What If I Disagree with My Pastor?
1) Direct answer
Stay with the Word, keep your spirit right, and handle it in God’s order. Pray, search the Scriptures, speak to your pastor privately with an open Bible, and seek peace. If it’s only preference, submit and keep unity. If it is clear doctrine or practice against the Bible and he will not receive the Word, obey God rather than men and step away quietly without causing strife.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Test everything by Scripture: The Bereans “searched the Scriptures daily” (Acts 17:11). “Try the spirits” (1 John 4:1). If any preach another gospel, “let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8–9).
- Respect the office and approach rightly: “Obey them that have the rule over you” as they watch for your souls (Hebrews 13:17). “Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father” (1 Timothy 5:1). Don’t receive accusations lightly—“before two or three witnesses” (1 Timothy 5:19).
- Handle it in order: Go to him “between thee and him alone” first (Matthew 18:15). If needed, take witnesses, then the church (Matthew 18:16–17). “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).
- Keep unity when it’s not sin or false doctrine: “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
- Separate if the Word is rejected: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). “Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine…and avoid them” (Romans 16:17). “A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject” (Titus 3:10). “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- God sets pastors to feed the flock, but the Bible is the absolute. A true shepherd points you to the Word, not away from it.
- If your disagreement is about taste, timing, or non-essential procedure, lay down your preference and keep peace.
- If the issue is clear Scripture—who will you follow, a man or the Word? If a leader asks you to do or believe what the Bible denies, your loyalty belongs to Christ.
- Don’t gossip, don’t rally people, don’t split the church. Speak face to face, with Scripture, in meekness. If there’s no agreement around the Word, step aside quietly and keep your heart clean.
4) Short reinforcing statement
Stay humble, stay Scriptural, and keep the sweetness of Christ. God defends His Word and guides the sincere who put the Bible first.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 1
57-0915E §43
...nacle here: when things go wrong and you men and you women will run and go over somewhere else, or lay out till the little fuss or the stew is over, there's something wrong with your experience. That's right. We have a custom here, we have a order here, this church is based upon the principles of the Bible. If there's somebody in here not doing right, and you think they're not, you go to him and talk to him. If you can't reconcile him, then take some brother with you, one or two more. If he won't be reconciled then...
Church Order
58-1007 §28
...of course, or say "amen" when the Word comes forth. But as far as getting up and giving messages in tongues and interpretation while the Holy Spirit is working through the pastor, the Scripture condemns that, and said, "The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophet." The pastor then must call this individual down, and ask them to be reverent and to keep their place. The pastor must be a man that has got a very humble way about him, but not too humble but what he could be like the Lord Jesus Christ when He s...
Questions and Answers, The Law having a shadow
54-0516 §12
Now, one thing I find out in the church, while there's no, not, maybe, three or four strangers with us, just the little tabernacle, is one thing: it's a lack of love for one another among you. See? See? Now, I--I don't know...You know me well enough to know that when I know something's wrong, I--I'm going to come to you. That's right. Because I'm duty bound to God. And it might have to hurt you, but I'm going to tell you the truth. See. I'm going to tell you the truth so we can both get straightened out with God, a...
Church Order
58-1007 §24
And the pastor should never take sides in the meeting, saying that one group is this way and one that way. The pastor should stand between both of them, and go to them, and get them reconciled immediately. And if he can't get them reconciled, let him take a deacon with him. And then if they won't hear neither pastor nor deacon, then it should be told to the church, and, as Jesus said, "Let them be unto you as a heathen and a publican. And whatever you bind on earth," said Jesus, "I'll bind in heaven: and what you l...
Revelation, Chapter 5, part 2
61-0618 §16
Now, Pastor ... and me going away, being your assistant with you here in the work of the Lord... And as Paul would say, "I charge you before God and the elect angels," see. And to this church here, there is a perfect example on what to do if somebody gets out of order in the church, see. Now, if there comes something up in the church that's not right, then let the individual who knows that's not right go to the person. And if the person will not be reconciled, then the next thing to do is take a witness and go (or...