An Epidemic Of “Weaker-Brother” Pastors! with @ADRobles Robles

R. C. Sproul preached a sermon called “The Tyranny of the Weaker Brother.” His premise comes from Romans 14. He talks about how the church should welcome the weaker brother into membership with grace, but he warns of the weaker brother’s tendency to be a tyrant towards the rest of the body. The weaker brother, due to his weaker faith and underdeveloped conscience, has a bad habit of adding the traditions of men to the laws of God. Unfortunately, he often does not do this merely for himself but for others. For example, the weaker brother will frequently insist that their fellow church members (and especially their pastor) not drink alcohol, even though Scripture permits the righteous enjoyment of alcohol to the glory of God. And yet, churches should welcome the weaker brother into membership, and be willing in certain contexts to lay down their liberties in order to avoid becoming a stumbling block for him. But should the church welcome the weaker brother as their pastor? If the Apostle Paul labels the one whose conscience is wrongfully bound by man-made traditions as objectively “weaker,” should this individual be in a position of authority over those who are objectively “stronger.” Clearly, Paul’s point has to do with faith. Therefore, the weaker brother is not merely “weaker” in some kind of abstract way. Rather, in accordance with Scripture, the weaker brother possesses less faith than his other brothers and sisters in Christ. Such a man should be graciously welcomed into the church. But is there not a serious problem, when the church is led by those with the least amount of faith? In these cases, by virtue of both the individual’s person and position, the church becomes a context for mass tyranny. Man-made traditions become church wide “requirements” that everyone is commanded to follow, despite Christ having purchased freedom from such traditions by the costly price of his own blood. Is there currently a national (and even global) “epidemic” of weaker brothers filling our churches’ pulpits. Wearing a mask is not a law of God, and yet, many of our puny-faith pastors have wrongfully bound the consciences of all their congregants in this regard. The same can be said of pastors requiring vaccines for worship, or segregating the people of God according to vaccination status. Possessing a conscience that is so poorly shaped is not a disqualification for salvation (membership in Christ’s church), but should it be a disqualification for eldership? Would not the Apostle Paul expect the office of elder to be filled by stronger brothers? The past couple years have appeared to prove that a vast number of Evangelical churches are being led by the weakest among us, according to clear biblical standards. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content like this!

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[Yesica]

My church was closed a full year. I warned them April 1, 2022 to please open because our unscrupulous gov't leaders might take advantage. Talk about the understatement of the century. Then they reopened but banned unmasked. This lasted 1 week short of a second year. I don't have a family that follows Christ. I was essentially alone for 2 years. That's on top of an ongoing family health situation that's been going on for 6 years. I've lost all my church friends. Families I used to babysit for left the church (not for Covid reasons) without telling me. It's only this past summer that I'm waking up from the fog and damage of it all. The numbness is wearing off. The pain hits me in waves. I find myself crying for no reason. The anger is setting in. I am completely broken. It's not right. And there's no apology. No repentance. No one cares. It's like none of it ever happened.

I did meet with church leaders the summer. They were kind in the sense that they said they were sorry if I was hurt. But it was clear they did not think they had done anything wrong. I'm convinced they'd do it again tomorrow. They were trying to protect people. That's how they see it and nothing will sway them from that.

[kevindavis]

Thank you for your point of view brother 🙂

[Yesica]

I am just at the part where the opening statement was read. Oh, my! In all the zillion videos and articles I've watched/read the past 2 1/2 years regarding the church's Covid response, I have never seen this angle and this issue addressed!

[TheMaineSurveyor]

I was going to one of those churches in 2020. It was closed for months. When it opened, the mask mandate was strictly enforced. Singing was impossible. So, I went to find a church led by a much more solid pastor. I'm at a very good reformed church now, and couldn't be happier.

[joshhenderson]

Just as a quick aside as a recovered porn addict, getting married is not a fix for a fully developed porn addiction. It took years into my marriage to get free from that stuff, and covenant eyes was very helpful for the early stages of that process.

[Yesica]

Thank you so much for this. The past 2 1/2 years I've been trying so hard to convince myself that *I* am the one who's wrong, that *I* am the one who's crazy for thinking that closing churches and masking people and all the rest were so wrong. Even though, as I said in my other comment, I warned my church on April 1st of 2020! (And that's not even touching on the "woke" crap.)

But how do you convince your church leaders they were wrong? You can't repent when you genuinely don't think you did anything wrong! My pastors were following the advice given to them by experienced and high ranking doctors in the congregation. I think one was a specialist/head of a department. In that sense, how can I blame them? Why would they listen to little ol' non-medically trained me? I don't doubt their motivations. They wanted to protect people. I don't doubt that for a moment.

What Pastor Joel did for his church was the right thing. That's genuine repentance. If my pastors did that, I would run back there with joy! But, again, they don't think they did anything wrong. I even sent them the information about the pastors in Canada that were arrested for keeping their churches open. I was stunned that not only was there no interest, they disagreed with them for doing it. I figured maybe they'd at least pray in public for them, even though they didn't agree. After all, these are still our brothers and sisters! Can't we disagree on this and yet still love and pray for each other? Nope. The silence left me stunned. And this was after the whole "Summer of Love" nonsense, where every week there was some info supporting the protesters and providing lists of materials, and videos, and talking about "white supremacy" and blah, blah, blah.

I think they'd shut down tomorrow if the numbers went back up and the gov't commanded it again. That's what scares me. I cannot endure that again. I have never prayed so hard that God would take me home as I did in 2020-21. I'm ashamed to say it, but it's true. Between being alone for 2 years and the ongoing family health situation and the hellish situation with that, I don't know how I haven't had a breakdown.

[Topaz_Soul]

There was a church that my family started going to when I was in my late teens; the pastor did Not allow women to be on the stage or even be allowed to sing or play an instrument of praise to the Lord God without wearing a Skirt, if you wear slacks or dressy style pants no woman allowed to be in choir, praise team or teach. And another church we went to since I was a kid, I wasnt allowed to sing a Praise song because the guitar had too much guitar distortion and solos to it. I'm a metal head, but love Christian metal and the lyrics was such a strong praise song, they sang a lot of songs that talked about God calling you, or talking about yourself in a way so they hardly ever had straight up pure worship songs. The song I picked was very worship based lyrically but the pastor said no. Also he's very into playing the same stuff over and over again to the point the songs were just dead praise. Controling the music cause the pastor isn't a fan of the genre, and another pastor obsessed with how the women should dress to be literally allowed to sing praises, teach other women and children or play a song on an instrument

[titusmommy]

I agree with many things except your differentiation of older and younger believer. Most older believers have relied on the sound teaching of the Word. Too many younger people are tied to the internet RATHER than the Word. I’m probably “older” and have been since I was “younger”. I’m evaluating the good things you’ve said through the Word, I just know too many younger people at our church tend to listen on the internet to personalities like Mohler and sift their thoughts through that. (Obviously, I’m not condemning listening to people on the internet, because here I am😊, but to many are not grounded in the Word to discern). Great job! I appreciate your hard work.

[gregs]

AD's example of a husband requiring his wife to wear a mask at all times and restricting her from going to church because it is dangerous was excellent.

[benjaminperez]

Robles, I am 66 and I am listening to you both.

[jwbboy]

I was in a church that shut down and when reopened was requiring mask. I had a meeting with the elder I was closes to and after 5 or more minutes of requesting a direct answer he said my family can't come without a mask. We ended up meeting with the entire elder board and then some and in that meeting I was told that I was actually the stronger brother and I should consider the weaker brother (the mask wearers). They were all into the love your neighbor narrative. And this is no little heretical looney church. This is a sister church of Grace community church. Where most elders hold at least one PhD. Where there was a seminary connected to the church. I can't even list all the ridiculousness that was said in that meeting. It ended well, with respect and me shaking their hands and thanking them. But in that meeting (and prior in letter) I was advised and encouraged to find another church. I was told if I stayed I'd have to be careful of what I teach my children in my own home and what I post on FB. Most of that was because of my eschatology. I'm postmill and was in a dispy premil church (just like grace community church). It's crazy the tyranny of the weaker brother came from the elders telling me that I need to wear a mask because I was the stronger brother. I haven't even listened to all of this video yet, but I've been eagerly waiting! Thanks gentlemen, I trust it'll be good!

[andrewcarrero]

Cannot say enough how helpful this conversation was. Over and over I had to pause, write thoughts down, and pray. Thanks for thinking as Christians for our benefit.

[MrThelittleguy]

There's a difference between a weaker brother and and a brother that has his own agenda.

[Eren_Drager]

Love it every time y’all get together Pastor Joel and AD! Thank y’all for this conversation!

[bretlynn]

being the weaker brother seems to be the goal for some people

[jonathanteoh]

What if the church says that the church is just following the mandate of the government. I am from a country that still requires mask mandates. How should we respond as Christians? I think this issue gets extremely more complicating when the government is in the equation

[brianholland]

Here's looking at you Tim Keller...

[jaquirox]

Ohhhh great topic! That’s really applicable right now! 🙏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[samueljimenez]

Whoa… when talking about communion I thought I heard AD Robles say, “some people think that Grey Goose is not good”… he said “grape juice”… Pastor Joel agreed on no grape juice. In the spirit of unity, I think all Christians say no to Grey Goose communion haha

[Isnortbologna]

Amazing. I love how you said they inverted the power structure. I am having trouble finding a church as a new person to christ/the bible. The ones local to me quite honestly sicken me morally speaking.