For pastors, there are two types of members who can be particularly onerous. The first is the theological pugilist. For this person, every issue is a hill on which to die. There are no secondary issues—everything is a test of orthodoxy and fellowship. From church music to the deity of Christ, he never met a theological debate he didn’t relish.

The second is the theological minimalist. This person doesn’t particularly care for theology; that’s the domain of seminary students and academic theologians. From Jesus’s miracles to the virgin birth, he never met a doctrine so important as to warrant serious debate. He’s too practical for theology.

How can pastors help these two people and others like them? A good place to start is to teach them about theological triage. Give them a framework for which doctrines are worth going to war over and which ones are not. I did that once in a previous ministry, which I wrote about in the article below: “Theological Triage is for Church Members, Too.”