What is evangelical unity? Does it even matter?
Graham Nicholls
What is evangelical unity and does it matter? And anyway, who’s to say what an evangelical actually is, and even then, what would visible evangelical unity look like?
That was part of our discussion at the autumn meeting of the Affinity Council – a group of leaders from churches and Christian organisations that help guide Affinity as we set our priorities.
A plea for pastoral brotherhood
Between 1979 and 1999 the Pope, John Paul II, published a collection of essays titled ‘Letters to My Brother Priests’. That sentiment, that his fellow clergy were his brothers, is something we would do well to learn from in our Protestant circles.
Those who serve Christ’s sheep as shepherds should see themselves as being in a spiritual brotherhood, a brotherhood that’s in desperate need of each other. The church has struggled with pastoral abuse, scandals, burnouts, and dropouts. The last few years of Covid, war, civil unrest and political instability have only heightened the weight carried by pastors. These trials have taken their toll. But where are pastors to turn when they need help?
ten questions: dismantling our tribalism
Jonathan Lamb
1. How did you become a Christian?
Do we really know someone’s motives & intentions?
One of the consequences of the erosion of trust in others in contemporary society is the tendency to think the worst of their acts and intentions, making unfounded assumptions about their motives and rushing to quick judgement. This inevitably leads to suspicion and conflict.
We see this in the way that we are quick to judge and condemn politicians and leaders, celebrities or others in the public eye. Sadly it is also a danger within the church, amongst the Christian community. We are quick to make judgements about the motives of others, assuming them to be bad. We might, for example, ascribe bad motives to those who are starting a new church in a area where we think there is already a gospel church; or to those who are taking a different view about how to respond to theological compromise in a denomination; or towards organisations that we assume are perpetrating a cover-up of abuse because we have heard that allegations have been made, even though we don’t know all the circumstances. We might flounder in our pastoral counselling of others because we leap in, confident that we know what they are doing and why. For example, we assume that we can see the sin beneath their sin.