www.thegospelcoalition.org
Pastor, Guard Your Church from Drift
If you’re going over a waterfall, you can see your impending peril. When you’re cascading down rapids, you know you need to brace and balance or you’ll be thrown overboard.
But the scary thing about drifting is that by the time it’s happened, it’s often too late to correct. The current has already carried you away from safety. That’s why when you’re white-water rafting, you need an experienced guide.
I think of this imagery when I talk to church leaders about the role they play in our cultural moment. My theme verse is Hebrews 2:1: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” The gospel is the church’s fixed point of orientation on the shore. Only by keeping our people focused on the gospel will they see how far they’ve drifted. Only then will they fight the current and change course—hopefully, before it’s too late.
Below, I offer two ways church members tend to drift today, and I present one solution: godly pastors centered on Jesus. At The Gospel Coalition, we want to be a pastor’s best friend. We want to cheer pastors on, to help them run their ministry course with endurance (Heb. 12:1). With constant reminders of the gospel, we want to help them fight against the currents that could lead their churches to disaster.
Church Members Are Distracted
Earlier this year, I talked to a respected, retired pastor who has spent decades in a Southern U.S. college town. I asked him how church ministry has changed over the years. I expected him to say something about social media. His answer was more prosaic: affluence.
American Christians earn and spend a lot more money now than they did in the mid-20th century. Affluence creates more opportunities for activities outside church. Sunday has become a day for travel, leisure, and sport rather than a day for rest and worship. Regular attendance has been revised down from four times a month to three, and now to between once or twice per month. Thanks to affluence, too many other engaging activities vie for our attention.
We want to cheer pastors on, to help them run their ministry course with endurance.
Youth travel sports wouldn’t be possible apart from affluence. Pursuing college athletic scholarships keeps increasing numbers of American families away from church. They’ve drifted from one kind of worship to another—from the worship of God to the vainglory of children’s games. Rarely do the decisions to participate start with that awareness. But the cultural currents take over, and families drift away from church and apart from one another as they’re pulled in competing directions down interstate highways into chain hotels.
Affluence also creates the leisure time that has enabled media’s overwhelming proliferation. If you don’t want to spend your Sunday morning on a soccer field, you can fit in a few Netflix shows or NFL games around brunch. I often feel like media is going to dump me in the frigid rushing rapids. I can’t keep up with, or avoid, the media deluge. And I’ll confess to sinful frustration when church prevents me from something so trivial as setting my fantasy football lineup. Frankly, the more I’m immersed in modern media, the stranger God’s Word sounds. That’s exactly why every church member needs God’s direct, prophetic Word every day—and especially from their pastors on Sunday.
Church Members Are Divided
I’m not sure if the bigger problem caused by media is distraction or division. They’re related, because many of our divisions are distractions, served up for voyeurs. The church beefs that attract so many eyeballs on social media remind me of Paul’s warning to Timothy against “myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith” (1 Tim. 1:4). These online arguments don’t edify the church or usually even affect our face-to-face local ministry. Yet our debates endure so long that they enrich the social media oligarchs who frame algorithms designed to enhance our divisions.
Some pastors have made their ministries about these online divisions. They spend so much time on social media that I can’t imagine how they can fulfill their primary ministry obligations. Preaching to social media feeds isn’t caring for souls. That isn’t what a divided church needs. Godly pastors instead direct the church’s attention toward Christ’s unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).
Remember, the talking heads don’t get paid to talk unless they can keep your and your people’s eyes away from Scripture, away from family, away from neighbors. The pundits divide so they can distract you from anyone but themselves. So when you’re online, look for people who will remind you what you’re missing offline. And be the kind of pastor who’s too busy caring about the church and the Scriptures to even know about the latest online controversies.
Pastors, Take Courage
Many pastors got the wrong idea about calling when they hopped in the river of ministry. They enjoyed the lazy river of positive responses when they talked about Jesus as a youth. Older adults affirmed them. Talking about Jesus and helping people seemed like a good life. Then came church jobs and seminary. Problem is, no one told them to expect the rapids. No one warned them about the waterfall around the bend. No one prepared them for lost friendships and betrayed confidences that would lead to the drifting in their heart, to Monday morning daydreaming about a job with better hours and better pay.
It’s hard to stay on course for a lifetime. Heeding the call to ministry is agreeing to take a kayak down the rapids, hoping there’s no waterfall at the end. As a pastor, you face many temptations to drift, not least your congregation’s expectations and your heart’s sinful inclinations.
The divisions and distractions on social media don’t help. One thousand pastors can be patient, kind, and mature. But the best-selling pastor who abused his congregation convinces some Christians they’ve found narcissists under every stole. Proper pastoral authority gets labeled as toxic. And maybe selling used cars doesn’t sound so bad after all, because no one subjects Buick dealers to such criticism.
As a pastor, you face many temptations to drift, not least your congregation’s expectations and your heart’s sinful inclinations.
There’s a fate worse than quitting and forsaking the call, however. Churches drift when, facing this scrutiny, their pastors mute their prophetic voices, when they censor Scripture to silence critics and protect a paycheck. Pastoral courage involves stepping into the pulpit prepared to preach the whole counsel of God, come what may. Only by following all of God’s Word can we protect the church from drift.
Stay the Course
Pastors are my heroes. Yes, the church has been beset by distraction and division. Yes, we can easily be discouraged. But amid the rocks and rapids of life, pastors have been invited to lead the way, to steer a course to safety. They must not waver. And though your course may lead to paddling over the waterfall, trust that God will somehow keep his promise when you crash.
God has called pastors down the same path of discipleship as every other Christian. Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:24–25). That old rugged cross on Calvary hill guides the way forward, the way home. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, he will hold us fast.
News Feed (Home)
Popular Posts 
Events 
Blog 
Market 
Forum 
Headline News
VidWatch
Game Zone
Top PodCasts
