9.23.25
Hey, Calvary Fremont –
Get this – there are actually some pastors who are encouraging you to leave your church if your pastor didn’t mention or talk about or refer to Charlie Kirk’s assassination this last Sunday! There are actually some men out there who think they are the gatekeepers of the pulpit!
If your pastor didn’t mention or talk about Charlie Kirk this last Sunday, he certainly missed a strategic opportunity to speak into the life of his congregation and bring some clarity, comfort, and context to a cultural moment that has intensely affected so many people. He missed an opportunity to point to a cultural shift from autonomous individualism to Biblical values here and in many other nations. Yes, he missed a unique pastoral opportunity. But who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls – and stand he will for the Lord is able to make him to stand.
Your pastor doesn’t leave the church when you fail to obey the Word of the Lord that he brings to you every week. When you don’t pray as you should, when you don’t give as you should, when you don’t love your wife as you should, when you aren’t the attentive father, when you don’t serve as you should – he doesn’t say, “I’m going to leave this hard-hearted and stiff-necked people.” When you miss ideal opportunities to be a witness for Christ, when you deliberately and intentionally grieve the Holy Spirit, when you judge one another with a bitter spirit, when you walk in unforgiveness – he doesn’t write you off. He bears with you, and corrects you, and points to the never-ending mercies of Jesus.
Give your pastor a break! Give him the benefit of the doubt! Talk to him. Ask him why he didn’t mention Charlie Kirk. And if you disagree with his reasoning – so what? How many times has your pastor disagreed with your disobedience to Christ and your grieving of the Holy Spirit? Not to mention Charlie Kirk in Sunday’s sermon is not theological error nor is it the denial of the gospel nor is it a moral failure. I think it is a failure of pastoral discernment – but not enough to divide the Body of Christ.
We argue about when Jesus is coming again – are you pre- or post or a-, whether Israel has any unique promises that apply to them, whether people can speak in tongues today – we argue about whether we should sing Bethel songs, whether Calvinism is right or wrong, which translations we should read, whether women can be pastors and elders…Whew! I’m tired out. I don’t have any energy left for the Charlie Kirk controversy.
So, you’ve been in your church for eight years and have come to trust your pastor to bring you the Word of the Lord. You respect his character and have been helped by him many, many times. He makes one wrong move – not a moral failure, not a theological error – and you’re ready to write him off and leave that church. And so, if you’re leaving your church because your pastor didn’t mention Charlie Kirk this last Sunday, do me a favor – don’t come to my church. I’ll disappoint you sooner or later.
Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim
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