The Weight of Leadership

Hebrews 13:17-19

Charles Galbreath, a pastor of Alliance Tabernacle in Brooklyn, NY, (along with two other congregations … he pastors three churches in three different states (New York, Maryland, and New Jersey) tells the story of a black man who was gunned down by police in his neighborhood. As you can imagine, anger seethed in the neighborhood. Frustration from years of racial oppression was about to erupt in violence. Many people lined up to march down the main street while police gathered, expecting violence.

Charles and a group of pastors rushed to the gathering place and found themselves caught in the middle between the police and the people. Tensions were rising. Insults were being hurled across the divide. One side picked up rocks, the other side clutched their guns. The pastors feared for their lives; bullets could fly at any moment.

Galbreath said that some of the pastors spontaneously walked into the middle of the street between the two parties, bowed their heads, and started to pray. They implored God to visit this place. As Charles tells it, slowly the tension died down, the people put down the rocks, and the police took their hands off their holsters. Those who cared stayed. And without a shot fired or rock thrown, conversations began and God’s presence appeared that night in that community. It was the beginning of something new God was doing to bring justice and reconciliation to that street corner.[i]

Now, it didn’t have to be pastors who went out into the street between the police and the people and prayed. Any group of Christ-followers listening to his voice in this moment could have done that, and the result would have been the same. But in this case, it was a group of pastors seeking God and crying out to God on behalf of their community.

And as I read that story this week, my first thought was … de-escalating potential violence – there’s another thing those pastors had to do that I’m pretty sure wasn’t covered in a class when they were in seminary. Church leadership is tough. Whether you’re in vocational ministry as a lead pastor or assistant pastor, youth or children’s pastor, elder, deacon, or worship leader, leading in a church can be a challenge. It can be really rewarding. It can also be really challenging.

So we’re nearing the end of our journey through the written sermon that is the New Testament book of Hebrews. A sermon written to encourage a small, struggling church of mostly Jewish Christians in or near Rome as they encountered rising persecution because of their faith in Jesus. A faith that, as it does today, often ran counter too the culture they found themselves in. And the overarching message is a simple one – you CAN hang on to Jesus through the storms of life, because even in death, he will not let you down.

And the pastor winds down by reminding them, and us, of the burden of church leadership and how we as followers of Jesus can support and encourage and draw strength from those called by God to lead our churches. Turn with me to Hebrews 13:17-19.

1. Kent Hughes says that “pastors as a group are one of the most hurting and abused segments of our society.” Now, that might sound self-serving, because he is a pastor himself. But in 1987, he and his wife together authored a book entitled Liberating Ministry From The Success Syndrome, intended to encourage pastors and ministry workers, over 80% of whom minister in small towns, villages, and rural places. Places where big and fancy and well-paid isn’t possible. And as soon as their book hit the shelves, they began to get invitations to speak to groups of pastors and ministry workers around the country. And as they did that, they had conversation after conversation with ministers leading in less visible places.

So after that initial, jarring quote, “pastors as a group are one of the most hurting and abused segments of our society,” he goes on to say this. “This is not an isolated observation. Bill Waldrop, who was executive director of Advancing Churches and Missions Commitment (ACMC), and his wife, Doris, in their wide travels on behalf of church missions have witnessed the same thing. The four of us have shared our observations with one another at some length.

Perhaps the reason we see this so much is that as interlopers we are “safe” to talk to. We are not part of our listeners’ denominations, we do nut run in their circles, we have few mutual acquaintances, and best of all, we will be gone shortly afterwards! So, very often after a few congenial remarks a pastor and wife will ask to “talk,” and we hear it all – and much of it would tax the credulity of the uninitiated.[ii]

But don’t take their word for it. Denominations and researchers have been gathering data on ministry for years. Here are the current statistics.

• Depending on the study, between 67-91% of pastors experience burn-out. Basically 70-90%.
• 75% report feeling extremely or highly stressed
• 24% report considering quitting
• Only 11% rate their mental and emotional health as excellent
• 18% have considered self-harm
• 95% work 55-75 hours per week
• 70% say they do not have a good marriage
• 65% feel like their family is in a glass house
• 80% believe their pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families and 33% said it was an outright hazard
• 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend
• 85% have never taken a Sabbatical
• 80% will not be in ministry ten years from now. On average, seminary trained pastors last only five years in church ministry.
• Only 10-20% of pastors will remain in ministry long enough to make it to retirement with ministry as their lifelong career. 50% leave the ministry altogether in the first 5 years. By 10 years, 80% have left the ministry.

What makes it so tough? Of course, a lot of it has to do with being broken, sinful human beings. Pastors are broken, and so are people. That makes relationships hard. Marriage is hard. Families are hard. Friendships are hard. Work relationships are hard. Maintaining good relationships takes work. Intentional effort. And when things do get off track, most of us aren’t very good at repairing. Saying I’m sorry. Saying I forgive you. And really meaning either.

And there’s the pressure of leading in the kingdom of God, which is, by definition, a counter-cultural kingdom. Life in the kingdom of God flies in the face of every culture the world has ever known, whether that culture is primarily liberal or conservative, a democracy or socialist or communist or a benevolent or not-so-benevolent dictatorship.

But there are several modern factors that make it tough, even in a free country like the United States. One is our modern access to Christian media. If you have a phone or a computer (and who doesn’t these days?), you have access to the elite biblical teachers. The top handful of Christian teachers, and of course they only put their best stuff out there, and it’s highly edited, with emotional images and music placed in the background at just the right point after the fact. The typical local pastor just can’t measure up to that. But that doesn’t mean they can’t teach the Word of God and teach it well.

There’s also a big business mentality that the church as a whole has swallowed hook, line, and sinker. That mentality reduces everyone else to “the competition,” and that’s how we view other churches, instead of viewing them as another part of the whole in our community, with each part playing it’s own unique role. And that view reduces us all into two groups, the “haves” and the “have nots.” Big fish and small fish. And everyone wants their church to be one of the big fish.

And it measures success the same way the business world measures success – numbers. Primarily attendance numbers, budget numbers, and facility square footage numbers. But it completely ignores the measures of success that matter to God – lives transformed by the good news of Jesus. People actually following Jesus. And you can’t measure that using number-based metrics. You can develop a great business plan and strategy that looks great in the business world and leaves the Holy Spirit and the power of God completely out of the equation. And God is calling us out of that mentality today.

And of course there have been many high profile (and lower profile) Christian leaders who have made big mistakes. Leaders involved in financial mismanagement, or inappropriate relationships, or who go on power trips and spiritually abuse the congregations they were called to shepherd. And that makes all of us suspicious of any pastor.

So how are we, as followers of Jesus, supposed to relate to those called by God to lead in the body of Christ? Look at V. 17. Obey and submit. Now, I can see you squirming. So let me make something absolutely clear. This is not an unqualified, blanket kind of obedience. This is not a “you have to do whatever the pastor says” kind of obedience. It is a call to have an obedient heart.

Followers of Christ are called to submit to all forms of legitimate authority. But that doesn’t mean we are called to follow any authority into living in ways that contradict the will of God or basic morality. And true morality never contradicts the will of God. Healthy leaders in the body of Christ don’t go on power trips, controlling people and micromanaging every part of their lives. Leaders who do that ignore the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of others and, truth be told, don’t trust the Holy Spirit to be at work in the lives of others.

I’ve actually seen churches who insist on their members going to church while on vacation, and only at a church in their vacation destination pre-approved by their pastor. I’ve seen churches require all members to submit their tax information to the church annually to make sure that everyone is tithing. That’s the 10% that we are supposed to give to God for the work of the church and the wages of those who lead the church. That’s a leader, or group of leaders, on a power trip. Forcing everyone into their mold. We don’t blindly obey.

Instead, as the Word of God is taught – whether it’s in worship on Sunday, or in a small group or Bible study, or in a one-on-one session with a pastor or teacher or elder – we search the Word of God for ourselves to see if what we’re being told is in alignment with the whole council of the Word of God.

We’re like the Bereans in Acts 17:10-11. “The brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” They didn’t just take Paul and Silas’ word for it, even though they were Paul and Silas. They studied themselves. Looked things up for themselves. And then, because Paul and Silas were speaking the truth, they responded and began to follow Christ.

We aren’t talking about blind obedience, but we are talking about obedient hearts. And just because our pastor preaches something that goes against our own core beliefs, that doesn’t automatically mean he or she is wrong. Healthy teachers study the Bible diligently and wrestle with the Word of God, living it out in their own lives, even if they’d rather not. And that before they ever stand up in the pulpit to deliver the message. They aren’t perfect, and they aren’t without sin. But the good ones do wrestle with the Word of God themselves deeply before they teach it to others.

You know, if you’re on the operating table, you don’t want your surgeon to say to a nurse, “Hand me one of them sharp thingamajigs.” You want him to have a specific name for a specific tool to perform a specific job.

Words matter. The medical field has distinctive terminology by which it carefully defines diseases, medicines, instruments, and the like. When it comes to our bodies, we have very high expectations of our doctors. They better know what they’re talking about.

We should expect no less – indeed, far more – when it comes to pastors, priests, and teachers of the Word of God. They handle the word of truth. They minister to body, soul, and mind. They better know what they’re talking about. We don’t want to hear from them, “Now that divine power is doing some religious stuff in you.” Precision in language is necessary. We want God’s Word unapologetically, lovingly, and carefully proclaimed to us.[iii]

That takes a lot of work. So we would all do well to listen carefully whether we’re in a worship service, or a Bible study, or a small group. Seeking to apply the truth of God’s Word in our lives, allowing it to penetrate deeply, into our hearts.

We need to understand that healthy pastors (who are still broken) take their teaching seriously because we will be held accountable before God for our teaching. That doesn’t mean we can’t look at Scripture with fresh eyes and seek to separate Scripture from the cultural lenses we so often view it through. And some of those cultural lenses go back centuries. We can and should be willing to have challenging conversations in areas where Scripture has been mistaught and misunderstood, even if that misunderstanding goes back centuries.

No follower of Christ, who has placed their faith in Christ and who seeks to follow him, will be judged for their sin, because the judgment for their sin was taken by Jesus on himself on the cross. No one who has placed their faith in Christ and who finishes the race in Christ can lose their eternal life with Christ. But we will all still be judged, and rewarded, according to our works.

And the Bible is clear that those who teach will be held to an extremely high standard, judged more harshly, than those who do not teach. Pastors will answer to God for the condition of the souls of those God gave them to shepherd. Obedient hearts recognize that and seek to really follow Jesus, to ease their burden and make their life of ministry one with more joy and less grief.

Now, look at Vv. 18-19. As we allow God to cultivate obedient hearts in us, we begin to pray for our leaders. We pray for them when things seem to be going well for them, and we pray for them when they are under spiritual attack. We pray not just for the Holy Spirit to work through them in leading our church, but that God will bless them and their families, that God will give them rest and refreshment.

How many of us pray for our pastors and elders and church staff members daily? When we pray for them daily, we stop judging them so much and we develop empathy for them and seek to ease their burdens rather than add to them. Because we understand that they do carry a heavy burden indeed.

Some of that burden is the result of our modern culture. Some of it comes from the fact that the body of Christ is by definition a counter-cultural movement in all cultures in all times and in all places. And some of that burden comes because we want pastors who perform well and entertain us, rather than pastors who challenge us with the truth of the Word of God. One pastor I knew used to tell his congregation, “If you pray me full during the week, I’ll preach you full on Sunday.”

In his book Building a Church of Small Groups, Bill Donahue tells a story from his time as a part-time youth pastor while he was attending seminary. He was visiting a farm where two of his students lived, and their father decided to teach Bill a lesson:

He asked if I could help call in the sheep. I enthusiastically agreed. Sheep-calling was like preaching. We stood at the pasture fence, watching 25 sheep graze.

“Go ahead,” he dared me. “Call them in.”

“What do you say?” I asked.

“I just say, ‘Hey, sheep! C’mon in!’”

No sweat, I thought. A city kid with a bad back and hay fever could do this. I began in a normal speaking voice, but Tom interrupted. “You are 75 yards away, down wind, and they have their backs to you. Yell! Use your diaphragm, like they teach you in preaching class.”

So I took a deep breath and put every inch of stomach muscle into a yell that revival preachers around the world would envy: “Hey, sheep! C’mon in!” The blessed creatures didn’t move an inch. None even turned an ear.

Tom smiled sarcastically. “Do they teach you the Bible in that seminary? Have you ever read, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’?” Raising his voice only slightly, he said: “Hey, sheep! C’mon in!” All 25 sheep turned and ambled toward us. Tom seized this teachable moment.

“Now, don’t you ever forget,” he said. “You are the shepherd to my kids.”[iv]

Being a shepherd in the body of Christ is both a high calling and a heavy burden. We all need to ask God to cultivate obedient hearts within us, and we all need to seek to develop the regular habit of praying for the pastors and elders, the youth and children’s pastors, and the worship leaders God has called to shepherd us. Let’s pray.

[i] Adapted from David Fitch, Seven Practices for the Church on Mission (IVP Praxis, 2018), pages 124-125

[ii] R. Kent Hughes. Hebrews.

[iii] Chad Bird, “What is Sanctification? Revisiting the Old Testament for the Answer” 1517 blog (2-28-21)

[iv] Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson, Building a Church of Small Groups (Zondervan, 2001), p. 106-107