TRIVANDRUM BIBLICAL SEMINARY

TRIVANDRUM - 695015
MDIV

Course: Pastoral Counseling

Assignment: What are the major challenges of pastoral

ministry today as you understand it. What are the
remedies you propose?

Submitted By: Demis John Sabu

Submitted To: Dr.Saji Kumar K.P

Introduction

The Pastoral Crisis

We are living in unique days. Pastors are tasked with the incredibly demanding job of caring for
the spiritual, emotional, and, at times‚ physical needs of their people. While seminary is helpful
preparation for many of the challenges pastors face, there’s far more to pastoral ministry than
what can be covered in the classroom. Being a pastor today is more difficult than anytime in
memory. This century witnessed the collapse of the Christian consensus that held American
culture together for centuries. The secularization of our culture pushed the churches to the
margins of our nation’s consciousness. The moral relativism that accompanies a secular view of
reality deeply affects the work of the church and its ministry. According to a 1992 Christianity
Today survey, 66 percent of Americans believe there is no absolute truth. Significantly, among
Americans ages eighteen to twenty-five, the number is 72 percent. The Christian faith adheres
to a multitude of absolutes. No wonder ministry in and to this culture is more complex than
ever. No wonder pastors and churches are increasingly viewed as curiosities or even threats to
the public.

For fifty years church leaders have spoken about a “crisis in the ministry” and “ferment in the
ministry.” Back in 1954, H. R. Niebuhr wrote about the church and ministry and called pastorate
the “perplexed profession”. Niebuhr correctly suggested that the crisis in ministry is primarily a
crisis of identity. The communities in which we work no longer value our product or our role the
way society once honored the church and its ministry. Pastors are providing a service to a world
that no longer wants it. Professional religious leaders are an anachronism in a secular culture.
Contemporary Christians are affected by the secular nature of our world more than they may
realize.

Evangelising or Discipleship
Could it ever have been so hard to be in the ministry of the gospel as today? Consider the Great
Commission of Matthew 28:19 which is over-used and under-valued. It is not primarily about
evangelism at all. That is its under-level. Jesus does not say ‘herald’ or ‘proclaim’ the gospel, but
‘Go and make disciples.’ That is the higher level. Disciple-making produces a result. It is turning
converts into disciples. What was the 1st century situation? There was a lust for power, political
intrigue, war, and rebellion everywhere. Superstition was the religion of all and the ensuing
immorality. There was the Coliseum, horoscopes, magic, and lewd pictures in a society of the
very poor and extremely wealthy.

The challenge to the church was not how to evangelise but how to make disciples. The New
Testament letters are not about evangelism but disciple-making. The church was not always
successful – consider all those who fell away, and the troubles of the Galatian church, and the
Corinthian congregation, while the Hebrews were still babes.

Dealing with the Main Challenges

The Great Commission is to be obeyed against such a background, and there are at least six
challenges.

a. Religious Ignorance
The apostles first went to speak in a synagogue. But we are going to people who have never
been to Sunday School. Their knowledge is nil. They do not know what the Bible is all about,
neither the children nor the intelligentsia. There are two areas where we are failing

i] The people in our churches have such little knowledge. So, we need positive programmes to
turn our converts into disciples. Attractive, applied, biblical preaching is needed. Personal Bible
reading and prayer should be encouraged with training programmes at all levels.

ii] Young children in our churches are being ignored. Some of our Lord’s most serious words
were in Matthew 18 where he puts a child in their midst. Every church should run an effective
programme for Christian children. We must put the Bible back into our people’s minds.

b. Confusion between Called or Driven

Many at times Pastors are in a dilemma doubting their heavenly call. Although some may have
doubts what it actually means to be called for the Ministry, far more dealing with very specific
questions related to the circumstances of their particular place of ministry.

 Is the calling to be a pastor irrevocable or can God have one sort of ministry in your later
life?
 Can a pastor have a day -off?
 What kind of preaching is expected – topical, expository or evangelistic?
  Are you expected to counsel to anyone who knows your phone number?
 What if you are good in preaching and not a good administrator?

Answers to these and hundreds of questions like them represent an extremely wide range of
thoughts and concepts of what a pastor’s calling ought to be.

But one needs to comprehend that his calling is from God that is measured by one standard –
Word of God. Apostle Paul states in 1 Cor 1:26-29, that calling is not for the wise or strong, so
none can boast in the presence of God.

Symptoms of Driven People:

 A driven person is most often gratified only by accomplishment

 A driven person is preoccupied with the symbols of accomplishment.
 Driven people tend to have a limited regard for integrity.
 Driven people tend to be highly competitive.
 Driven people are usually abnormally busy

c. The Challenge of Hard-Pressed Members

Think of the great slave-class of the first century and the limitations it imposed upon access to
the meetings of the Lord’s Day. Today there is a different kind of ‘slavery.’ 4 million people in
Britain work 48 hours a week. 5 million days were lost last year from stress. Severe depression
seems to be spreading. Yet the world spends 10% of its income on leisure. The society of the
local church is no longer many Christians’ chief source of social enjoyment. There is the gym,
and golf, and rugby. Weekends offer escapism, and so church-members go away.

d. The Challenge of Ministerial Overload

There are too many conferences on everything. We are not turning the tide. The overload of
specialised speakers and subjects is confusing, and this makes no impact on the church let
alone the world. 90% of church growth is merely shuffling the pack. Ministry workload is
challenging due to the time demands, relational conflicts, and the various emotional and
spiritual needs of both pastors and their congregants. Ministry workload also requires pastors
to fill diverse and complex roles, navigating constant change in ministry.

Getting right resources is the key to resolve such ministerial challenges on how pastors can
bounce back. There are four broad categories of supportive resources that pastors utilize:

 Spiritual
  Relational

 Personal

 Organizational

e. The Challenge of a Dispirited Church

“It takes four years for a person to become a Christian,” pretentiously claims the Bible Society.
We all recognise how rare converting grace is given. Some churches can’t remember when their
baptistry was last open, or when they last had a ‘good’ convert. This absence leaves our
members not expecting converts. If men are preaching to a congregation of 20 people they
don’t expect converts each Sunday. How do you reconcile an ‘expect great things from God’
with such a situation? The false prophets have been telling us for years about revival around
the corner until we are weary of the claim. Then they change the definition of revival, and tell
us that it has come, and keep on talking. Our prayer is yet for revival and reformation. We are
to work for the one and pray for the other.

f. The Challenge of Careless and Prayerless Christians

Both carelessness and prayerlessness flow together. We have seen all kinds of equipment
spreading through the churches, and the claims of the Church Growth Movement conferences,
the slogans and banners and music groups and entertainers etc. But we are not changing the
nation and now we have a generation of people who know nothing. The fundamental problem
is that the worshipping people of God are not what they ought to be. We are to be salt and
light, and to be living this out day by day is tough activity. Moral purity and active good deeds –
that is our salt and light.

Matthew 5:13-16 is about the quality of the soldiers. We are not fulfilling the church’s calling.
Only when we act like salt and light are we that influence. The Christian is like ozone in a stuffy
and oppressive age. We are to be salt – that is – we must have Christian leaders who are
beyond sleaze. The impression is given that this act is understandable, whereas James says that
teachers are to be “judged more strictly” (James 3:1). In other words, there are different
degrees of sin. Christian leadership should be exemplary because it has such profile, privilege
and responsibility. We need to be accountable to one another.
Conclusion
Our great need is for church members who are the aroma of Christ. Our churches must be
model churches. We are to make the teaching of our God and Saviour attractive. We must have
churches that are a model for the watching world. Amidst all these pastoral challenges the Lord
is calling his men and women to be a healing hand in this broken world, indeed the harvest is
plenty and the labourers are few. We are ought to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out
labourers into his harvest.

Bibliography
1. David Horner. 7 Challenges Pastors Face, 2019

2. David Fisher. The 21st Century Pastor, 1996

3. Alastair V Campbell. Rediscovering Pastoral Care, 1981

4. Gordon Lynch. Pastoral Care and Counselling, 2002

Web Bibliography
1. https://www.briercrestcollege.ca/post/?ID=4666

2. https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2000/pastoral-challenges-for-our-
ministry-in-the-new-millennium/