Into the Breach

A Word for Pastors

Fellow Pastors,

The coward’s temptation in every age is to thunder where it is safe and whisper where the battle actually rages. But to flinch at the point under attack is not faithfulness; it is betrayal. Call it what it is: cowardice.

Solzhenitsyn saw it clearly. In the West, truth is expected to come with soft edges, polite caveats, and constant self-doubt. But when wolves are tearing at the flock, a “balanced tone” is treason. A pastor who trims his words to please the spirit of the age is no shepherd at all.

The faithful have always rushed to the breach. Athanasius stood when the deity of Christ was denied. Augustine stood when original sin was mocked. Luther and Calvin stood when Rome sold salvation. Machen stood when liberalism gutted the authority of Scripture. They knew where the enemy struck, and they planted their feet.

And this is still the call of the pastor: preach the Word, in season and out. Not as a lecturer, not as a therapist, but as a watchman who equips God’s people to live by faith in the very time and place He has put them. Every age has its defining battle. In ours, the fog gathers around biblical sexuality, bioethics, the use of authority, and how to live as a Christian citizen. To dodge these issues is not neutrality; it is surrender.

The answer to cowardly pastors who feign neutrality isn’t to replace the gospel with politics. The answer is pastors who faithfully teach the church how to apply the Word of God to the time and place He has put us. That will mean speaking directly to the issues of the day. And yes, those who fear the fierceness of battle at the breach will sneer and call it “preaching politics.” But it is nothing more, and nothing less, than preaching the whole counsel of God. It equipping the flock. Don't back down. This is your job.

The breach is here. To run is cowardice. To stand is Christlike.