Is it Right to Alert Pastors When You See Problems and Divisions Arising?

Do members of a church have responsibility to alert the pastors when they see divisions arising in the church? How important is communication of the sheep with the shepherds in order to maintain unity in the church? Clint: Well, when there's a report given to a pastor, it's very much different than one person reporting to another person in the congregation. And I'm thinking along the lines of gossip or slander - things like that that are not good. But nonetheless, there are times when a pastor may be oblivious to something that's going on in the church and it could be very helpful in heading it off at the pass or dealing with it before it becomes a major issue, for him to know that. I think of the Apostle Paul. - we've been informed by Chloe's people that divisions exist he said there. I think that's how he worded it. So here was a case where someone - Chloe's people - came to the apostle and alerted him something was going on. In another place, "it's been reported that there's immorality among you," he said in 1 Corinthians 5. In another place, 1 Corinthians 11, he speaks about another report of division. So there are occasions when that's helpful and I think maybe a duty. Someone might be duty-bound to say something to the pastor. But there's a fine line between tattle-telling or being a gossip there. So we have to definitely be on guard against that.