The Courageous Confronter (July 23, 2006)

A Christian author friend told me that he wants to title his next book, No Balls: What's Wrong With Church Leadership Today. The title is a shock, but no more so than a statement St. Paul made to the Galatians: "I wish that those who insist that you be circumcised would cut off their penises" (Galatians 5:12).

Shocks are needed to make strong points sometimes. Paul used colorful language because he was fed up with Judaizers; my author friend wants to write No Balls because he's fed up with clergy. Specifically, he has talked with countless pastors, elders and deacons about coming to his aid in a grievance he has against a fellow believer, but all save one have politely refused to get involved. (I know the details of his grievance, and it is airtight. It isn't a murky "he said/she said," but a spiritual war with Gabriel on one side and Beelzebub on the other.)

How is any sincere Christian supposed to obey Jesus' command to "take one or two others along" (Matthew 18:16) to rebuke an offender if all the "others" turn coward and squeak, "Pray hold me excused: I cannot come"?

I emailed my friend that I did know one pastor who, when he discovered that an old friend was dumping his wife for another woman, dropped everything and got on a plane so he could appear on the man's doorstep early the next morning and let him have it. Now there's a pastor who can look down (ahem) and say, "Yup. Still got 'em both." I'm sure the adulterer's wife appreciated his eagerness to confront the creep who was making her life a nightmare.

I've got two teenage boys, and I hope that as they grow up they will be men and not eunuchs. Like Job, I worry that they might sin. What if I die and am not around to hold them accountable? I have told them, just in case, that if (God forbid) either of them ever pulls a stunt like so-and-so, then the other must fly half way around the world if necessary to appear on his brother's doorstep at dawn to rake him over the coals of righteousness.

Who else might be willing to perform the manly duty of rebuke? If my friend is right, the sad answer is, "Not enough pastors these days."