Staying Strong on the Inside

I have no desire to be a caretaker pastor.

If you don't know what a caretaker pastor is, then let me explain. It's a term for a pastor who simply takes care of the people in the church and does not worry about being innovative, evangelistic, or doing anything that might rock the boat. Caretaker pastors generally keep the people in the church happy rather than trying to make strides to grow the church in a significant way.

Generally, this term is applied to older pastors near retirement. They see the end in sight and so they concentrate on keeping things quiet in the church. No conflict means a smooth ride out of the church and into retirement. I've seen it too many times.

Often it means that the church is slowly dying. The pastor, rather than rescue the church, is content with keeping members happy. Happiness and peace often means more than growth and evangelistic efforts.

I get it. Churches all over America are dying. More will close this week. It's easy to fall into the trap of just taking care of the people in the building and doing your best to hold on to what you have. The truth is most churches rarely nosedive. Their death and decline in gradual as first leaders, and then the congregation focus on keeping the status quo instead of shaking up the establishment.

I have no desire to be a caretaker pastor.

Now, the statistics are startling. In 10 years, the average age of a pastor has gone up 10 years. What that statistic tells us is that we're not gaining a lot of new, younger pastors. The pastors we have are simply growing older. Similarly, 6 out of 10 millennials are leaving the church. So we're not doing a good job of retaining young people period.

What's the answer?

Well, that's a good question. Many people have written entire books on that subject. I wish I had the one thing that could solve that problem.

I do know what isn't the answer. Giving in to the pressure to ignore scriptural truths. Right now, outside of the church, culture is pressuring the church to surrender Biblical authority. They are pressuring the church to value acceptance and feelings over truth and God's standards.

That in turn is leading to internal pressure. Many church leaders are advising churches to turn a blind eye to scriptural authority. They encourage pastors to preach a softer Gospel that emphasizes love and distances itself from sin. They argue we must secure young people for the church and the Bible hinders that.

Paul talks about this very thing in Philippians 1:27-2:4. He warns the Philippians (and us) to endure the outside pressure by being unified by the truth within the walls of the church. We, as Christians, cannot withstand the persecution of the church if we're too busy destroying ourselves from within.

And let's face it, we can be really good at that.

So Paul encourages us to stand strong and to stand united. Only when we unite behind Biblical principles can we start to make a difference. Only then can we endure and stand the trials.