By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the 4th Avenue church of Christ’s decision to add a female preaching intern, introduced by video and broadcast all over the church’s corner of the internet. A number of good responses have been made explaining why the video was wrong, why the reasoning behind the decision (“feeling at peace,” and being “led by God” apart from Scripture) was unbiblical, and what God actually wants from women in the church, and I’ve linked a few of those at the bottom of this article. Now that the uproar is starting to die down, though, I wanted to share a few thoughts on the issue. 

While refuting the misinterpretations and laying out the biblical guidelines is important, I want to look at the issue from a different angle. Why do departures from truth like this happen and how can we stop them from happening again in our local congregations and regions? Really, you have to start with a look at where the Bible places responsibility, and therefore places blame. 

First, when a church turns aside from biblical truth, you have to look at the preacher(s). The man who is charged with getting up in the pulpit and proclaiming God’s message to the congregation has a huge effect on the direction the church takes. So, when a church is weak in the Scriptures, the preacher should bear much of the blame. When they emphasize knowledge and fear but not love, the preacher is to blame. When they reject biblical knowledge for cultural talking points (as 4th Avenue so clearly has), the preacher hasn’t done his job in declaring the sufficiency of Scripture. Paul could not have been more clear in his correspondence with Timothy and Titus that it was their job to declare the Scriptures and not hold back, even when it was unpopular. James 3:1 tells us that those who teach will receive a stricter judgment. 

Second, if the preacher goes astray and is allowed to take the congregation with him, the elders are directly responsible. In Acts 20, in Paul’s farewell to the elders at Ephesus, he strongly urged them to hold strong and keep the church aligned with God’s will. After reminding them that he had fulfilled his responsibility as a preacher by preaching the whole counsel of God (2o:27), he told them that they had been made shepherds to keep out the wolves who would bring in false teachings and lead their flock astray (20:28-31). When a church is blown off course just because culture tells them they have to change, the blood of Jesus Christ is on their hands. 

Third, members who don’t examine everything they are taught as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11) are the perfect soil for the seeds of false doctrine to take root. In most instances of congregations taking a large step away from New Testament doctrines, there are typically quite a few who part ways and find another church, but there are also plenty who stay. What has happened to us that the men of straying congregations allow such perversions of God’s plan for the church simply because they don’t know the Scriptures or because they don’t have the courage to take a stand? 4th Avenue isn’t the first church in America to throw the Bible out the window and do what they want, and they won’t be the last. To paint them as some kind of extreme case is dangerous, because the same can happen in any church where the members aren’t vigilantly studying for themselves and working with their preachers and elders to uphold God’s doctrines. That puts the responsibility on every disciple to learn the Scriptures for themselves and reject teachings that contradict God’s Word, and our congregations across the country are filled with people who can’t be bothered to do so. If you don’t know what you believe, why you believe it, and why your church practices the things it does, you need to start dedicating serious time to understanding God’s Word. 

Finally, we need to take a long, hard look at the church’s universities in America. The whole issue started with Lipscomb University trying to find a congregation that would take on a female preaching student as an intern. 4th Avenue is heavily responsible for providing that opportunity, but Lipscomb and the other universities that have given in to the modern clamoring for feminism and “equality” are guilty as well. Dr. Harrub has been talking for years about the stories parents tell him about their children either denying God or leaving for some church with false teaching because of what they were taught in a Christian university. Of course, this is almost always met with someone saying, “It’s not that bad,” or,” At least we still can count on ___________ University!” We need to stop deceiving ourselves. Christian universities have long been the breeding ground for liberalism in the church and though some have been more “progressive” than others, each can offer plenty of witnesses as to what they teach falsely or how they’ve driven students from the faith. Sadly, many parents simply follow their children into their new, enlightened opinions and infect their own congregations as well. Young Christians need to either go in with the same mentality they would take into a denominational school, evaluating everything they are taught, or alternative options for education need to be considered. 

Weak preaching that is based in feelings and moralizing without deep study is something that isn’t restricted to any particular region in America and is deeply entrenched in many congregations. Elders who won’t stand on Scripture or won’t back their preacher when he speaks the difficult truths of God’s Word aren’t uncommon, either. Members who are comfortable just showing up on Sundays and going home can be found in many churches. Add all that with young people being told by their Christian college professors what changes they need to make in their belief systems, and it’s pretty clear that the groundwork is set for doctrinal departure at a moment’s notice in plenty of congregations. It’s the perfect recipe for apostasy. We can all pat ourselves on the back about how we stood up and said something about this sad step into false doctrine and cultural capitulation, but if we don’t start shoring up our own congregations we might be within a generation or two of making the same mistakes. I’m reminded of the terrible instances I’ve seen where a congregation decided to “restudy” a biblical doctrine and came down on the side of culture. Just imagine – what happens when churches start facing legal pressure to conform? 

Every preacher, elder, and member needs to play their part in searching the Scriptures and trusting in them alone in the face of growing societal pressure to reject them. Pray that God would give us the strength and courage to stop the next 4th Avenue before it happens. Churches that fully dedicate themselves to God and His Word won’t stumble… but it’s up to us to make sure we fit that description. 

By Jack Wilkie

(The 4th Avenue church’s video is posted here. You can read Dr. Brad Harrub’s response here. Two other helpful responses by Adam Faughn and Ashley Hudson, respectively, are posted here and here.)