Pressure-Testing a Position Statement
- "Here's a draft position statement on [topic]. Examine it for theological soundness and tell me where it's weak or could be misread before we bring it to the congregation."
- "Give me the strongest good-faith objection someone might raise to our current stance on [topic], so we're not caught off guard."
Preparing for a Doctrinal Discussion
- "Our board needs to discuss [topic] during our next meeting. This is a hot-button issue for our congregation. Give me a short, balanced summary of the real theological considerations, not just one side."
Training New Elders
- "I'm onboarding a new elder. Give me a simple overview of [doctrine/topic] that gets them up to speed without overwhelming them. Here's what we need to cover."
Handling Disagreement Well
- "Two elders disagree dramatically on [topic]. It's definitely a disputable matter. Guide me through how to frame the discussion so it's about truth, not personalities."
Communicating a Decision to the Congregation
- "Our board just decided [decision]. Help me turn the internal reasoning into something clear and honest I could actually say to the congregation."
- "This decision might upset some people. Give me a way to communicate it that doesn't dodge the hard parts but doesn't create panic either."
Actual Answers Provided By Selah
"Our board needs to discuss asking a church member to leave during our next meeting. This is a hot-button issue for our congregation. Give me a short, balanced summary of the real theological considerations, not just one side."
Church discipline is one of those places where the NT is clearer than most evangelical practice suggests — and where the discomfort in your congregation is itself theologically significant.
Here's the honest tension: the same tradition that produced "the gates of hell will not prevail" and "love one another as I have loved you" also produced Matthew 18:15–20 and 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul commands a church to expel a member — and frames the expulsion as an act of care for the person, not rejection. "So that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord" is Paul's stated goal. Exclusion, in that framing, is a last-resort pastoral act, not a punitive one.
That's the first real consideration: discipline and grace are not opposites in the NT. The question isn't whether to choose between love and accountability — it's whether a community that cannot hold anyone accountable for anything is actually capable of the kind of love the NT describes.
The second consideration cuts the other way: who this happens to matters morally. Church discipline in American evangelical history has a real track record of targeting the vulnerable (a woman who left an abusive husband, a person who struggled publicly with sexuality) while quietly managing the powerful. Any board conversation that doesn't ask "have we applied this consistently?" is incomplete.
The third: the goal defines the method. If the goal is restoration — which is what Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 both assume — then the question isn't just "should this person leave?" but "what outcome are we hoping to see, and does this action serve it?"
What's driving the hot-button quality in your congregation — is it disagreement about whether discipline is appropriate at all, or disagreement about this particular situation?
"Two elders disagree dramatically on women teaching in the church. It's definitely a disputable matter. Guide me through how to frame the discussion so it's about truth, not personalities."
There's a move worth making before any framing of the content itself: the question "is this a disputable matter?" is itself contested, and which answer you give shapes everything that follows.
Some hold that 1 Tim 2:12 and 1 Cor 14:34–35 are straightforwardly clear — the dispute arises not from genuine ambiguity in Scripture but from cultural pressure to reach a different conclusion. On this view, treating it as "disputable" has already conceded too much.
Others hold that the texts are genuinely difficult — that the interpretive questions (what does authentein mean? are Paul's instructions culturally specific or permanently normative? how do the Galatians 3:28 trajectories apply?) are real exegetical questions, not manufactured ones. On this view, treating it as settled is the one that has conceded too much — to tradition over careful reading.
Here's why this matters for your two elders: if they haven't named which kind of disagreement they're having, they'll talk past each other indefinitely. One may be arguing from exegesis (what the text means), the other from hermeneutics (what kind of claim the text is making and how it applies). Those are different conversations, and they require different moves to resolve — or to hold with integrity.
So before any framework for the discussion itself — a prior question:
Do both elders agree that this is a disputable matter, or is that itself part of what's in dispute between them?