Three Key Factors in Facing the Challenges of Today’s Church

Church leadership faces unprecedented challenges in our lifetime. 

The last several years have tested leaders in unforeseen ways, confronting us with new issues and a tumultuous environment we could not have prepared ourselves to face. The most significant stressors for current church leaders are North America’s cultural divide and societal unrest. To move forward, we must understand these challenges and develop solutions. In the new church leadership landscape, there are three key factors to consider:

• The complexity of the challenges we face.
• The need for new leadership skills.
• The importance of adapting to a changing context.

1. A complex challenge

Today, North American society is more suspicious of leaders and institutions of all varieties than ever before, including suspicion of church leaders. Our society is not new to being wary of authority and institutions. While a general bent toward questioning authority lays at the very foundation of American society, the social and political tumult of the 1960s and 1970s cemented a natural distrust in the American worldview. The high-profile clergy scandals of the 1980s turned that suspicion toward church leaders­­––a suspicion that current cultural shifts, subsequent scandals, and widespread social media use have all amplified.

This makes it difficult for everyday pastors trying to navigate their congregations through the headwinds of headlines. Tim Keller’s tweets are interesting to watch. While Keller is a well-known church leader, people have characterized his ministry as anything but “controversial.” Yet the responses to his tweets over the last couple of years serve as an example of content that people have accepted in the past but now receive mixed reactions despite often being the exact quotes he shared a couple of years apart. Any church leader could likely repost from their Facebook or Twitter archives and receive similar results.

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, the No. 1 Christian podcast, highlights the prevalence and ramifications of bad leadership in the Christian community. This heightened awareness of poor leadership contributes to greater suspicion and wariness of trusting Christian leaders. This creates a challenging context for leaders navigating a landscape of increased skepticism.

As ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, pastors should not meet this suspicion with hostility, negativity, or hopelessness. Walking with people through distrust is a long commitment, but one we, as leaders, need to do. Rather than becoming discouraged or dismissing the suspicions of those whom the Holy Spirit brings to us, we can help heal those wounds through consistency, uprightness, and church environments that heal those who hurt. 

The gospel will always stand firm amidst scrutiny—we as leaders must be able to stand firm as well. This culture of suspicion seeks authenticity and clarity, and the gospel provides just that. We must live it out in the holy character and healthy community God has called us to shepherd.

The psalmist reminds us: “The Lord is near the brokenhearted” and that “he saves those crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18, CSB). While the Lord’s nearness often comes through his unmediated, sweet presence, it also comes through the incarnational ministry of his people––especially the shepherds entrusted with the care of wounded sheep. In these ministry moments, the gospel’s unvarnished beauty mends that which has been previously broken in people’s lives.

2. New leadership skills 

Leadership methods once reliable in addressing issues are now inadequate for dealing with today’s challenges. Furthermore, the polarization of society and the radicalization of people shaped by cable news and social media can further divide congregations. 

For example, addressing racial injustice can be easily misinterpreted, indicating that leaders must communicate with greater thoughtfulness and precision. It is not just speaking about race but other issues, including sexuality and gender, that are discussed in the public sphere in ways our education did not prepare us to understand. We recently launched a doctor of ministry program at Wheaton College, which requires classes on topics such as sexuality and gender—something we probably would not have considered a decade ago. Yet, these are the questions we face, and we require better leadership with new skills. 

Today’s leadership challenges require higher precision, care, and discernment. The complexity of leadership extends beyond the issues of church growth and organizational dynamics. It encompasses a broader range of topics that our congregations deal with in various ways daily.

Proverbs 1:5 is a challenge to church leaders to understand the times we’re in and to learn how to respond accordingly: “Let a wise person listen and increase learning, and let a discerning person obtain guidance.” This cultural moment is challenging us to pay greater attention to discipleship, pastoral care, and community issues while placing less stock in numeric growth and systems. In that, I believe today’s leadership challenges compel us to move toward a more faithful approach to the gospel.

The church leader’s role has always been to discern and tend to the congregation’s needs. I encourage you to talk with your congregants to learn about their lives. What obstacles do they face regularly? What are their primary concerns about their own life and the future? Are there any ‘hot button issues’ that they are thinking through or currently experiencing? Some of these ‘new’ leadership skills we need to develop can begin with an intimate understanding of your congregation. 

3. Adapting to changing contexts

Current church leadership practices have faced turbulence recently because we have wrongly equated good leadership with producing positive outcomes. But people are not a product. Effective leadership doesn’t always yield positive results. Leadership is more like art than a formula. We must prepare leaders on current cultural topics and embrace the rich Christian tradition of spiritual formation, community accountability, and discernment. This doesn’t mean we should ignore leadership resources and best practices. Instead, it invites us to reimagine them as an overflow of rich discipleship and to uphold the importance of healthy community in a biblically discerning way. Luke provides us with this model of church community in Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-36, where the chief concern of the nascent church is its shared growth and worship together in Christ and their commitment to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Every Christian leader recognizes the importance of community. This is the time to lean into our communities of peers for support, guidance, learning, and correction. We don’t need to face the challenges of church leadership alone. Pastors within denominations, networks, and across denominational lines can bring us loving Christian support, accountability, wisdom, and joy. As we face challenges in our vocation and revisit some of our old leadership strategies, consider turning to your community. We need one another.

©2023 Ed Stetzer. All rights reserved. Used with permission.