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The Agenda-driven Christian

Agendas are not necessarily bad things. Every group needs goals and organization.  Sometimes agenda-driven people are of a visionary nature and they feel strongly about a certain direction for their church or organization. The problem comes when reasonable give-and-take within a group of Christians is cast aside by someone who is determined to achieve a goal without consideration for others. Philippians 2:3 tells us: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”  So, the ideal is to achieve some biblical and reasonable compromise which meets the needs of all concerned. Otherwise the situation quickly becomes divisive and counter-productive.

Reasonable people

Agenda-driven Christians are of two types.  One type includes otherwise reasonable people who simply can’t see past the issue they are pushing.  Talking with these people and explaining that there are other important issues and objectives to be considered can be helpful.  Sometimes, these people may still cling to their agenda, and need to be encouraged to find another venue in which they can implement their goals.

Unreasonable people

The other type of agenda-driven Christian is not so reasonable.  They might not really care who gets hurt or pushed aside in the process of achieving their goals.  These people are far more dangerous to the Body of Christ and should be handled with care.  Ideally, if the body is not in agreement with their goals, they should be kindly asked to find another place to achieve what they want.  They may require discipline from leadership.  But beware, these folks can split a church or organization.  Confrontation may be hard, but consider the alternative:  To give in to unreasonable people will usually result in their demands for even more concessions.  Once you make a key concession, the path forward may be downhill.

In other posts in this series, we look at mean people, clueless people, divisive people, and others who cause conflict.

Michael Bogart, EdD