Verse
“The heart is more deceitful than all else
(Jeremiah 17:9 LSB)
And is desperately sick;
Who can know it?
It’s an insight with life-and-death implications. Jeremiah relates our impure desires as naturally emanating from the heart like blood. The metaphor is apt. The heart is the center of our being, the most important organ in the body. You can be brain-dead and live. If your heart stops, your life can’t continue. Our dependent relationship with the human heart leads us to trust it implicitly, even while it’s leading us astray.
Our physical heart is dependable, beating between 60 and 100 times per minute. Poets would say the same about the metaphorical heart. “Follow your intuition, your gut instinct, which is the basis of your individuality.” Jeremiah cautions no, our judgment is clouded by sin. The end result is always idolatry.
One’s heart can be repaired, renewed. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17.) And yet, the Apostle Paul warns us the heart of the “old man” is a continual threat to progress. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” (Romans 7:18.) It’s a constant battle of sanctification. As John Piper writes, “Jeremiah 17:9 is true of the human heart — all of them,” and yet, “[a] new nature is brought into being.”
The struggling church
The American church has heart issues. In fact, we’ve all heard the quips:
“Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
“If you find a perfect church, don’t join. You’ll ruin it.”
We smile at these statements. We know the reason the church isn’t perfect. The battle over the Christian heart rages in each one of us, even on Sunday morning. Where heart passions rule, there’s a clash of personalities and agendas. The general public agrees the church is filled with imperfections.
In 2023, the Gallup company reported a dire development. US church membership reached its lowest point since reporting began. For the first time since 1937, the number was below fifty percent. None of us are surprised.
“Religious affiliation: none” is rising, and churches are closing. In a trend that predates the pandemic, NPR reports that in 2019, 4,500 churches shuttered in the US, against 3,000 opening. Five years earlier, the trend was in the positive direction, revealing a marked decline. From 2007 to 2021, The Pew Center reported that Christian affiliation decreased by fifteen percent.
Even a generation ago, many wanted to go to church. “I know I should go,” someone might say to an invitation. “It would be good for me.” Today, the sentiment is different. “Oh, no way. It’s the last thing I would want to do’.”
It’s been assumed the American church will thrive. Now, the question is worth asking: Will the visible church survive another few generations?
Personal experience
No study or survey can pinpoint what’s wrong with the church—or even if anything is wrong. A pastor may quote the prophecy that Christianity ultimately will be rejected: “And at that time many will fall away” (Matthew 24:10).
Prophecies are often cited prematurely. Anyone who attends church can see unrealized potential. The modern church does many things poorly, even unbiblically. It can’t say, “Well, I guess we’re in the rejection phase of history.”
Without setting out to be, I’ve become a study and a survey of one. Having attended church for over twenty-five years, I’ve seen more than my fair share. I lived in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon for two decades working as a writer. I’ve attended multiple churches in each city.
Being a writer leaves you mostly penniless and yet rich in observations. I’ve been in the church pew for nearly three decades of Sunday mornings. I believe I know some of what ails the church. I offer the following suggestions:
Leadership
The Protestant Church’s “Catholic” issue
The modern church is led by men with heart problems. It’s entirely Biblical to acknowledge. Of course, these men are allowed the grace to be imperfect. And yet, they must recognize their fallibility. It doesn’t happen often enough.
Church leaders’ heart problems are on full display when they receive feedback or, as they see it, criticism. I’ve interacted with pastors in different churches, cities, and parts of the country. In nearly every case, pastors are defensive when given suggestions—no matter how quietly they’re shared.
What you hear in reply is: “We don’t do it that way.” The others mentioned would be the church elders. Together, this inner circle has prayed about how the church should be run. The style and message you live with is the result of “much prayerful deliberation.” Therefore, outside voices are irrelevant.
It’s a Catholic reply. The Catholic Church believes its priests are a stand-in for Christ. They know God’s will because they have direct access, and we don’t. It’s a logical argument, and yet unbiblical. The Protestant pastor would quickly admit, “We’re all the same. If we seek Him, God draws near to us.”
And so, why do Protestant pastors so often reject ideas? Why do they betray irritation at being questioned? It’s a common heart problem. They want the same level of control as the Catholic priests we broke away from. When Martin Luther posted his protestations to the door of the Catholic Church in 1517, he started a freedom movement. No longer were parishioners second-class citizens. Everyone recognized they were ministers of the Gospel.
Good luck finding a Protestant church that believes it and shares the reins of church direction. If you talk to a senior pastor, wait for the most pious version of, “Hands off, it’s mine.” You’ll be invited to volunteer for his vision.
The Protestant Church’s “Captain Kirk” issue
Senior pastors don’t listen because they’re busy playing a leadership role.
Growing up in the 1970s, I idolized William Shatner’s Captain Kirk. As a young Trekkie, I caught reruns every day after school. Later, I saw that Kirk was an archetypal Christian leader: inspiring, ingenious, and decisive. He pushed everyone but respected their skills. He pointed to the virtue of duty (toward Starfleet, his church). Everyone naturally wanted to follow. This was true even of people with greater abilities, such as Spock. Kirk had leadership.
After becoming a Christian, I understood humanity’s need for a strong, decisive leader. That role is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Standing in for the part on earth is the senior pastor who has been a model of Christ for centuries.
It’s as if we’re back fighting off Catholicism. The senior pastor’s role is not described in the Bible. It’s traditional, serving a human purpose. Many older Christians like a head pastor who is “their guy,” the point man who gives the church a face and identity. The senior pastor is a comforting voice. He keeps church familiar as the months and years go by. He facilitates weddings and funerals. You can’t help but idealize a good senior pastor, and why not?
Others say the senior pastor is a vanity position that distracts us from the church’s purpose. Why isn’t this role in the Bible? Because God designed the church to be identified with a single person: Christ. When anyone assumes an intermediary role, it breaks the harmony the church is meant for. How often have we heard, “I visited that church, but I didn’t like the senior pastor, so I went somewhere else.” A church that gave its authority to a fallible man with a heart problem made his personality and teaching style a litmus test. As many parishioners prefer their guy in the pulpit, there are many or more who tolerate the senior pastor’s idiosyncrasies to hear the Gospel preached.
Chalk it up to the internet’s information flow, but we don’t need our hands held by a senior pastor as in generations past. It could be argued that we need fewer leaders in our lives. A societal trend involves a more horizontal organizational structure. Businesses are run with managers sharing an office in the same cluster as workers. It’s a principle straight from the Book of Acts.
Back to Star Trek, many modern fans dislike Captain Kirk. They see him as overbearing, presumptuous, and predictable. He nearly always saves the day and steals the limelight. I think the criticism is misplaced. Kirk was a leader in a military organization. In church, however, a senior pastor isn’t a boss but a man with blind spots like the rest. Often, the congregation sucks up to him or feels it needs to. The senior pastor’s vanities are part of the equation when interacting with him. He’s a distraction mainly because he isn’t Christ.
Do we need the ceremony of a middleman whose ministerial ticks, stories, and Biblical explanations will be, understandably, limited? He is only one man. However good he is, he will eventually wear out his welcome with most.
Too much power
What happens when the senior pastor isn’t good? What if he ticks all the boxes, is a suitable preacher and a charming leader, but he’s a man of questionable character or ability? Following are the ugly facts of the matter.
Here is a (real) list of senior pastors at churches I’ve personally attended:
• One senior pastor (with a Christian apologetics bestseller) was removed from his church for alleged emotional abuse of church staff.
• One senior pastor (of the flagship church in the denomination) was removed for an alleged adulterous affair that made headlines in New York.
• Three senior pastors taught a false Gospel that took time to uncover from the pews. One left the church to become a social worker, while the two others continue to run major churches that dupe Christians with false teachings.
• One senior pastor took over a city church and quickly embraced false teaching, causing his church to lose its denominational status.
• One senior pastor was forced to quit after a lengthy internal battle.
• One senior pastor refused to leave until after half the congregation left.
Ninety percent of the senior pastors at churches I’ve called home had scandals or serious issues. Each of these pastors met the official criteria. They had divinity degrees. They were interviewed multiple times by a praying congregation. Often, they saw explosive growth before their downfalls. In every case, there was an appearance of success, of following the Lord’s will.
A senior pastoral issue always leads to collateral damage involving vulnerable people. Faith is shaken. People leave the church, sometimes for good. All because they followed tradition where a man leads others who are his equal?
Re-evaluate the senior pastor role
The suggestions here involve radical proposals for fixing the church problem. If the American church truly is facing extinction, then any reasonable remedy should be examined carefully. There are notable exceptions where a senior pastor is empowering and collaborative, and yet, there are numerous examples of the position being a problem. It’s biblically questionable, practically inconvenient, and culturally unpopular, and reduces the congregation to bystanders—crew members aboard the starship Enterprise.
In its place emerges a rotation of elder preachers. It’s remarkable how the Christian church pays one man to do a function that many would do for free. Church elders work regular jobs and volunteer their time to the church. In congregations without a senior pastor, elders preach as infrequently as once per month. They have met the Biblical criteria for leadership. They have a strong knowledge of the Bible, and many of them are competent preachers.
Instead of enduring the same anecdotes from a senior pastor, the congregation can hear a variety of styles and points from its elders. No one man can replicate the teachings of Christ. It’s ludicrous to try. Only a group of men preaching the Word can approach a single Christ message.
Most beneficial is the relevance a working man brings to the pulpit. The senior pastor is sequestered behind church walls. His entire life is the church, and he’s forgotten the real-world stresses of his congregation. Elders live the same life as those who attend. Many spiritual problems come from the daily lives of working people and the stewardship one faces with children. An elder who preaches once per month will bring this perspective with him.
A movement away from the senior pastor is occurring toward an elder-led congregation. Even further is a congregational-led model where elders are de-emphasized for church-wide decisions. The book, Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism describes this paradigm. In both cases, congregants reclaim their status as active participants in the process.
Pondering the reality of a post-senior pastor church brings with it several takeaways. One is bewilderment that we submitted to a Captain Kirk model. Another is intrigue. The Acts church was constructed this way. We can follow in the footsteps of the early church without a traditional CEO leader getting in the way. How much closer to Christ does this new paradigm bring us?
Vision
Vitamins vs Medicine
The modern pastor’s message is often a life-coach model: “Here are the important ways you can get closer to Christ.” It’s a worthy effort and a hundred times better than any health and wealth gospel. And yet, this practical message of improving for Christ omits important information.
“You can have a better life and eternal assurance” is a biblical reality but incomplete. The problem is the passivity it suggests. Many people feel they can live without God’s love, and many have been doing it all their lives.
The consequence of rejecting God’s love is designed to get our attention. Modern pastors are loathed to explain God’s judgment, which is seen as demotivating in the life coach model. And yet, Christ gave this message.
According to Scripture, rejecting God has eternal consequences. The seminal message on this subject is a very old sermon by Jonathan Edwards. It’s admittedly culturally inappropriate today. Modern pastors may never go this far to express their concern for those who lack understanding of God’s redemptive message. And yet, the content of the sermon is no less important than it was when Jonathan Edwards preached it in 1741.
An elder with a full-time job is more likely to share this kind of message with congregants. He has no professional reputation to protect. Jonathan Edwards understood the mentality of essentials vs. non-essentials. Today, the marketing community describes it as medicine vs. vitamins. If you can live without something, it’s a vitamin. If you can’t, it’s medicine. A senior pastor prefers to talk about vitamins whenever possible to keep things simple.
Christ is a medicine. His remedy is life-saving. The alternative is serious.
Realignment
The modern church is living in two realities. It professes Christ while following a semi-humanistic model to further the kingdom. The general public is not persuaded. It senses a level of duplicity and charitable artifice. Only the truth of Christ inspires the ear to listen. When a modern pastor gauges the appropriateness of a message against its truthfulness, his message arrives compromised.
A change to an unpaid elder model frees the church to better hear the truth.
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