In this episode, we pass along a tool that we picked up in seminary that helps us think about just how important things are and how certain we are of them.
The four-fold scheme is this. There are things to…
DECIDE FOR
“Decide for” issues allow for freedom to make a choice. Options are acceptable. They may need guard rails, but you can be faithful and make a decision in either direction.
DEBATE FOR
“Debate for” issues are ones where you feel like you have more information and where one side of the issue is more right than the other. This level of an issue may be significant, but it doesn’t require one to break fellowship.
DIVIDE FOR
“Divide for” issues make fellowship difficult if not impossible. These are issues one might leave a church over.
DIE FOR
“Die for” issues are life and death. These are the things that one would be willing to give their life over.
We chose to talk about this because we have found that when we escalate a matter beyond the category it belongs in we do harm to others and to the church. The point is to keep things in their proper place and insist on them being only as important as they should be.
We hope this tool will be helpful as you sort out matters of faith and politics.
Send Questions to: [email protected]
Music:
Little Lily Swing, Tri-Tachyon, Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing
Sorry, Comfort Fit, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE), https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Comfort_Fit/Forget_And_Remember/03_Sorry