Leading Without Thinking: The Silent Crisis in Church Leadership

One of the challenges of working in a local church, and from what I’m finding out about every level of leadership, is there is so much to do, no leader has the time to think about things. There’s no time to look at trends, numbers, and future opportunities and challenges. Every day is so crammed with things that must be done, there’s no time to think about anything else. This is doubly true for those who lead local churches. 

On the one hand, the pastor has to respond to the daily needs of the church. There are meetings about personnel, finances, worship planning added to responding to the needs of new members and those who are in some kind of pastoral care crisis. A sermon can take anywhere from ten to twenty hours a week to prepare and depending on the week, pastoral care can take a few hours a week to every day of the week. Add a marriage and a few kids to the pastor’s life and before you know it, we have a very full life. 

Now, add to that the shifting sand of reality and truth in our culture. In our society, truth is no longer considered the bedrock on which we build our lives. Every person constructs their own truth and that truth changes with the situations and circumstances of the individual’s life. What makes this so interesting is that on any given Sunday, the pews are filled with people adjusting and shifting their understanding of truth in light of the demands of their current lifestyles. 

What do I mean? Here are a few examples. A couple is rethinking their views on homosexuality after their son has declared himself to be gay. Their son has announced he is getting married to the man he is now dating. The mother and father are trying to figure out if they should go to the wedding. If they go, what does that mean? If they don’t go, can they live with the consequences? The answer may seem obvious, but it’s not that easy. 

A young woman has always dreamed of being a mom and now she’s pregnant. The problem is she’s only 18 and in her second year of college. She wants to go to med school and having a baby would end that dream. She’s always been pro-life, but now…

All of these individuals and so many more are sitting in our congregations every Sunday. Sure, we know what the talk show pundits say. We know what the YouTube preachers would say, but they don’t have to live with these people after the decisions are made. We do. We’re called to walk with our people in good times and bad times, in the dark seasons and in the seasons of joy. It’s not that easy. We can’t just say, “This is right and this is wrong.” Our truth has to be strong enough to build our lives on and withstand the destructive force of the ground shifting underneath our feet. Our truth has to be strong enough to guide us through the valleys of death’s shadow.

Most of the time, our personal truths aren’t strong enough to do that. That’s why we have to keep changing them all the time. They fail. They break. Something in our lives changes and our personal truth is no longer relevant or valid. So, we have to change our truth and find something that works until that truth breaks and we have to start all over again. 

So, how does a pastor deal with these shifting realities and fluid truth? Pastors have to have time to think. We have to schedule at least one block of time every week where we think about an issue – and we need the time to think about an issue all the way through.  I know this is asking a lot, but we don’t want to be stopped by a church member in the sanctuary on Sunday morning and asked a question and that BE THE FIRST TIME WE’VE THOUGHT ABOUT IT.

Our answers in that moment are rarely what our friends need or what we really think about any given situation. 

First, we have to decide in what framework will we form our answer? I’m assuming if you’re reading this, your framework will be some version of the Judeo-Christian worldview. With that, what does Scripture say about the issue before us? If you’re dealing with sexuality, what does the Bible say about being a man? A woman? Marriage and parenting? How can those truths be applied and lived out in our postmodern culture?

Second, what does this teaching require us to do? Application means action. How does this truth require me to live? How does it inform my relationships to others? When we’re faced with the issue in question, how will we respond? How will we lead our churches to respond?

Schedule the time. Do the work before the question is asked. We don’t want that moment to be the first time we’ve thought about it.