You know things are bad when editorials appear with the title "How much more can you stand?" and everyone just kind of nods. Which of our churches haven't used some version of a "count your blessings" Facebook campaign in the past few months (and plan on doing it this November)? How many of those campaigns have rung hollow? I wonder how often those campaigns have either minimized the seriousness of our condition or, worse, trivialized the counting of God's blessings. When Paul tells us to give thanks in everything, that means in our every circumstance -- not ignoring our every circumstance.
Church leader, this month gives us an amazing opportunity to model for and lead our churches toward a biblical model of true thanksgiving. But only if we will be brutally honest about our circumstances. And only if we truly believe the promises of God.
And so, church leader, I have to ask: how thankful are you feeling? How effective do you think your thanksgiving services are going to be this month?
By many measures, things are not good. And I'm not just talking about the experiences of so many of our church members over the past seven months -- family members being seriously ill, jobs being lost or reimagined, kids' lives being turned upside-down, isolation leading to significant mental and emotional struggle. And then the riots. And then the fires. And then the hurricanes. And then the election. It's been rough, even for the most grounded of Christians.
I'm also not just talking about our personal experiences as human beings. Obviously, everything that has affected our church members has affected us and our families. We're concerned about our spouses and our kids. If we are responsible for staff, we are concerned about them. We're around a lot of people, so we worry about our own health. (I don't think I've ever been this aware of my allergy symptoms.)
No, I'm talking about the unique intersection of all of these things that pastors experience as leaders of congregations. That news is also . . . discouraging.
Church Conflict. The process by which churches shut down and started reopening revealed fault lines and old wounds that pastors may have thought had healed (or maybe didn't know were there). According to a July survey by Lifeway Research, when asked what they were most concerned about, 27% of pastors said maintaining unity in their churches. We have been called on to make decisions about things well outside of our expertise while answering to church members who also lack expertise (but not opinions). It has been stressful.
Close behind, 17% of pastors cited the stress of providing effective pastoral care from a distance. Not only is this stressor about knowing the spiritual and emotional needs of our church members and our inability to care for them as we have in the past, but it is also related to complaints our church members have about ineffective pastoral care, directly tied to the issue of church conflict.
Church Finances. The anecdotal reporting has long been that, like most American families, most American churches do not have the savings to cover one month of operating expenses, let alone the three-to-six that is recommended. This was certainly validated by the rate at which churches burned through their PPP loans and still made budget cuts. Indeed, according to a July survey by Barna, only 58% of pastors were confident that their churches would survive the economic fallout of the pandemic. Barna calculated that one in five churches would close within 18 months. (A separate Lifeway survey indicated that one in four churches have already made significant budget changes.)
Church Futures. Closely related to this has been the acceleration of church membership and attendance trends during the pandemic. One in three practicing Christians have stopped attending church. According to a September survey by Lifeway research , barely one-third of American Protestant churches were at even 70% of their pre-COVID attendance, and just under one-third were running less than half. Of all American Protestant churches, 72% currently average fewer than 100 people on a Sunday morning.
This sits on top of the well-known trends that predate the pandemic. According to Gallup, from 1999-2019, the percentage of Americans who were church members dropped from 70% to 50%. Southern Baptists just reported their largest ever year-over-year membership decline. The official voice of PC(USA) turned heads with its recent announcement, "For the first time in more than thirty years, the PC(USA) is not reporting membership losses," when the numbers it reported clearly showed continued membership losses. The Episcopal Church just self-reported that it will not exist in 30 years.
Church Influence. The growing disengagement of Americans from churches has resulted in the shrinking of the influence that churches have on their communities. According to Barna, 35% of American adults believe that Christian churches make a negative impact on society. Barna's latest "State of the Church" report revealed that 10% of all Americans believe the church to be irrelevant. In an effort to avoid politics, let me simply allude to the experiences of some Christian churches during the pandemic that have revealed exactly how non-essential their local governing authorities believe them to be.
Pastor Influence. And then there is our own experience in our church and community. I have talked with plenty of pastors who have lamented that city and county officials once polled them with respect to local decisions, but no longer. Experiences with church conflict (and the ways some pastors have been treated by their churches during the pandemic) have revealed just how little influence pastors might have in their own churches.
That doesn't begin to touch on our unique self-identification as pastor-theologians. How valuable is your "theological input" on church and community decisions? Retired theologian Roger Olson recently posted a brutally personal retrospective by the title, "Does Theology Even Matter Anymore?" He wondered how many people -- friends included -- really cared about his theological input or simply dismissed it as "merely academic, a waste of time."
Is that you?
The numbers say that some or even many of you are discouraged to the point of quitting your position. Thom Rainer of Church Answers reported that more than half of the pastors they work with are considering quitting their churches. They're discouraged by the infighting and apathy in their churches. They're very concerned about attendance and finances. They're facing more criticism than ever before. And their workload has increased in unexpected and unprecedented ways. They might not leave the ministry, but they want to leave their church.
Again, I ask, is that you?
If it is, I want to level with you. Jesus Christ faced down sin and death and hell so you and I could have the hope of the glory of God. We should know this backwards and forwards because it should be a central element of our preaching and teaching every week. It's one thing to consider quitting your ministry because God is moving you to another place of ministry. But to quit because circumstances are discouraging and life has gotten hard? Friend, you may be in the wrong line of work in the first place.
Of all the people in our churches, we should be the ones with the spiritual resources to face those facts I listed above with hope and faith. Our church members depend on us to model for them and equip them with the characteristics of faith, hope, and love. And let's be honest -- that's not asking much. Things have been much worse, and according to the Bible, things will one day get much worse-er.
Our church recently had a Sunday School lesson on Isaiah 36-39. You know the story -- the Assyrians have destroyed many of Judah's towns, besieged Jerusalem, and even begun killing off the royal court. The people have been told that they will all be killed and that their God is powerless to prevent it. Slightly worse than what we're experiencing today. I explained the simplicity of Hezekiah's response (37:14-20) like this:
Hezekiah took his situation to God.
He was extremely aware of and honest about his circumstances.
He made a clear request to God, trusting God with the outcome.
Yes, that is a simplified Sunday School version, but does it need to be more complicated? Do we face our circumstances with theological pronouncements or our simple faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that He is at work in all things, bringing about our ultimate good?
I love how the disciples responded to a very threatening situation: “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah. For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:24-30)
What, exactly, is our soul so downcast about? That we have church members who don't behave like Jesus? That the world around us resists sound theology or the good news of Jesus? That money is tight? That we aren't the leader we think we should be? Are any of those things even surprising, let alone unique? Of course not. God has helped every generation face those same things, and He will help us as well.
Let's be extremely honest about our circumstances. They are not good. And then let's be extremely honest about our God. He is very good. That will lead us into thanksgiving.
We can focus on God's blessings and how great they are, or we can focus on our problems and how big they seem. "Thanksgiving" helps us focus on the former. It is what led Paul to write with such confidence, "Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Phil 4:6).
Paul gives this advice to us, and we must live by it if we are to pass it to our church members: "And we exhort you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the Spirit. Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil" (1 Thess 5:14-21).
It's that simple. We can "stand more" because we stand on the belief that those words are faithful and true. I'm not going to speculate on the possible outcomes of the facts I listed above because that would be beside the point. God has always been faithful to me. Why would I start doubting Him now?
This resource is part of the series In All Circumstances – A Theology of Gratitude. Click Here to explore more resources from this series.
Matt Ward is an Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Thompson, GA. He holds a PhD in Baptist and Free Church Studies from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a member of the St. John Fellowship of the CPT.
