Lessons from Churches in Pain

Over the past year, we have had the opportunity to work with several ministries that were in pain or had been stymied by crises. The pain these ministries experienced took different forms. In some, it was leadership immorality; in others it was congregational friction, or staff conflict, or numerical decline that led them to reach out to us at Blessing Point Ministries. But, in each case, the identified problem in the present was tied to deep historical causes, causes that the church did not know they needed to address before the present issues could be resolved. We always see this pattern. I want to share four of causes of ministry pain in this post and another four in the next. My hope is that your church will avoid these missteps. Or, if you have already experienced (or are experiencing) them, I hope you will address with them as needed.

Cause 1: Lean on Business Acumen instead of Spiritual Leadership. In our culture where “success” is glorified, it is easy for “successful people” in modern secular business, the military, or politics to find their way into the thinking of church leaders. However, there is a vast difference between spiritual and business leadership. We start to “lean on our own understanding”, like Joshua when he failed to pray about the Gibeonites (Josh. 9). Church leaders who lean on human wisdom instead of the Spirit’s leading end up facing congregational backlash when God disciplines them for their lack of spiritual sensitivity. The church is not a franchise, company, or even a nonprofit organization. It is a spiritual entity that requires constant communication and dependence on the Lord.  Failing this, ministries find themselves detached from their Head and acting on their own, often without realizing it.

Cause 2: Pride about the Ministry. Most churches start out small and struggling. If they survive the start-up phase and grow, overtime they may become a flagship ministry. Other churches look up to them for their methodology or secretly envy their success. When that flagship ministry starts to delight in its reputation, or gets a “brand,” the next easy step is to make an idol of their ministry. Leaders start to be more conscious of their brand than God’s glory or, worse, start to equate the two! The Lord may take away their resources to humble them. He does not overlook pride in churches any more than He overlooks pride in His people (Deut. 9:4). We all know the value of humility in the Christian life, what sometimes goes overlooked is corporate humility. We have seen too many churches experience congregational pain resulting from Divine discipline over protecting their ministry’s reputation rather than the truth about what’s really going on.

Cause 3: Ignore Church Discipline: One church we worked with struggled for twelve years. I naively asked them if something happened twelve years ago that might have led to their hampered efforts. The room went quiet. Everyone knew that they were actively ignoring a church discipline issue that started twelve years earlier. Because of their neglect, the problem became entrenched in the church and spread through family relationships, making it harder and harder to address the problem. That did not seem to matter to God. He hindered their ministry, while church leaders neglected their duty to protect the body from an unhealthy influence. This resulted in a spirit of control as key leaders refused to address the problem. Thyatira (Rev. 2) knew all about this kind of pain.

Cause 4: Ignore Elephants in the Room: From my experience, many churches ignore what they desperately need to talk about because they are afraid of pain, shame, or blame. We should call such church buildings “elephant sanctuaries” instead of “worship sanctuaries.” Imagine elephants strolling around your sanctuary on a Sunday morning during worship. Yet that is often the case! Sometimes leaders do not want to talk about known conflict because avoidance is how they learned to deal with conflict (or not deal with it) growing up. Other times new leaders are unaware of what went on before they took office and don’t realize pachyderm problems exist. And sometimes there are secrets, deadly ones, which some know, and others don’t. A failure of leadership “nerve” keeps things “hush hush.” “Elephants in the room” are often related to “skeletons in the closet” and stuff “swept under the carpet.” The metaphors are plentiful when leaders don’t talk about what they NEED to talk about. All the while compromising God’s blessing on their ministry.

Assess your ministry context to see if any of these four causes of ministry pain are impacting your spiritual work and worship.

Rev. Mark Barnard serves with Blessing Point Ministries and is the author of Diagnosing the Heart of Your Church: How Church Leaders Can Assess Systemic Corporate Dysfunction.