When Pastors Weep

After investing eight years of hard service in a once impactful but now languishing church, the pastor buried his face in his hands and wept over the latest church crisis. He and his wife pursued every endeavor they knew to turn the ministry around but to no avail. Their latest hope for a change in the church’s trajectory lay aborted before them like a stillborn child. They grieved that an over-functioning lay leader had led a rebellion that robbed the church of what may have been its last chance for a fruitful future.

Scenes like the one I described have played out countless times in churches. Maybe you are a pastor, and you are weeping (or have wept) over your current situation. If so, you grieve in good company:

• Jeremiah grieved. In fact, Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet.” Why did he weep? Jeremiah wept over a population whose pride blinded it to its true condition (Jer. 13:17). He wept over its treachery, adultery, lying, evil acts, loss of trust in one another, slander, deceit, and deception (Jer. 9:1-6). Jeremiah wept because he knew captivity awaited Judah as a penalty for its sins (Jer. 22:10). You don’t have to be a prophet to grieve the outcome for modern-day congregations that demonstrate similar behavior and, sadly, many do.
• Jesus lamented over Jerusalem. He cried out, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” (Matt. 23:36-38) Jerusalem was not the last community of God’s people to harm one of His servants. Countless churches with an “unwilling, unbending spirit” have wounded innumerable shepherds. And as Jesus said, such ministries become spiritually “desolate” because of their harmful actions.
• John the Baptist cried out “Make straight the way of the Lord!” (Matt. 3:3) Maybe you weep over your church or even your denomination because it has lost its way and you want to cry out, “Let’s get back on the right path!” But no one listens, no one responds, and no one repents. Instead of becoming straight, the ways of the Lord among your tribe become more crooked not less. That is worth weeping over!
• The wife of Phineas the priest screamed “Ichabod!” She heard the news that the ark of God had been taken captive and with her dying breath she bewailed that God’s glory departed from Israel. How many Christian ministries have graduated to “Ichabod” status? Those with eyes to see grieve with heavy hearts and eyes wet with tears.

There is great hope for languishing ministries that hear from Jesus about their true condition and respond to Him. However, we must acknowledge that Jesus still snuffs out candlesticks. It honors the Lord when we join Him in grief, when we share in that aspect of “the fellowship of His sufferings” over such final solutions. For while no church or Christian organization is guaranteed eternal life, we all feel the pain of any once-fruitful ministry’s demise – especially if we once shared in or led that ministry.

Perhaps if more pastors wept over the true condition of their ministries, instead of trying to prop them up, we might gain such a consciousness of the true state of the Church that we would begin to beg God for a new move of His Spirit in our midst. And a new move of God’s Spirit is certainly worthy of our “strong cries and tears.”

Mark Barnard serves with Blessing Point Ministries which helps churches find healing from painful crises. If your ministry is in pain, consider reading Healing the Heart of Your Church by Dr. Kenneth Quick (amazon) or contact us at [email protected].