I have been mulling this over lately. What exactly does dissent mean within the context of the church? Here I don’t really have in mind fundamental theological dissent. Not things like trying to be a Muslim and a Christian, or argue about the fundamental definition of being Reformed. Rather I have in mind things like sincere questions and longings about the state of the church of which one is a part, particular in regard to issues like ministry, mission, discipleship, etc.
What role does the dissenter have within the local congregation? How does one go about this without simply being a critic? What does dissent mean for the life of the church as it is concretely lived? What should it mean? What should such conversations look like?
I had an interesting situation recently where I wrote a letter of dissent to leaders at a different church. That is an interesting dynamic, because we are all in the body of Christ, but they have no direct accountability to me on the subjects I addressed.
I think that the critic should, as far as conscience allows, submit himself to the leadership in his church. That is probably the best posture for beginning a conversation.
This is an intriguing question for me. I agree with N. Dan Smith that submission to leadership is the best posture from which to begin a conversation.
I have felt like a dissenter for most of my adult life, most of the time doing it very badly (i.e. just a critic).
One of the things that has very much helped me understand and listen to those I disagree with is being involved in church leadership. I found that many of my opinions were ill-formed and naive. But I also found that many of my critiques were indeed on the right track. But having the responsibility of leadership definitely softened some of my hard line stances on things.
Perhaps it can be thought of as the difference between prophets and “kings”? The prophet’s job is to speak, and the king’s responsibility is to listen to the prophet and attempt to implement. So perhaps the job of the dissenter is to simply speak, humbly, submissively, and leave the results to God?
I did a post on dissent here:
http://vox-nova.com/2008/08/03/magisterium-tradition-and-the-legitimacy-of-dissent/