Are We Setting Up Pastors and Church Leaders To Fail? Part II

[00:00:21] I'm Dr. Dave Jones and this is the second part of our series entitled Are We Setting Up Pastors and Church Leaders To Fail?

[00:00:30] And we'll be discussing aspects pertaining to the fact that ministry keeps getting tougher.

[00:00:38] And to that end, I'll be using Pastors at Greater Risk book written by H.B. London Jr.

[00:00:44] And we'll use his survey information and suggestions to highlight what we're discussing today.

[00:00:51] So, here we go.

[00:00:52] A recent survey shown in that book says that 19% of pastors indicated that they'd been forced out of ministry at least once during their ministry.

[00:01:02] Another 6% said they'd been fired from a ministry position.

[00:01:06] A typical pastor has his greatest ministry impact at a church in years 5 through 14 of his pastorate.

[00:01:15] Unfortunately, the average pastor lasts only 5 years at a church.

[00:01:21] The average number of adults attending services at a Protestant church during a typical week is 90.

[00:01:27] Church attendance in the United States is 43% of all adults in a typical week.

[00:01:34] However, fewer than 1 out of 3 adults attends church services every week.

[00:01:40] Only half the adults who say they're Christians contend that they are absolutely committed to the Christian faith.

[00:01:47] And yet, 44% of Americans who declare themselves to be Christians believe that Jesus sinned during his time on earth.

[00:01:54] And 64% of adults said that truth is relative to the person and their circumstances.

[00:02:02] And lastly, 31% of adults say that their most common basis for moral decision making is doing whatever feels right or comfortable in a given situation.

[00:02:14] So, pastoral service is harder now than ever before.

[00:02:18] So, what's going on?

[00:02:20] Unprecedented shifts in moral, social, and economic conditions are battering congregations.

[00:02:27] These changing circumstances and declining values directly affect pastors and their way of life.

[00:02:35] Now, many of these difficulties were almost unknown in earlier periods of history.

[00:02:40] And these changes seem to be taking the church in the wrong direction at breakneck speed.

[00:02:46] At the same time, pastors' concepts of ministry are in flux.

[00:02:51] Now, the clergy expect personal fulfillment and meaning where former generations seemed satisfied with sacrifice and even expected suffering.

[00:03:01] Clearly, this new breed of pastors views their world, their work, and themselves differently than their preaching parents and grandparents did.

[00:03:11] Not better or worse, just different.

[00:03:15] One pastor trying to accept these challenges said,

[00:03:18] The work is harder than ever before, but the difficulties mean they need us more.

[00:03:25] So, let's look at some of these challenges that the pastors face today and the churches face today at the same time.

[00:03:32] The first challenge is walk-on-the-water syndrome.

[00:03:37] Sadly, walk-on-the-water syndrome triggers in a few pastors an obnoxious, pseudo-holy, prideful opinion of themselves.

[00:03:46] They allow themselves to believe the nice things parishioners say about them.

[00:03:50] They think they're always right.

[00:03:52] They resist accountability.

[00:03:54] The second challenge.

[00:03:56] Disastrous personal problems.

[00:03:58] Every day, I read in various news sources from pastors and their wives and how they detail the consequences of secret sins, describe emotional brokenness,

[00:04:09] and explain stress that one pastor called a boiling inside that feels like I swallowed burning sulfur.

[00:04:16] You'd expect that any occupation dealing with stressful issues would cause casualties.

[00:04:21] Pastors aren't any different, and the stress is multiplied over and over as problems grow and snowball.

[00:04:29] An unsatisfactory reaction or terrifying circumstance in one area significantly impacts other aspects of a pastor's life and ministry.

[00:04:39] Number three, church member migration.

[00:04:43] Like wild geese, church members are on the move.

[00:04:47] They're not leaving Christianity.

[00:04:49] They just move to another congregation.

[00:04:52] This superficial lack of loyalty puts pastors on edge.

[00:04:58] Long-held assumptions about doctrinal devotion and congregational commitments no longer seem significant.

[00:05:05] Fewer and fewer people choose a church or continue to attend because of biblical teaching or theological.

[00:05:13] Number four, technologically shaped preferences.

[00:05:18] Top-notch television and religious radio bring the most accomplished musicians and capable preachers into our family rooms.

[00:05:26] When church members have first-hand experience with flawless performances,

[00:05:31] is it any wonder they believe such programs should be models for their churches as well?

[00:05:36] Challenge number five, distracted people.

[00:05:40] When people are bombarded by commitments, church can become yet just another event on the calendar.

[00:05:47] Church certainly isn't the center of family life that it once was.

[00:05:52] There was a time, likely gone forever, when a revival captured the attention of a whole town.

[00:06:00] And as a result of these distractions and over-commitments to such a variety of activities,

[00:06:05] getting people to attend church more than once a week is an uphill struggle.

[00:06:10] Sometimes it's a battle to get them to attend even once a week.

[00:06:14] Number six, consumer mentality.

[00:06:17] This reality means that when people move to a new community,

[00:06:21] they choose a church on the basis of what it does for them rather than what they can do for it.

[00:06:29] Few choose a new church for its biblical teaching or theological soundness.

[00:06:35] Number seven, suffocating expectations.

[00:06:39] Pastors are facing a juggling act as they deal with mushrooming expectations

[00:06:44] from congregation, denomination, community, spouse, children, or even self.

[00:06:51] In the church, for example, members sometimes say straightforwardly,

[00:06:56] Pastor, you are paid to do church work, so you unravel the problems and care for the details.

[00:07:02] Even emotionally robust pastors find it takes energy and patience to cope with whining traditionalists,

[00:07:12] demanding visionaries, and lethargic church members all at the same time.

[00:07:18] And number eight, decimated absolutes.

[00:07:21] Our permissive society has trashed absolutes.

[00:07:26] Shures have been bartered into maybes.

[00:07:30] The Ten Commandments have been rejected as the code of conduct.

[00:07:34] It's almost as if society is committing suicide by inches

[00:07:39] because self-control, compassion, tolerance, faith, integrity, and respect for authority

[00:07:46] are all in such short supply.

[00:07:49] Even believers routinely substitute, and I'm not so sure for, thus saith the Lord.

[00:07:55] Church people don't run their lives by biblical truth anymore than secular people do.

[00:08:00] One does what's right in his own eyes.

[00:08:03] Number nine, money struggles.

[00:08:06] Contemporary money problems force churches to revise their funding priorities radically.

[00:08:13] Giving is down and costs are up.

[00:08:15] In most households, including the pastors, two paychecks are the norm,

[00:08:21] and young pastors often carry staggering educational depths into their ministries.

[00:08:26] Number ten, dysfunctional people.

[00:08:31] The church attracts dysfunctional people because it represents acceptance, love, and belonging.

[00:08:39] It's like the family they never had.

[00:08:41] When those people come to Christ, they bring their problems with them,

[00:08:46] and they look to the church for hope and healing.

[00:08:49] When churches ignore these pains from people's pasts,

[00:08:53] the unresolved issues pop up in strange and unexpected ways.

[00:08:58] Like poison ivy, the crop gets bigger and bigger when ignored.

[00:09:03] The result is that many churches have dysfunctional pastors leading congregations of dysfunctional people.

[00:09:11] What an explosive minefield.

[00:09:13] Challenge number eleven, pastoral defection.

[00:09:16] Frontline pastors desert because they are frustrated by growing worldly values inside the church

[00:09:25] and overwhelmed by cultural chaos on the outside.

[00:09:30] The problem is so large that some church leaders fear

[00:09:33] that not enough battle-ready soldiers will be available to influence this new century.

[00:09:40] Number twelve, sexual temptation and infidelity.

[00:09:44] Each week seems to bring heartbreaking news about another moral failure among pastors.

[00:09:52] In fact, infidelity by pastors may be the bottom line of an accumulation

[00:09:58] of a thousand small things that go wrong in a marriage that no one takes time to fix.

[00:10:04] When ignored, what seems to be unimportant flares into an emotional or moral earthquake.

[00:10:11] Pastors are especially vulnerable to outside emotional support during seasons of fatigue, frustration,

[00:10:20] and hopelessness.

[00:10:22] And those closest to the fallen minister in the family or the local church usually carry scars forever.

[00:10:30] Number thirteen, leadership crisis.

[00:10:35] Regardless of the size of his church, every pastor is tempted to use power inappropriately,

[00:10:41] sometimes often every day.

[00:10:44] A self-centered craving to be in control.

[00:10:47] A problem in lay people that generally nauseates pastors as even more poisonous to the shepherd of souls.

[00:10:54] Embers of spiritual vigor never burst into a flaming passion in many congregations

[00:11:01] because a continuous civil war for control is in process.

[00:11:06] Challenge number fourteen is loneliness.

[00:11:09] Like a chronic virus, loneliness troubles many pastors.

[00:11:13] When someone asked Mother Teresa what she thought the worst disease facing the world was,

[00:11:18] she responded,

[00:11:19] it is not AIDS, leprosy, or cancer, but loneliness.

[00:11:25] Loneliness is an occupational hazard for pastors.

[00:11:29] Some pastors admit they don't know how to cultivate friendships.

[00:11:33] In fact, some even think that living in isolation makes them faithful to their training

[00:11:38] that friendships are a sacrifice pastors make to avoid feelings of jealousy among church members.

[00:11:46] And the final challenge is institutional babysitting.

[00:11:52] Babysitting a church and a congregation gets even more difficult to bear

[00:11:57] when members complain, and they will, about inconsequential matters

[00:12:03] or tattle to the minister about gossip they hear or start.

[00:12:07] So in closing, that gives you a little more information with respect to what's happening

[00:12:11] not only continually in the lives of your pastor,

[00:12:15] but what's happening in your church as well.

[00:12:17] Remember, the Lord called the pastor.

[00:12:21] He honors the pastor with a partnership with him.

[00:12:24] They're a unique and extraordinary trophy of grace that God gave to the congregation.

[00:12:31] But that's not what makes them special.

[00:12:34] Rather, God's power at work in them is greater than any weapon in the world's arsenal,

[00:12:40] and they should never forget it.

[00:12:42] And at the same time, they need someone to come alongside them

[00:12:46] to give them support and encouragement and prayerful understanding and acceptance

[00:12:51] of the challenges that he and his family face.