Anxious as hell.

That’s how a friend of mine recently described the pastors he knows. “They are anxious as hell, run ragged.” He is naming what is going on in the background—just beneath the surface of the all the preaching-teaching-tweeting.

He is naming a symptom of increasing pressure to produce and perform in a world where church doesn’t mean what it used to. The rules are changing. The questions are shifting. Well-worn techniques aren’t working. The money isn’t flowing, and the avenues for self-promotion are varied and crowded.

Searching for a Spiritual Equilibrium

I think my friend is right. And it’s not just pastors. The feel of dis-ease (lack of ease) goes all the way down. The way of life we once trusted as normal continues to fray at the edges, and we’re all scrambling to deal with it, to recover some type of spiritual equilibrium.

At this point in the fray, Christian leaders are both reacting to and reinforcing this spirit of dis-ease and anxiety at work in the communities they lead. It’s like a corporate scale expression of the axiom “hurt people hurt people.” Anxiety breeds anxiety. Under this pressure, most of us want relief. We want to return to normal. Like a bad case of spiritual bronchitis, we want to get over it. If I’m honest, I want relief too. I want to feel better and I want the people I lead to feel better.

However, I’m discovering that two not-so-intuitive gospel truths are challenging my assumptions and making space for leaning into God’s Kingdom amidst this modern, pastoral pressure:

1. The problem goes deeper than we realize, and
2. truly dealing with God is disturbing stuff.*

Spiritual Formation Blossoming in Brokenness

No one is saying it quite this directly, but it seems like the expected outcome of encountering God’s healing presence is relief from dis-ease. We know we have found spiritual healing when we feel better, that is, back to normal.

But what if opening our lives to God’s healing doesn’t necessarily relieve the tension? What if, when dealing with God, there is no going back to normal? What if normal is precisely what we need to get over?

We often unknowingly treat the problem of spiritual brokenness like we treat sickness. The attendant symptoms (i.e., the anxiety and dis-ease) are invasions into an otherwise normal mode of existence. Although we don’t often sell it like this, spiritual formation and discipleship become a kind of therapeutic process. We know it’s working when we get relief from the tension, feel better or return to normal functioning.

This posture toward brokenness is underwritten by a truncated biblical theology. The story goes something like this: Humanity was whole in Eden, but sin intruded, and we fell from the goodness of our original state. God’s saving intention, climaxing in Christ, is to get rid of sin and its effects so we can go back to how things were before, in Eden.

But maybe it’s worse than we thought. Maybe the problem is that, at our core, we don’t actually want to be healed by God. Yes, we’d like to feel better, but not be healed. We’d like relief from the symptoms, but not to be led through the pain of being touched and transformed by Holy Love at the point of our deepest wounds.

Another version of the story is that there is no going back to Eden. There is no going back before our wounds. In fact, “normal” was never the goal of human flourishing. God did not send Jesus to get us back to how things were before, but rather to bring all creation into a completely new, but always-promised, fullness. And that fullness is life in Christ, who even now bears the wounds of redemption.

God is not primarily healing us from brokenness. He is healing us for newness in Christ’s life, to grow in wisdom and love. In the truncated story, brokenness can only be problematic and arbitrary. Dis-ease is an unwanted and unhelpful obstacle that holds us back. Blessed are those who can get over it. But in the newness story, brokenness becomes a source of healing and dis-ease a sign of new creation. Teachers are those that point us toward wisdom and love amidst the brokenness. Blessed are the poor.

The Fraying of Normal as the Work of the Spirit

When the best thing that could happen is that we get relief from anxiety and dis-ease, God’s healing is primarily experienced as a dopamine release. Divine encounter becomes so closely associated with dopamine release, which effectively makes God into our dopamine dealer. Or, worse, God becomes indistinguishable from dopamine.

Either way, the Spirit of God is not a free agent of New Creation, but a tool in the belt of the modern project to reify the autonomous self. The implication is that dealing with God and encountering Christ as Grace and Truth will not always leave us feeling better. It won’t necessarily feel like relief. The tension might not go away in the short term or long term.

Chances are that God’s healing will mess up your life. That means it’s not unusual for dis-ease and tension to increase, not decrease, as we experience God’s healing.

The question is, can we begin to receive this as good news? Can we grow in wisdom and love even as the conditions in which God heals us for newness in Christ’s life look nothing like what we want them to look like?

As our “normal” continues to fray at the edges, and everyone is scrambling to recover equilibrium, can we lean into the dis-ease as the work of the Spirit, who is making a way forward into a new future that we do not control?

*I’m riffing off Charles Taylor’s language in A Secular Age [619ff], as well as James KA Smith’s read of Taylor, for this particular insight.

This article originally appeared here.

I recently listened to one of the fathers of our denomination speak about the “ups and downs” that he was experiencing in ministry. This man had planted a church in the PCA (which he subsequently pastored for many decades), oversaw quite a number of church plants out of that congregation and is currently planting a new church. What he said triggered painful memories of what I had experienced in seeking to deal with—what I like to call—“the roller coaster effect” of ministry. At times it felt as though I was on the most turbulent roller coaster during the first five years of planting New Covenant. Listening to this seasoned pastor talk about the ups and downs of ministry—so far into his own ministerial experience—also reminded me of the inevitability of the roller coaster ride of ministry. The roller coaster effect is true in a heightened sense for those who are called to parachute plant or plant in an extremely spiritually difficult part of the world, but it is equally true for all ministers of the Gospel who are seeking to carry out a God-honoring ministry of the word. Here are some of the things that ministers should keep in mind while persevering on the roller coaster ride of ministry:

1. The ups and downs are inevitable. When you step onto a roller coaster, you anticipate the ups and downs and know that they will come with great speed. This doesn’t make it any less frightening or thrilling when they come. There is, however, a sense in which ministers must remember that they signed up for all of the ups and downs in ministry. In Acts 14:19-23, we read about Paul—having just been stoned as Lystra—pressing on in the evangelistic ministry to which the Lord called him. Immediately after being stoned, he and Barnabas went to Derbe and “made disciples.” Here is one of the most extreme ups and downs that we discover in the Scriptures. One minute Paul is getting stoned; the next minute, God is using him to make new disciples. When he moved on from Derbe to Antioch, Luke tells us that Paul “strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Paul teaches us, by both deed and word, that we must prepare ourselves for the inevitable ups and downs of ministry.

One of the ways that we prepare ourselves is by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus and not on our experiences. We have to guard our hearts from getting too excited about the highs and too discouraged by the lows. I have had some of the highest highs and lowest lows literally occur a day apart. This makes the challenge of guarding your heart all the more difficult. When Jesus sent the disciples out to preach the Gospel, cast out demons and heal the sick, they came back with great excitement saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” Jesus’ response was quite unexpected. He said, “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). We must resist the temptation to find our joy in the apparent “successes of ministry” and instead find it in the fact that we belong to God and that our names are registered in heaven. I feel as though I am only beginning to learn how to handle this dynamic, nine years into pastoring the church that I planted.

2. We must find strength to endure in the Lord. When David was burdened by all of the affliction and trials that he endured at the hand of Saul, his own mighty men and the nations, he went and “strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. 23:16 and 30:6). Likewise the Apostle Paul told Timothy: “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (2 tim. 4:16-17). Ministers must learn to turn to the Lord in prayer and in the word—pouring out their hearts before Him and crying out for His strength—when the challenges of ministry come crashing down on them. Ultimately, we need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to help us persevere on the roller coaster ride of ministry. We need the grace of the One who said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

3. We need other ministers to encourage us to persevere. The burdens of Gospel ministry are not meant to be carried alone. Just as we need the Lord to strengthen us, we need other ministers to help us persevere in ministry. I would almost certainly not be in ministry today if it were not for the encouragement, prayers, empathy, sympathy and exhortations of fellow ministers. We do others an enormous disservice if we give other ministers the notion that they should not be affected by the downs of ministry. On one occasion—while I was in the crucible of ministry in the early days of planting—I unburdened my heart to another minister. Instead of encouraging me from the word or in prayer, he said, “I’m afraid that if you don’t get a hold of this it will disqualify you from ministry.” Nothing is further from the truth than to insist that a minister is never to be burdened by the downs of ministry. The Apostle Paul opened his heart to the churches that he planted—telling them how he was “burdened beyond measure” (2 Cor. 1:8), “afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed,” (2 Cor. 4:8) and that his “spirit was not at rest” (2 Cor. 2:13).

While fellow ministers may sadly become a detriment to one another, the converse is true. The great Apostle Paul needed the fellowship of a Barnabas (Acts 13:7-15:36), the companionship of a Titus (2 Cor. 7:6), the co-labor of an Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25; Phil. 4:18) and the camaraderie of a Timothy (1 Thess. 3:2; Tim. 1:2). Being surrounded by wise, godly, gifted and encouraging fellow ministers is one of the greatest aids in helping a pastor press through the ups and downs that he experiences in ministry.

If you feel as though you are riding on the roller coaster of ministry, do not lose heart. You are not alone. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the first season of the ministry to which the Lord has called you or the final chapter, the ups and downs never seem to cease. We need to expect the roller coaster effect, strengthen ourselves in the Lord when the trials come and draw strength from fellow ministers as we seek to endure to the end.

This article originally appeared here.

Please pause for a moment.

Please prayerfully consider the words you are about to read.

Please ask God for His strength to overcome these roadblocks.

You have seen the data. You know that two-thirds of our churches are plateaued or declining. Even more, among the declining churches are those that are on the precipice of closing, following the pattern of tens of thousands of other churches that have already closed.

Why?

Why are so many of our churches not moving forward?

Since so many of our churches are in need of revitalization, let’s begin by seeing what roadblocks hinder turnarounds. Here are 10 of the most common:

1. Comfort/resistance to change. This theme has been repeated many times. But there is a reason for the redundancy: It’s true. Until our church leaders and members redirect the focus of self-serving to serving others, church members will always be more concerned about my needs. That attitude leads to comfort and resistance to change.
2. Lack of knowledge. Because many of our churches have been negligent about reaching beyond their own walls, they lack the knowledge to know how to get out of the rut and revitalize. Many church leaders and members have good intentions; they simply don’t know the next steps.
3. Despair and defeatism. It’s a vicious and deadly cycle. Churches begin to decline. That decline leads to despair and defeatism. Then that attitude exacerbates the decline, and thus leads to greater despair and defeatism.
4. Perception that programs are ends instead of a means. “If only we used the program that worked so well 20 years ago.” “If only our denomination gave us the right programs.” There are two erroneous ways of thinking about programs. The first is to reject programs and resources altogether. That is just not wise with the abundance of great programs available. The other erroneous perception is to see programs as the ends instead of the means. That is the attitude of the program-driven church.
5. The magic bullet syndrome. This obstacle views the path toward revitalization to be one simple solution. It could be the program noted above. It could be the calling of a younger pastor without any other changes. It could be the return of a worship style. The magic bullet syndrome never works. Never.
6. Lack of awareness about the community. Most churches in need of revitalization really don’t know the community in which they are located. If they happen to open their eyes to the community’s demographics and needs, they are often shocked about their misperceptions.
7. Evangelistic apathy. This roadblock is pervasive in our churches. If we aren’t sharing the gospel, how can we expect to reach people with the gospel?
8. Deflection of blame. I have sadly heard on more than one occasion the members of declining churches blame the community members for not coming to their worship services. I have also heard blame directed toward denominations, megachurches, culture, sports and leisure activities, to name a few. Our churches will not move forward until the leaders and members take responsibility for obedience to the Great Commission.
9. Short-term leadership. Declining churches often view the next pastor, usually a younger pastor, as the magic bullet. If they happen to secure that pastor but make no other changes, the church resumes its decline. The pastor then becomes disillusioned and discouraged, and moves on to another church. The “pastor-as-magic-bullet” church becomes a series of short-term pastorates, exacerbating the decline.
10. Failure to consider being acquired by another church. Sadly, many churches repeat the patterns noted above until they are on the precipice of closing. At this point the only path of revitalization is to make the godly sacrifice of allowing a healthy church to acquire the dying church and make the dramatic changes that are necessary. Even more sadly, many churches choose to close the doors rather than make that sacrificial change.

This list of roadblocks is not exhaustive, but it does highlight the common problems. In future posts, I will be sharing with you how some churches have addressed these problems well, and revitalized for the glory of God.

This article originally appeared here.

The headline from an online preacher magazine says a pastor fired because of his alcoholism is bitter at his mistreatment by that congregation’s leaders. Not good.

I’ll not be reading that article, thank you. But a lot of people will. Looks to me like he deserved what he got, but then, I’m not his judge nor their advisor. But when a fired preacher walks away bitter, that does concern me.

No one deserves to pastor the Lord’s church.

That God would allow any of us to preach to His people year after year, declaring Heaven’s message to the redeemed, without giving us what we truly deserve—the fires of hell come to mind, frankly—shows Him to be a God of grace. Why don’t we see that?

Whenever I hear a Christian talking about not getting what he deserved, I run in the opposite direction, lest the Father suddenly decide to give the fellow what he’s asking for!

So, you were fired. OK. Can we talk?

Call it whatever you will. Perhaps they dressed up the terminology and told the congregation you were taking an extended leave, with pay for three months. But you weren’t coming back. Or, you were taking a well-needed sabbatical for rest and study. But you weren’t coming back. Or you were going to the “wilderness” for some retraining and redirection for your ministry. But you weren’t coming back.

You will hold your head up and go forward and look to the Lord who called you into this work in the first place, asking Him to do with it whatever He has chosen.

But it’s hard. It’s very hard.

What to do?

I. While you are still on the scene…

–First, try not to let it catch you unprepared. You should have seen this coming. And if you did, even if you fought it and prayed against it happening, you surely must have given some thought on what you would do if the church (or an official body representing the church) asked you to leave.

Among other things, this means you will have prepared your family for this eventuality. You and your spouse will have given thought to where you would live and what you would do for a job until something opened up in ministry.

–Second, try to work out as much severance as you can. Recently, I talked with a pastor who said the following Sunday would be his last at that church, the work of a little group of leaders. Would there be severance? He had no idea. I suggested he get his local denominational leader involved, asking him to intercede.

As a rule, the longer you stay at a church, the more the severance when you leave. However, for anything less than five years, be thankful if you get as much as three months.

A veteran pastor in the area or a denominational leader might be willing to call the chair of the official group and discreetly inquire about the severance, even to the point of making suggestions.

–Third, as soon as you know this is going to happen and nothing can stop it, check with one of your mentors (or a denominational friend) and see what advice/counsel they have as you negotiate your departure. Will the church move you? Will they take care of your health insurance for the period of the severance? That sort of thing. Oh, and will they give you a good reference when the next church comes calling?

–Fourth, start a journal. Get a wordless book and sit on the back porch with a cup of coffee and start writing. Put the date at the top of page 1, and say what has happened, what you are doing today and what you hope to do. Write out a brief prayer. And tomorrow, do the same. Keep it up as long as you wish. This will be a great way of thinking matters through, of praying and of recording for the future this unusual time in your life.

–Fifth, be kind to everyone. If you have been mistreated and the ousting is unfair, your flesh will want to strike out and make sure the congregation knows who did this to you. And, if the Holy Spirit leads you to share that information with the church, or a portion of the congregation, you will do that. But you will want to be kind and Christlike in everything you do and say.

I know of a young pastor who left a church of his own volition, but who used his last sermon to vent his frustrations and anger. Twenty years later, that final tirade is the only thing those people remember about this good man’s ministry there.

–Sixth, tell your friends. As soon as you knew you were leaving, you should have set up a network of colleagues in the ministry and informed them. You needed their prayers, but you also wanted them to: a) know what was happening and b) be prepared to recommend you to another church.

II. Then, when you have left that church…

–One. Do something about your plans. Do not assume you will be back in the pulpit of another church by the time your severance ends. Most unemployed pastors find it takes six months or more to do this. And in my case, it was a full year. So, be planning what you will do to put groceries on the table and pay the mortgage.

Nothing frightens the wife of an unemployed pastor more than seeing him sit around the house moping, sending out his resumes, waiting by the phone, with nothing happening. Likewise, nothing fuels the anger and frustration in the unemployed minister more than this. So, do something.

–Two. Find a good counselor and make periodic visits. No holds barred, tell what happened and let it all hang out. Then, leave the anger there.

–Three. Keep writing in your journal. Watch out for the anger, for depression, for the tendency to blame others for what happened to you. Write down your prayer for the day, as well as insights from Scripture that blessed you this morning.

–Four. Keep up your exercise program. And if you don’t have one, get one. At the very least, find a good walking track in a park somewhere and visit it daily. A couple of miles should take 30 minutes, and the health benefit will be enormous.

–Five. Do not write anything publicly about your experience in that church for a number of years. The journal should be all the writing about that sad time for the moment. The day may come—as it did for me a full 11 years later—when you can write about it dispassionately in a way to help others going through the same trial.

If you were indeed treated unfairly, remember the old dictum that “the best revenge is living well.” Show that church and the world—and most importantly, yourself and your spouse—that you are whole and healthy and a survivor. No venom, no anger, no revenge. Love and bless and help. Let the Lord handle the previous church. From all I know, He will. He will indeed.

–Six. Accept every preaching/teaching opportunity that comes along, whether it’s teaching a Sunday School class, speaking in the nursing home or filling in for a friend at the jail service. Resist the temptation to turn down small invitations in order to be available when a more attractive one arrives. The best indication that you are ready to return to the pastorate is that you are actively serving the Lord now in every way you can.

Don’t miss that last statement. When you are dismissed from a church, if you are normal you will proclaim that “I’m just fine and I’m ready for the Lord to send me to my next assignment.” Chances are, that’s wrong. There is a good chance you are hurting inside and need some healing before you can be trusted to handle with care the next family of believers the Lord has for you.

You need healing. And for that, you need to do number seven perhaps most of all…

–Seven. Join a church and get active. Tithe your income and sit in the pew and pray for your new pastor. Guard against the tendency to judge his sermons and leadership. Never ever let anyone, even your spouse, hear you say, “If I were pastor of this church…”

Someone reading this may fault it for my failure to mention “prayer.” Actually, I’m assuming you are praying constantly, in everything, throughout the day.

The day will come when you will be in another church, more than likely a smaller one. That’s just how these things work, and to expect to land in a larger situation than the one from which you were terminated is unrealistic. (Actually, I know a couple of instances where that did happen. But those are the exceptions.) And when you get there…

III. When you get in your new church…

–Remember how it felt when you were suddenly unemployed. So when you hear of a pastor who has been dismissed, even with cause, reach out to him. You have “been there and have the t-shirt to prove it.”

God said to Israel, “When you get into the Promised Land and things are going well for you, be kind to the foreigner in your midst. Because you were once foreigners in Egypt, and you know how it feels.” (The gist of several statements in Leviticus 19.)

–Do not rejoice when you hear your old church is having problems. Pray for them. Pray for the new pastor. Leave them with the Lord.

–From time to time, reflect on your years in that previous church and ask yourself two questions: a) What did I do wrong? and b) What do I wish now I had done? Write about those in your journal. And of course, keep the journal to yourself. This is not for publication. Not yet, at any rate. The day may come.

–Look for signs in how you relate to your new church that you are not fully healed yet. This could show up as impatience or temper or depression. Watch out for the temptation to preach to your people what you wish you had said to the last congregation.

–Listen to your wife, both to her words and to her heart. She sees the signs indicating whether you are healthy in mind and body and soul, and will be the first to inform you. At the first sign of trouble, return to the counselor and talk it out. Do not argue or justify yourself.

You will get past this. You will be healthy and whole and have a great ministry. And, if experience can be trusted, I’d say your next ministry will be different from what you have done before. A pastor friend who was ousted from his church is now working as a chaplain with a ministry reaching troubled young people. Another friend who  had to leave his church abruptly ended up pastoring in another state a congregation that had just come through a bad split.

God will not waste suffering. He will use this in your life. But to get the full benefits, you must stay close to Him, remain in place where He puts you, and obey all the things you know He wants faithful disciples to do.

This article originally appeared here.