{"id":560,"date":"2015-05-19T06:20:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T10:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/?p=560"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:21:13","slug":"the-fallacy-of-the-excluded-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/19\/the-fallacy-of-the-excluded-middle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fallacy of the Excluded Middle"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does it take for a church to grow?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Some place a heavy emphasis on godly character<\/em> that comes from prayer, as if that’s all it takes to grow a church. This camp loves the first part\u00a0of Psalm 78:72, “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart…”<\/li>\n
  2. Others place a heavy emphasis on good leadership<\/em>, as if that’s all it takes to grow a church.\u00a0This camp loves the second part\u00a0of Psalm 78:72, “…David shepherded them…with skillful hands.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But anytime a teaching implies\u00a0that 1) all it takes is prayer or that 2) all it takes is good leadership, that’s what we call\u00a0“The Fallacy of the Excluded Middle.”\u00a0This particular fallacy\u00a0involves a situation in which only two options\u00a0are considered, when in fact there’s another option not being discussed.<\/strong>\u00a0Let me illustrate:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • To place an emphasis\u00a0on the importance of prayer in growing a church, you can make learning about leadership sound worldly and unspiritual. One such example of this is when Eugene Peterson (who has written book after book on prayer and not one book on leadership) writes,\u00a0\u201cThe vocation of pastor has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans.\u201d But this excludes a middle option – an option that\u00a0involves a pastor who values both prayer and good leadership<\/em>.<\/li>\n
    • To place an emphasis on the importance of good leadership in growing a church, you can fail to mention anything about the importance of prayer. One such example of this is when John Maxwell writes “Everything<\/em>\u00a0rises and falls on leadership.” But this excludes a middle option – an option that\u00a0involves a pastor who values both leadership and prayer<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The undiscerning listener, hearing the importance of prayer and not wanting to be worldly and unspiritual, will get sucked in and turn his\/her back on leadership books and conferences. The undiscerning listener, hearing the importance of good leadership, will get sucked in and forget about prayer.<\/p>\n

      But let’s look at the two parts of Psalm 78:72\u00a0together<\/em>. “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0with skillful hands.”\u00a0Integrity of heart<\/em>\u00a0stands for\u00a0character<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0skillful hands<\/em>\u00a0stands for\u00a0competency<\/strong>. The pastor of a growing church will value and develop both his character and his competency. It’s not either\/or, it’s both\/and. When it comes to growing a church, character and competency are not enemies – they are best friends. Jesus told Peter (whose name means rock<\/em>)\u00a0 “…on this rock I will build my church…” You see, Jesus<\/em> builds his church but\u00a0he does so through people<\/em>…people with both character and competency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      What does it take for a church to grow?\u00a0 Some place a heavy emphasis on godly character that comes from prayer, as if that’s all it takes to grow a church. This camp loves the first part\u00a0of Psalm 78:72, “And David shepherded them with integrity of heart…” Others place a heavy emphasis on good leadership, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-leadership","7":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mike","author_link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/author\/mike\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1190,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/1190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}