The high cost of crying wolf

[Barry Kimbrough]

One of the surprises of ministry for me has been the difficulty of defending the faith against false teachers in the church. I had thought that every church board and all church members would support such efforts, but experience has taught me that this often is not the case.

I have also found, however, that when a pastor applies only biblical approaches in guiding the church, and maintains a pastoral attitude toward all, this helps the slow process of reform.

Church discipline is not easy. Sometimes a pastor is vindicated by an outcome, but other times he must pay a price for crying wolf.