Responding to Cultural Unrest
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey, everyone! And welcome back to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, this is a significant cultural moment. There is much debate, polarization, argument, discussion pertaining to ethnicity, issues of ethnicity, racial harmony, class, gender, sexuality. As Sovereign Grace pastors navigating through this cultural moment, what would be a concern that you might have for us to think about in all of this?
Mark Prater:
Well, the concern I'm going to articulate, I think most or all of our pastors are tracking. And it's this: for the members of your church, the position they arrive at on a particular issue, in any of the categories that you just mentioned, or the opinion that they have on a given issue, is that primarily informed by culture or is it primarily informed by Scripture? And, a part of the reason I asked that question is because of all the opinions are being shared on social media, perspective shared on social media. And I think members of our churches can feel this pressure to come up with their own position or opinion in an expedient way without taking the time to go to Scripture, to study it, to come up with a thoughtful perspective and then articulate it on social media. I just think it's one of the pressures members in our churches feel and a challenge our pastors are facing.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. I think that a lot of folks, as well, who are well meaning and want to be kind and love others perhaps sometimes are misguided, being driven by that motivation into ideas that aren't biblical then in some cases are anti the Scriptures. So, what do you think we can do, some suggestions, as we seek to lead our churches?
Mark Prater:
A great question. Obviously, preaching. So you could devote a message or maybe a short series to this particular topic. Just a thoughtful engagement of Scripture that helps you arrive at a particular position on a given issue. The other option is if you're in a currently in a series or even a topical message where you could bring application and application point in that series or sermon, I think that would work. The other thing to consider doing is I'm not sure our members always aware of all the resources that you would say are the most important to read. So, for a pastor to say, here are my top two resources for all those categories you just mentioned a moment ago for politics, for gender, for race or sexuality, all of those, I think you could probably easily put together a list. Write a blog post about it if you've got that feature on your website and just get that up and make your folks aware of it. And I would include actual quotes from the books, quotes that shaped you as a pastor to give them just a taste of how that resource could shape them.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah, good. So if we are on Twitter or on Facebook and we see people from our church engaging in arguments or ways of thinking that are antithetical to Scripture, any thoughts about how we care for them and interact with them?
Mark Prater:
Yeah. I mean, first of all, you don't want to be the police pastor. You’re not hawking everybody’s social media site.
Benjamin Kreps:
That’s why I’m on social media though. I’m on social media to spy on people. That's basically the only reason I'm there.
Mark Prater:
[Laughter] Right, exactly. But if they know you, as a pastor, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, wherever its social media platform is, and you see sort of this consistent interaction, I think it's really good and it's actually pastoral care for you to take initiative towards them. Not bringing indictment and judgment upon them, but just, “Hey, I saw you posted this, tell me how you arrive at that opinion.” Just begin to ask them a lot of questions where you can begin just a thoughtful dialogue. And, you know, I think most people really appreciate that kind of initiative by a pastor in attempting to care for them.
Benjamin Kreps:
Great. I think that question that you just asked goes a long way in this season of discord. Would you just share how you arrived at this position that you have? Can you help me understand where you're coming from? It would change a lot of this conversation and certainly would serve our folks as we interact with them and try to help apply the Scriptures to their life.
Mark Prater:
It would because some of, you know, what you see on social media, especially right now, is so emotionally driven, much of it. And so they may have actually just said something out of emotion. And if they put some thought into it, like, “No, that's not really what I intended to communicate.” So that's why beginning with a question like that, I think, is the most helpful way to approach the conversation.
Benjamin Kreps:
Excellent. Thanks, Mark, for your thoughts and your care and thank you everyone who's watching and we'll see you again here on the podcast real soon.