How to Discern If a Church Member Is Guilty of Gossip
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“First, realize people need to talk to process…. Second, gossip is defined more by intent than content…. Third, it’s the leader’s responsibility to provide clarity.” - Church Answers
As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“First, realize people need to talk to process…. Second, gossip is defined more by intent than content…. Third, it’s the leader’s responsibility to provide clarity.” - Church Answers
“So what are we to do if we are to live informed lives without allowing ourselves to be drawn into foolish controversies in which we have no responsibility from God to involve ourselves?” - Nick Batzig
“What started as a lighthearted recounting of experience may turn into a critical review of someone’s motives and actions…. There can be a fine line between storytelling and gossip.” - TGC
“Have we tamed the tongue too much? Christians work to recover a biblical understanding of harmful hearsay vs. healthy criticism.” - C. Today
“What is the most frightening verse in the Bible?… for me, the scariest part of Scripture is Jesus’s words in Matthew 12:36: ‘I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.’” - TGC
“Before you pass on information about someone, consider honestly both your own motivation and the potential result of your sharing. Will this lead to greater understanding and empathy between people, or will it separate them unnecessarily?” - TGC
This post continues a lecture from C.H. Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students (read the series so far).
There are some occasions, especially in raising a new church, when you may have no deacon who is qualified to manage that department, and, therefore, you may feel called upon to undertake it yourselves. In such a case you are not to be censured, you ought even to be commended. Many a time also the work would come to an end altogether if the preacher did not act as his own deacon, and find supplies both temporal and spiritual by his own exertions. To these exceptional cases I have nothing to say but that I admire the struggling worker and deeply sympathize with him, for he is overweighted, and is apt to be a less successful soldier for his Lord because he is entangled with the affairs of this life.
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