And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.¨ - Matthew 3:9 (ESV)

Jesus provides an excellent example of how to react to students who say something that is heretical. By “heretical,” I mean a belief that is so wrong that it makes believing it and being saved contradictory. One heretical belief is Docetism, which is the belief that the Son of God did not really come in the flesh, but only appeared to. If Jesus was not really a human being and did not really die on a cross, then we do not really have a sacrifice for our sins, and we are still condemned.

In this brief excerpt from the Gospels, Jesus warns some Jews against a belief that would damn them. Jesus knows they want to depend on something to save them that will not and cannot. He came to save, and they must not think that being descended from Abraham is good enough.

Heresy Is Common

Jesus is aware that they are prone to think these things, and he warns them against it. Students will fairly frequently say things in small groups that are the doctrinal equivalent of Jews believing they do not need any salvation other than being descended from Abraham. Like Jesus, leaders need to warn students against these ideas, whatever they are. And there are a great variety. In small groups, any number of heresies related to the Trinity, or the nature of Christ, or the message of the Gospel may come out. Oftentimes, students are just thinking out loud. Other times, a heretical statement may reflect a deeply held, if mistaken, belief by the student.

Blatant doctrinal errors are some of the most valuable kinds of ideas that can be expressed in small groups. This may be a surprising statement, but there are few things so valuable as hearing how a student really thinks. It is easy for kids who have grown up in church to give the appearance of orthodoxy in belief and behavior when a more accurate description is conformity. What is the difference? The difference is in the understanding and motive. It is common for students to believe orthodoxy by default, but not by conviction. Children who grow up in church believe what they believe because it is what they have always heard. They have never heard or considered other possibilities, and so orthodoxy is the only real viable option in their own minds.

As children grow up, they are often in a generally controlled environment provided by their parents, especially when it comes to religious instruction. Children are taught to trust their parents, teachers, and other authorities with relatively few exceptions. However, as children grow and mature, so does their exposure to other kinds of people and ideas. This includes exposure to alternative authorities and teachers with whom the parents do not agree. Sometimes, this is relatively rare for a child who grows up in church, and so the first time they are exposed to other ideas, including other doctrines or religions altogether, is not until graduation from high school. At that point, the children are not children so much as young adults, and their absence from home and their entry into higher education or the workforce represent a seismic shift in the kinds of ongoing external influences that are most dominant in their lives. When that happens, how will the students respond?

Orthodoxy Is Hard

It is impossible to know what students will do in the future when exposed to different pressures and principles, but in the meantime, small group leaders can welcome the students’ ideas and musings in a small group. When students express a heretical or near-heretical idea, it is a golden opportunity for leaders to gain insight into what they really think. When leaders do hear the actual ideas and doctrines of students who have grown up in church, it is less surprising that the statistics around youth and church are so bad. They often not only do not agree with orthodoxy, they also do not understand it. 

This is why leveraging heresy is so important. Students do not generally have solid doctrine. Students generally have shaky doctrine. Orthodoxy is not easy. It is hard fought and hard won. Christians over the centuries have labored to articulate the most basic points about God, the Trinity, the nature of Christ, and the gospel in clear terms.

Of course, it is not the case that we want the students to hold to heretical doctrines. However, it is painfully clear that many students do not have an orthodox understanding of God and that this often only becomes clear after they have already graduated. At that point, it is too late for small group leaders to engage with their ideas. It ought to be the small group leader’s assumption that students are vulnerable to heretical doctrines. Students, being immature due to their youth, are prone to being tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). 

So how should leaders react when a student says something so wrong that it is unchristian? Generally, leaders should remain calm, try to read the student who said it, and, maybe most importantly, wait to see if other students agree or disagree. Rather than answering the student immediately, the leader often does better to listen for other students to voice their opinion. Sometimes, a student or two will catch the error and point it out. In that case, the leader helps to maintain respect and civility as the students discuss. Other times, students say nothing, which must prompt the leader to ask a question to provoke deeper thought about what they are implying. Still other times, the students may rally around the heretical idea, and leaders may find themselves with a whole group led astray. At that point, leaders must stand in the gap for the students, being willing to ask questions that cause the whole group to consider their position without coming across as unnecessarily defensive or condescending.

Conclusion

In conclusion, heresy is not something that leaders should avoid hearing at all costs in a small group. Instead, leaders want exactly that to come out, provided that is what the students believe or are inclined to believe. The leaders are not there to paper over problems, but to expose them. We want the chance to be used by God to lead the students away from heresy to orthodoxy, so that they might learn, to use the words of Jesus, not to presume to say to themselves doctrines that would lead them to damnation.