“At Pulpit & Pen, we are constantly reminding our readership (as well as our listeners at Polemics Report and the Intelligence Briefing) that discerning believers must be among the most faithful, most giving, most sacrificial church members in any local congregation.”
(Pulpit & Pen) Richard Caldwell is the pastor of Founders Baptist Church in Spring, Texas. It is a Reformed(ish) Baptist congregation, and Pastor Caldwell claimed on Twitter yesterday that discerning Christians don’t have a high regard for the local church.
God help his congregation.
Citing some gross (and false) generalizations, Pastor Caldwell asserted that Christians who support “discernment” (Caldwell added the “scare quotes” to the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is mentioned among the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10) “hop from church to church” and questions their history with local churches.
Richard Caldwell@rcaldw
Every time I see a “discernment” social media guy, I have a question. What’s your history with healthy local churches? Many of these folks have hopped from place to place, and have started their own thing more than once. No one measures up (for long) except them, and their circle
Discernment, like all gifts, is given to believers for the edification and building up of local congregations (1 Corinthians 14:12). Without it, local churches would soon fall into compromise and doctrinal error.
Research