Topping the list of challenges faced by pastors in a recent Lifeway Research study of 1,000 pastors was this:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
75% of pastors polled indicated their flock’s apathy was a significant challenge to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
3 out of every 4 pastors!<\/p>\n\n\n
A word of advice to pastors: Guard yourselves. Your attitudes and your words. This frustration over your congregation’s apathy can leak into your sermons. I have heard it happen plenty of times.<\/p>\n\n\n
It reveals itself in condescension. And complaining. And assuming. The pastor may end up\u00a0preaching only to the uncommitted, leaving the spiritually mature unfed.<\/p>\n\n\n
I once heard a pastor say, “People never change”.<\/p>\n\n\n
Woe to you if you preach a book that holds out the promise of transformation while resigning yourself to a belief that people’s hearts are forever static.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
What do we make of the 25% who did not see their congregation’s apathy as a serious challenge?<\/p>\n\n\n
Maybe some segment of those pastors have such low expectations that they aren’t bothered. Maybe they quit asking for commitment years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n
Or maybe they have so many other problems that apathy just doesn’t rank in their top 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
But I have to believe that a large part of that 25% isn’t bothered by their flock’s apathy precisely because their flock is engaged and ever-growing in their commitment to Christ and His Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n
Is there a secret anti-apathy recipe?<\/p>\n\n\n
I am sure this is a gross oversimplification, but what if those pastors are …<\/p>\n\n\n
Preaching the whole gospel?<\/p>\n\n\n
Expecting transformation?<\/p>\n\n\n
Discipling individuals?<\/p>\n\n\n
Calling out sin?<\/p>\n\n\n
While also …<\/p>\n\n\n
Accepting that there are tares among the wheat and that’s just the way it’s always going to be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topping the list of challenges faced by pastors in a recent Lifeway Research study of 1,000 pastors was this:\u00a0 75% of pastors polled indicated their flock’s apathy was a significant challenge to them.\u00a0 3 out of every 4 pastors! A word of advice to pastors: Guard yourselves. Your attitudes and your words. This frustration over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8186,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8185\/revisions\/8186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}