a common unspoken (ok, sometimes spoken) mantra is to do everything we can to avoid discussing “religion” or “politics”. Most of us fail in this and quickly wonder why we even tried! In reality, when we live in an age when virtually every topic is politicised and we are followers of Christ, this approach is impossible. For one serving as a Minister in a congregation we often feel like we are walking a tightrope or navigating minefields. I don’t promise anything here that will completely remove that sense of vertigo, but Lord willing what is offered will be helpful as we seek to faithfully serve God’s people with God’s Word for God’s glory.
As ministers or shepherds of God’s people, we are to faithfully teach and preach God’s Word, pointing ourselves and others to the sufficiency of Christ in all of life for the glory of God. It can be tempting to pursue a methodology that is so “focused on Jesus” that we seek to avoid matters of contemporary political impulse. Yet, when we go to the very Scriptures we desire to preach, we are confronted with our responsibility to teach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), teach all that Christ commanded and taught (Matt. 28:18-20), rebuke error (Titus 1:9) and equip God’s people to live the whole of their lives in obedience to Christ (Eph. 4:11-16). Further as we read the pages of Scripture we are immediately confronted with the sheer volume of moral and ethical teaching God’s Word contains. The God of the Bible is clearly not only interested in what we and our people believe but in how we live and in how we live in relation to one another both within (Gal. 6:10) and without (Matt. 5:43-38; 22:37-40) the church.
This is where we are helped and equipped to navigate our role as ministers. Consider the topics, for example, of abortion and euthanasia. In our current culture these are highly charged political topics. Yet, in the pages of Scripture these are moral topics. These are matters that fall under the doctrine of man and our responsibilities as image bearers of God to care for other image bearers of God. The same is true for the contentious political issue of gender ideology. When the Bible speaks of God creating humanity in His image as male and female this is not presented to us in political terms but in terms of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind and His good purposes for mankind. These are clearly moral issues. As ministers of God’s Word to God’s people, we will seek to faithfully declare these subjects (and every other to which the Scriptures speak) faithfully so as to equip God’s people to live for His glory in the world in which He has placed them.
Yet, our main aim as ministers of God’s Word is to preach and teach the text. Not every text addresses a contemporary issue of political debate, so we let the text direct us. Our people should not come to church every Sunday expecting to hear or even wanting to hear a pastoral commentary on yet another hot button topic. They will hopefully come desiring to hear the text of Scripture preached so that the main point of the passage is the main point of the sermon. When that Sunday’s passage speaks to a topic that directly intersects with something that happens to be of contemporary political interest, we will make an application that is faithful to the text. Not out of an effort to be “political” but out of an effort to be faithful to the text and a desire to equip God’s people to live for God’s glory in God’s world.
This still begs the question… Do I as a minister deliberately teach on an ethical or moral topic that has contemporary political relevance? This could be a Topical Sermon Series, or a seminar, or another event planned around a particular subject. Suddenly, landmines seem to be everywhere!
Perhaps consider it this way first… As a minister who is seeking to faithfully shepherd the people God has given you, you will inevitability engage in many discussions related to the application of God’s Word to the current issues of our day. God’s people need to know and want to know, “so what?” How do the truths of God’s sufficient Word apply to the pressing issues I am facing at my work, for my children at school, within wider society, etc. Some topics are so pervasive that virtually everyone in your congregation will be wrestling with it to some degree. These would seem to be circumstances where it would be prudent to address the topic in a more formal, even public way.
In doing so, we are not aiming to discuss politics, though some may see it that way. We are aiming to model the application of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture to the pressing issues our people are facing today. The end result will not be to dictate how people vote but to further shape their minds and consciences such that when they do engage in the public arena (whether at work, school, Uni, voting, wherever…) they do so as thoughtful Christians.
A thoughtful Christian with a robust grasp on the whole counsel of God and sound doctrine will know that this side of the New Heavens and New Earth, there is no perfect political solution or political candidate or societal fix to the issues and topics we face. But having been faithfully shepherded by faithful ministers, they will be well equipped to engage in a way that is faithful to God’s Word all the while fixing their eyes firmly on the hope of Christ’s return.