Yesterday
I received a book in the mail sent to me by a wise old friend. As one who loves
to climb mountains, the title captured my attention when I opened the package:
"Canoeing the Mountains," by Tod Bolsinger.
Yet, the secondary title clued me into the fact that it probably was not what I
initially thought - "Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory."
As
I read the first chapter I felt like the author had been a fly on the wall in
many of my conversations in recent years! He even mouthed some of the
exact phrases I had used! So, today, I let you in on an issue that has
been weighing on me (and many others in ministry) for at least the past decade
or longer - trying to minister in a post-Christian (often anti-Christian)
culture. This selection below is just to give you a taste of what he will
address in the rest of his book -- offering hope for a breakthrough where many
seem to have run into what FEELS like an impenetrable wall we
were not trained or equipped to break through. Enjoy.
"One
night after a long day of meetings, an older pastor let out a heavy sigh. He
was nearing retirement, and we were working together on a project that was
supposed to reorganize our entire denomination in order to help our church
better minister in a changing world. And that changing world weighed on
him. He remembered well how not that long ago life was different. He
stirred his drink and said to me, 'You know, when I began my ministry in a
church in Alabama, I never worried about church growth or worship attendance or
evangelism. Back then, if a man didn't come to church on Sunday, his boss asked
him about it at work on Monday.'
Sociologists
and theologians refer to this recently passed period as 'Christendom.' The
seventeen-hundred-year-long era with Christianity at the privileged center of
western cultural life. Christendom gave us 'blue laws' and the Ten Commandments
in school [and prayer in schools]. It gave us 'under God' in the pledge of
allegiance and exhortations to Bible reading in the national newspapers. (I
have a copy of the Los Angeles Times from December 1963 that has stories on the
Warren Commission (investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy),
the nine-thousand-member Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and a list of daily
Bible readings for the upcoming week. Can you even imagine the Los
Angeles Times exhorting people to read their Bibles today?) It was the day
every "city father" laid out the town square with the courthouse, the
library, and a First Church of _______ within the center of the city. For
most of us these days are long gone. (For some of us, that is good news indeed.
Did you notice the reference to 'man' in my friends statement?)
In
our day (unlike then) cities are now considering using eminent domain laws to
replace churches with tax-revenue generating big-box stores, Sundays are more
about soccer and Starbucks than about Sabbath, Christian student groups are
getting derecognized on university campuses, the fastest growing religious
affiliation among young adults is 'none,' there is no moral consensus built on
Christian tradition (even among Christians), and even a funeral in a
conservative beach town is more likely to be a Hawaiian style 'paddle out' than
a gathering in a sanctuary. As we see all this we know that Christendom
as a marker of society has passed.
Over
the last ten years I have had one church leader after another whisper to
me the same frustrated confession: 'Seminary didn't prepare me for this. I
don't know if I can do it. I just don't know...' A number of pastors are
ready to throw in the towel. Studies show that if given the chance to do
something else, most pastors would jump at it. Reportedly, upwards of fifteen
hundred pastors leave the ministry EVERY MONTH [Every year more than 4000
churches in the U.S. close their doors, almost double the number from 20 years
ago.]
A
couple years ago I learned that three of my pastor friends around the country
had resigned -- on the same day. There were no affairs, no scandals, and
no one was renouncing the faith. But three good, experienced pastors turned in
resignations and walked away. One left church ministry altogether. The
details are as different as the pastors themselves, but the common thread is
that they finally got worn down by trying to bring change to a church that was
stuck and didn't know what to do. Their churches were stuck and declining,
stuck and clinging to the past, stuck and lurching to quick fixes, trying to
find an easy answer for what were clearly bigger challenges. What all three churches
had in common was that they were mostly blaming the pastor for how bad it felt
to be stuck.
'If only you could preach better.'
'If only you were more pastoral and caring.'
'If only our worship was more dynamic.'
'Please, pastor, do something!' (That is what we pay you
for, isn't it?)
And to make matters worse, the pastors don't know what to do either. As a seminary vice-president I am now charged with confronting this reality head-on. Our graduates were not trained for this day. When I went to seminary, we were trained in the skills that were necessary for supporting faith in Christendom. When churches functioned primarily as vendors of religious services for a Christian culture, the primary leadership toolbox was: 1. TEACHING (for providing Christian education). 2. LITURGICS (for leading Christian services). 3. PASTORAL CARE (for offering Christian counsel and support). In this changing world we need to add a new set of leadership tools..."
If
you would like to know what those new and necessary tools are, you will need to
purchase his book for yourself! As a pastor who has lived long enough to
see Christendom progressively and purposefully deconstructed, and replaced at
almost every turn with secularized and post-Christian alternatives, it has been
stretching. I'm not one of the pastoral casualties he lists, but in all
honesty there have been times I have come pretty close. In fact, given those
statistics it may be time to start a "pastor support group" for those
who feel they are on the verge of being one of those 1500 pastors every month
who leave the ministry.
I
haven't had time to read far into his book, but I wanted to share the
introductory chapter so people can know there is a voice of encouragement from
someone who has his ear to the ground, and has himself been a pastor
ministering in our post-Christian culture. A culture where
traditional styles of leadership and ministry (which garnered much fruit in the
not-so-distant past) can actually be a hindrance and obstacle in the present.
His word to pastors - "Start with
conviction, stay calm, stay connected, and stay the course - even when
navigating loss."
Ministry
has always required people to, "run the race with
perseverance" (Hebrews 12:1-2). Yet today is one of those
cultural seasons or times when like a runner in a marathon on a hot and humid
day, people in ministry are encountering what in the Boston Marathon is called, "Heartbreak
Hill" -- a long gradual incline at the 20 mile mark. It's
a "grueling test of endurance" as one writer puts
it, which drives many to give up before the finish line. A place where
one must be mentally prepared, make adjustments, and persevere, or become a casualty.
If you happen to be at that place, maybe you might want to see what Bolsinger
has to say.
Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff
