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Pastoral Burnout – The Silent Epidemic

Posted in Burnout and Depression in Ministry, Current Church Issues, tagged , , on February 2, 2011| 2 Comments »

There is a silent epidemic stealthily creeping its way through Christian churches and pastor’s homes these days.  It’s called burnout, and it may not be what you think.

Many years ago, I served as the pastor of a church that sold its property and moved to a warehouse in the light industrial area of our city.  We were simultaneously closing down one church (what to do with all the pianos?), running our current church, and planning for a new church, all at the same time.  The whole exercise just about killed me.  In addition, we had scores of board meetings, most lasting five to seven hours.  When we were done by eleven at night, we got home early.

During one stretch, I worked three 70-80 hour work weeks in a row.  One Friday, on my day off, I received a call telling me that the city demanded that a pile of trash in front of the warehouse be removed immediately.  Since almost everyone else in the church was at work, guess who went down there, threw the trash into the dumpster, and then jumped in and smashed the trash with his feet?  (I used to ask myself, “Would Chuck Swindoll do this?”)

But though I was becoming increasingly tired, I was stressed out, not burned out.  There’s a difference.

When you’re stressed out, you’re overloaded.  You have too much to do and not enough time to do it.  For example, I’ve been feeling a bit stressed out lately because my wife and I are moving to another house forty minutes away and we have to pack our place and move everything by the end of the month.  In fact, it will be our eighth place to live in thirteen years.  But even though it’s stressful, I’m up for it.

But when you’re experiencing burnout, you’re not up for anything.  As Dr. Archibald Hart says, burnout won’t kill you, but it will make you wish you were dead.

Pastors who suffer from burnout try and connect with God but can’t seem to do so.  They feel that God has abandoned them and no longer cares about them.  These pastors desperately need encouragement from their Christian brothers and sisters but are afraid to share how they’re doing because they don’t feel very spiritual.  And if the key leaders of the church find out how they’re really feeling, pastors are afraid they will be forcefully terminated – because in too many situations, when the news leaks out, they are terminated.

Pastors who suffer from burnout find themselves emotionally wrung out.  Because they don’t feel joyful, they have a hard time feeling or expressing pleasure.  The only emotions they can easily express are negative ones like frustration or sadness, but they try hard to keep those feelings to themselves.  Like Samson in the Philistine temple, they keep asking the Lord to get them through the next service or the next meeting because their energy resevoirs are spent.  They feel numb and dead inside.

Pastors who suffer from burnout find themselves increasingly isolated from others.  They know they’re not acting like themselves and are afraid to show their worst side to their congregation.  So they try and manuever their way through each day by only connecting with those people they must contact.  As much as they dislike it, they might even find themselves hiding from people on Sundays because they seem to have little control over how they feel and act.

Pastors who suffer from burnout usually only confide in their spouse, if anyone.  Most pastors are too proud and stubborn to seek counseling (although that’s the very thing they need most).  Yet without counseling, they will continue to spiral downward.  Trained counselors can provide an accurate diagnosis of burnout and point a pastor toward the road to recovery.

Pastors who suffer from burnout become overly sensitive.  They misinterpret any form of criticism and cannot seem to restrain their negative emotions, which just makes them want to avoid people all the more.  They are afraid of inflicting damage on the people they love.  When they act like this, pastors feel tremendously guilty because ministry is all about loving and serving people.

Pastors who suffer from burnout cannot find the motivation to do their best work.  They might scrape together the energy to prepare and deliver messages but they lack the necessary drive to be proactive in beginning new projects.  They spend a lot of time asking themselves, “What’s wrong with me?  What has happened to me?  Why don’t I feel normal?”  And the truth is, they honestly don’t know why.

Burnout doesn’t announce itself through a sudden bodily pain or injury.  It creeps up on you unaware, tackles you, and then flees before you ever see its face.  But the effects of burnout linger on: mental confusion, energy loss, relational aversion, internal emptiness, and a seemingly hopeless future.

Because so many pastors are burned out these days, they are leaving pastoral ministry in droves.  Some seek help and gradually recover, but many seek secular work, and some never darken the door of a church for years, if ever.

One of America’s most famous pastors came to a breaking point last year.  Although he says that he hadn’t yet done any damage to his ministry and relationships, he was concerned that might happen, so with the blessing of his church board, he took more than six months off to try and recover.  Sadly, most pastors who suffer from burnout need at least that much time off or more, but their church boards aren’t likely to give them that kind of time.  It’s easier to just let the pastor go and hire one with fresh energy.

This burnout issue is growing more and more serious.  It’s serious for pastors because, as Dr. Archibald Hart says, it can mean the beginning of the end of a career.  But it’s serious for churches too because some churches can actually set a pastor up for burnout.

I’ll talk more about pastoral burnout in my next article and suggest ways that both pastors and churches can aid in recovery – because pastors cannot do it alone.

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Predictable Times for Trouble, Part 2

Posted in Change and Conflict in Church, Church Conflict, Current Church Issues on January 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

When our kids were little, they often fought in the back seat of the car.  If our family was just going to the store, they could refrain from harassing each other, but if we took a trip of any length, I’d constantly hear, “Get over on your side!” or “Mom, tell him to stop it!” or “Dad, she hit me – and it hurts!”  After a while, knowing in advance what would happen, my wife and I took proactive steps to minimize the noise coming from the middle of the car – like gags.  (Just kidding!)

Conflict in a local church is often unavoidable, especially when so many people with varying ways of doing things inhabit the same spaces.  But when we know up-front that conflict is likely to surface, we can take proactive steps to minimize its damaging effects.

Last time, I mentioned five predictable times for trouble in a church’s life as taken from Speed Leas’ chapter in the book Mastering Conflict and Controversy.  (While the outline comes from Leas, all comments are mine.)  Here are times ten through six again:

Number 10: Increase in church membership (or attendance)

Number 9: Loss of church membership (or attendance)

Number 8: The completion of a new building

Number 7: Introduction of baby boomers in the church (or any new generation)

Number 6: Changes in the pastor’s family

Let’s now count down numbers 5 through 1:

Number 5: The pastor’s vacation.  Why?  Because those who don’t like the pastor can plot against him without his awareness.

Like Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins, I love to laugh.  And one of the characters who makes me laugh the most is Brother Biddle, a fictitious pastor who appeared for years in comic strips by Christian cartoonist Rob Suggs.  One time, Biddle’s family asked him if they could miss just one Sunday to go away on vacation, so Biddle asked Joe “Crazy Collar” Mazzoli to preach for him.  (As the Biddles left for the airport, the whole church turned out to say goodbye with signs like “Let us know if you need more time,” causing his son to comment, “Heck, there’s more people here than for your whole last sermon series combined!”)

Anyway, while the Biddles were away in Europe, Mazzoli was having phenomenal success.  He made plans to build a gym and founded a cable TV ministry.  While his family was in Salzburg, two goatherders tried to kill Brother Biddle, but while Biddle’s wife didn’t recognize them, Biddle did. They were deacons Hardwick and Howell … from Biddle’s church!  Biddle concluded, “I knew I shouldn’t miss a Sunday!  Mazzoli must be stopped!  We’re going home!”

Like Brother Biddle, pastors sometimes have nightmares about what might happen if they miss too many Sundays in a row, and although board members usually aren’t sent on “search and destroy” missions against their shepherd, a lot of mischief can occur when he’s away.  For example, if the governing board or a group of dissidents in the church wants to remove the pastor from office, those plans will be acclerated when the pastor is away.  But the opposite can also occur: the entire church can be paralyzed while the pastor is gone, especially if he makes most of the decisions.  Careful planning can reduce most conflicts in this category.

Number 4: Change in leadership style.  Why?  Because people in a church become accustomed to one pastor’s way of leading a ministry and have a tough time adjusting to the next pastor’s style.

I once followed a pastor who was personally authoritative and rather elitist in decision-making.  Every major decision was made by the same handful of people.  When I became pastor, I laid out the overall direction for the church but used a more participative style.  While many people appreciated the way I did things, a few were so used to the previous pastor’s style that they could not adjust to mine.  This issue occurs in every church and organization, so it’s predictable – but it takes some people a long time to make the necessary adjustments.

Number 3: Addition of new staff.  Why?  Because every time a new person joins a church staff, the dynamics of the entire staff change.

A church I pastored once hired a full-time staff member who wasn’t a team player.  For example, he held a meeting week after week at the church facility on the same night but continually left the room a mess for the next group.  I tried and tried to get him to leave the room clean but he couldn’t understand what the problem was.  If we had an event on the church campus after worship on Sunday, the entire staff would stay, serve, and help clean up, but he’d slip off the campus at the first opportunity.  The rest of the staff resented his attitude because he seemed aloof from them.  And, of course, every time I had to talk with him about these issues, he resented me more and more as well.

For a church to prosper, it needs new staff members, but every time one is hired, not only does the church need to adjust to that person, but so does the pastor and the rest of the staff – and that always causes conflict.

Number 2: Stewardship campaigns/budget time.  Why?  Because everyone in a church puts a different value on money.

When I left my last church, I moved 35 boxes of files.  While watching football yesterday, I made my way through five of those boxes, and I was truly amazed at how many files had to do with money.  (My guess is that 75% of the files touched on finances.)  If a church’s income is increasing, the governing board may debate whether to hire a new staff member, save money for facility repairs, or put more money into missions.  If a church’s revenues are shrinking, the board will be forced to debate what should be cut and by how much.  Either scenario can lead to the expression of strong opinions and hurt feelings.  Then when that same board presents the budget for the following year to the church, some people go ballistic about unfunded areas while others come unglued about overfunded ones.

If I had to pastor again, I’d prefer to fast forward from September right to December every year and skip the financial planning headaches of October and November (even though they’re my two personal favorite months of the year).

Number 1: Easter.  Why?  Because Easter is usually the busiest time of the year in a church, especially if it celebrates Good Friday as well.

As a pastor, I always loved Easter Sunday.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most joyful, uplifting, inspiring, and moving topic in the world.  But … preparing for Easter Sunday can be riddled with conflict because everyone wants to look good on Easter.

Think about it: the church needs to be thoroughly cleaned; the refreshments need to be creatively displayed; marketing materials must look perfect; the decorations must be properly festive; the worship team wants to play and sound fantastic; and the pastor wants to preach his best message.  While the effort is always worth it, the build-up to Easter is fraught with pitfalls that need to be carefully negotiated.  The first Easter had far less conflict than the average Easter in the average church.

May you internalize these predictable times for trouble so that, should conflict emerge, you’ll be able to say, “This isn’t abnormal; this is very, very normal.”  May God grant you peace as you live for and serve Him!

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Predictable Times for Trouble, Part 1

Posted in Church Conflict, Current Church Issues on January 21, 2011| 5 Comments »

I always knew when it was going to happen.

When I was a kid, my family drove from Orange County to Whittier on holidays to visit my grandparents.  Since they lived on a busy street, their ten grandkids were forbidden to play in the front yard but besides a swing, there wasn’t much to do in the backyard.  As the oldest of all the grandchildren, I learned early on to sit with my grandfather in the den and watch sports – mainly football.  That way, he could never yell at me for being disruptive.

But nearly every time all ten cousins congregated at that house, my grandfather would hear the racket the kids were making outside – and the incessant slamming of the kitchen door – and he’d get up, exclaim, “Yee, golly!”, and lock the kids out of the house.  It got to the point where I could have gone to the door and locked it for him – he was that predictable.

Trouble occurs in churches at predictable times, too.  According to conflict consultant Speed Leas in the book Mastering Conflict and Controversy, there are ten times when conflict is most likely to rear its ugly head in a local fellowship.  Let’s do this in typical Top Ten fashion:

Number 10: Increase in church membership (or attendance).  Why?  Because the addition of new people changes the personality of the congregation.

Let’s say that a church has an average attendance on Sunday morning of 150 people, but over the next year, it swells to 275.  That growth will alter its dynamics.  Since the church has almost doubled in size, some people who used to enjoy regular access to the pastor will find he no longer has as much time for them – and that may hurt them.  In addition, some people who served in two ministries will be asked to serve in only one so a newcomer can serve in the other – and sharing isn’t just difficult for toddlers.  When veteran attendees end up in the hospital, they may want the head pastor to visit them, but find he is out-of-town at a conference – so they get the new staff member instead.

As a church grows, it will need to add new worship services, train new leaders, and produce more ministries – and all of this can be disconcerting to those who used to be “big fish in a smaller pond.”  While everybody in a church claims they want the church to grow, some will actually sabotage the growth if their own star fades as a result.

The result?  Conflict!

Number 9:  Loss of church membership (or attendance).  Why?  Because as the number of people attending the church dwindles, so does the money.

Let’s reverse the attendance figures from the previous section.  Suppose a church with an average attendance of 275 plunges to 150 over the course of a year.  What will happen?  The giving will drop, probably substantially.  The leaders will have to institute cuts to ministries.  They may have to lay off staff.  The church may shift into maintenance mode.  And all the while, morale takes a dive as people wonder if they’re on a sinking ship and whether it might be better to grab a lifeboat (and row to another church) while they still can.  When a church experiences such drastic changes, some cast around for someone to blame, and their eyes usually rest on … the pastor.

The result?  Conflict!

Number 8: Completion of a new building.  Why?  Because different skill sets are required to build a building as opposed to filling a building.

A little more than five years ago, a church I served as pastor built a new worship center.  Before the project was completed, a former pastor quoted a statistic to me that seven out of ten pastors end up leaving their churches within a year of the completion of a building.  While that did not happen in my case, I understand why it does.

The construction of any building is an enormous undertaking.  While it’s very exciting, it’s also exhausting.  You’re on call 24/7.  In my case, I had to work with city bureaucracy, hostile neighbors (“We wish you’d go away for good”), the homeowners association, the project manager, the capital campaign leaders, the decorators (“Who chose that color?), the complainers (who thought the building would look differently than it did), the saboteurs (who talked down the capital campaign to others) and angry members (who left the church because they didn’t want to give).  And while all this was going on, I was trying to run our normal ministry while everyone constantly tiptoed around the construction site.

In my case, by the time the building was dedicated, I was eligible to take a sabbatical (and needed one desperately), but I delayed it for an entire year because we didn’t want to lose momentum.  While our church did grow, it didn’t grow at the rate everyone hoped – including me.

The result?  Conflict!

Number 7: Introduction of Baby Boomers into the Church (or any new generation).  Why?  Because the generation currently in charge of the church must surrender some authority to reach the next generation – and they resist doing so.

The church I attend has a great band that rocks out every Sunday.  While some from previous generations may take this style of music for granted, I appreciate it all the more because I was among the many pastors caught in the “worship wars” of the 1980’s.

It’s 1983.  I’m the new pastor of a church of 100+ people in the heart of Silicon Valley.  On Sunday morning, an older couple gets up to sing – but they really can’t.  They warble Out of the Ivory Palaces, not in English, but in Swedish.  I am not sure who was blessed, but I know I wasn’t.  I wanted to stand up and say, “This isn’t 1950 – this is 1983!”  But I didn’t – at least, not in public.  (And I could never tell this story in my former church because they had relatives there.)

Two years later, our church had a worship band for our Sunday service.  What they lacked in expertise they made up for in energy.  We started singing newer praise songs, and before I knew it, twenty percent of the church had left.  Guess who led them away?  That’s right – the Ivory Palaces couple.

Now, of course, I go to my local CVS store in the 55+ community in which we currently live and they’re playing Bruce Springsteen and Journey songs in the store.  And the church we attend has plenty of seniors, some in wheel chairs, and we sing edgy songs by Christian artists who weren’t even born in 1983.  My, how times have changed!

While the boomers wanted the builders (the previous generation) to accommodate their tastes, the boomers haven’t been as accommodating to the busters (the next generation).  But the churches that don’t reach the busters won’t last past 2025.

The result?  Conflict!

Number 6: Changes in the Pastor’s Family.  Why?  Because alterations in the pastor’s family, health, schedule, and energy will throw some people off-balance.

I served 10 1/2 years at my last church, and during that time, my wife had multiple surgeries and medical procedures.  Every time she came home from the hospital, I was not only her primary caregiver but her sole caregiver.  Because I had to put my energies into nursing her back to health, I was affected both physically and emotionally and consequently didn’t have as much to give to the church.  Whenever a pastor cannot operate at his normal level of energy, it affects the church because people have come to expect him operating at a certain level – and they get anxious when he can’t.

The result?  Conflict!

What are some of the other predictable times of conflict in a church?  See if you can guess what the Top Five are when I write my next article.

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Who’s Good at Confrontation?

Posted in Church Conflict, Church Health and Conflict, Current Church Issues, Forgiveness and Reconciliation among Christians on January 12, 2011| 7 Comments »

Have you ever had this happen to you?

Someone you know and love is heading in the wrong direction.  Maybe they’re drinking too much, or blowing money sky high, or are on the wrong career path.  You really want them to know how you feel, but you’re not quite sure you should get involved.

So you wait.  And you pray about it.  And you muster up your courage.  And you pray about it some more.  Then you wait for just the right time, all the while mentally rehearsing the words you’re going to use.

Then the moment presents itself … and you chicken out.  You let the opportunity pass.  You begin to second guess yourself, wondering if you’re just too critical.  But that good friend continues to make poor decisions, and you know you just have to say something.  So you do … and it all goes horribly wrong.

Your friend is hurt by what you said, so hurt that you fear you’ve risked your friendship for good.  You try phoning your friend, but she won’t call back.  You email her – zilch.  You text her, but she doesn’t respond.

You go over what you said again in your mind.  You tried your best to use the right words in a caring fashion.  You monitored your tone during the minute that you spoke and believe you showed genuine concern.  You honestly don’t feel that you did anything wrong, but your friend obviously doesn’t agree, and a cold war has broken out between the two of you.

It’s no wonder that people run from conflict like they’re fleeing from a rattlesnake on their front porch (a unique Arizona experience).

I hate confronting people.  Who am I to tell someone that they’re messing up their life?  Maybe I’m not the best person for the job.  Don’t I have enough dysfunctionality in my own life to work on without intervening in other people’s lives?  (The answer is “Yes,” so no need to comment!)  Why should I take on the responsibility for how someone else lives?

The average person doesn’t have to worry about engaging in too many confrontations.  Wives sometimes must confront their husbands.  Dads occasionally need to confront their sons.  Bosses periodically must confront those they supervise.  But most of us are adept at dodging confrontations because we’re just not very good at them.

But when you’re a pastor … confrontation is part of your job.  Staff members mess up.  Volunteers don’t show up.  Families nearly blow up.  While you’d prefer not to deal with matters, one of the jobs of a pastor is to intercept entropy.  If things are sliding downhill fast, you have to say something or else people will hit bottom and implode.

With staff members, you walk down the hall and have a little chat.  Most of the time, it goes well.  Occasionally, you have to call a staff member into your office so they know you’re serious.  Some of the staff take correction well, while others never do.  In fact, the source of a lot of conflict between pastors and staff members occurs right after the pastor engages in a confrontation, because from that moment on, many staff start viewing the pastor as their personal enemy.  While the pastor may not be conscious of this fact, that staff member will probably tell his network how much the pastor hurt him, and how unfair he is, and how he doesn’t know if he can work for the pastor anymore – and some in the network will side with their friend, which can keep the staff member from trying to change.

When the pastor confronts a volunteer, some listen and comply with the pastor’s concerns, while others ignore the pastor’s wishes, complain to their network, or eventually quit.

No one ever puts “confrontation” into a pastoral job description, but it’s a necessary part of a pastor’s calling.  Very few pastors are good at it, either by technique or by results.

Speed Leas is, in my judgment, the greatest living Christian consultant on conflict management.  He takes a biblical yet realistic approach to the whole issue.  I have read everything that he’s written on the topic that is currently in print, as well as his out-of-print manual Managing Your Church through Conflict, the single greatest resource on conflict I have ever read.

In the book he co-authored titled Mastering Conflict & Controversy, Leas wrote:

“I’ve always struggled with conflict in my life.  Conflict has been hard for me.  I haven’t understood it, and I haven’t understood myself when I’ve been in conflict.  My work is partly a quest to understand what happens to me when I get in a conflict, so I can do better.”

I struggle with conflict, too.  As a pastor, I never liked it and usually tried to avoid it, but there were times when I was forced to engage in it or else (a) a person might be destroyed, (b) a family might be destroyed, (c) the church might be destroyed, or (d) I might be destroyed.  Knowing that confrontations can easily backfire, whenever a pastor senses God leading him to do it, that confrontation must be considered a loving act.

Paul put it this way in Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.  But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”  Translation: only spiritual individuals (not just leaders) should confront others, but they should do it gently and with humility.  Most of us are pretty fragile inside, no matter how we appear externally, and we rebel against harsh, arrogant attempts at correction.  Most people – including children – only respond positively to demonstratable love.

I have found that I can usually control a lot of elements when it comes to confrontation: the place, the time, the seating, my tone of voice, my language, my facial expressions.  But what I cannot control is how another person will respond to my correction attempt.  That’s what makes confrontation so … adventuresome … and troublesome … at the same time.

Although I can’t locate the exact book in which he said it (half of my books are in boxes in the garage), I recall reading something Charles Swindoll once wrote.  He said that about half the time that he had to confront someone, things turned out well, but the other half, things turned out poorly.  Same confronter, different confrontees, varying results.

Maybe the primary reason we’re uncomfortable confronting people is because we can’t predict with certainty how our friend will respond – or if we’ll still be friends afterwards.  But followers of Jesus need to obey their Lord, and Matthew 18:15-20 is still in The Book: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother.”

If that one verse was obeyed by all parties, friends would nearly always stay friends, pastors would almost never be forced out of churches, and churches would never split.

Although I’m not very good at confrontation – and admit it, you aren’t, either – we need to learn to do better.  When confrontation works, people are transformed, families are saved, and churches become healthier.

With God’s help, it’s worth it.

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Detecting The Enemy’s Work

Posted in Church Conflict, Conflict with Church Antagonists, Conflict with the Pastor, Current Church Issues, Fighting Evil, Pastoral Termination on January 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

How can we know when the devil is responsible for conflict in a church?

I asked that question over lunch many years ago to a worldwide expert on spiritual warfare, Dr. Ed Murphy, who wrote the massive book The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare.  Dr. Murphy was a professor of mine both in college and in seminary and had been supported as a missionary by my home church.

His answer?  “That’s the $64,000 question,” he replied.

James seems to indicate that conflicts originate in our sinful nature.  He writes in James 4:1-2: “What causes fights and quarrels among you?  Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You want something but don’t get it.  You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.  You quarrel and fight.”  Paul appeals in the name of Christ to his spiritual family in Corinth and pleads “that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought” (I Corinthians 1:10).  Neither James nor Paul indicate that Satan is involved in every conflict, whether it’s between a husband and wife, parent and child, or pastor and staff member.  Many conflicts – perhaps most – arise out of our stubborn desire to get our own way.

It’s important that we discern the real source of a conflict so that we know best how to resolve it.  Jesus’ words in Luke 17:3-4 indicate the best way to resolve an interpersonal conflict: “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”  Jesus states that rebuke + repentance + forgiveness = reconciliation.

While we have all experienced interpersonal conflict, and know how to resolve matters in most cases (though we often lack the courage), devil-inspired conflict is very, very different.

In the midst of a knockdown, drag-out debate with the Jewish leaders in John 8, Jesus attributed their attitude toward Him to “your father, the devil.”  Beyond supernatural discernment, how did Jesus know that His enemies had aligned themselves with the enemy?  Boldly and confidently, Jesus says:

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

This is the single greatest statement in all of Scripture on the work of Satan, made by the single greatest authority on spiritual matters.  In short, the devil is “a murderer” and “a liar.”  That is, Satan specializes in destruction and deception.

The Jewish leaders were trying to destroy Jesus.  They hated Him so much that they wanted to kill Him.  He knew it and deliberately attributed their hatred to Satan.  And because those who want to destroy another person will use any means necessary to accomplish their goal – including blatant lies – Jesus attributed the malicious charges of the Pharisees to Satan as well.

Peter, who may well have witnessed this very debate, wrote in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Over the past several weeks, I’ve seen a large coyote trotting through our backyard on two occasions.  (None of the backyards have fences.)  This morning, while driving home from an errand, I saw what might have been the same coyote walking through a neighborhood near our house.  (I pulled off the road to watch him.  He split.)  What is that coyote doing?  “Looking for someone to devour” (like a rabbit).  While that coyote doesn’t frighten me – my four-pound dog Tito barked at one and made it run last summer – a roaring lion gallivanting through my neighborhood certainly would!

But notice Peter’s language: the devil is seeking someone “to devour.”  He is in the job of destroying Christians.  While he destroys believer’s bodies all the time through terrorism and martyrdom, he also tries to destroy Christian movements and churches by targeting spiritual leaders (like Jesus, the apostles, missionaries, and pastors).  And what’s saddest of all is that sometimes Christians are the perpetrators of that very destruction.

Let me confess: I have known some Christian leaders I don’t like.  Some are interpersonally cold.  Others never listen to anyone’s voice than their own.  A few just care about money.  A handful are massive hypocrites.  But I would never, ever take action to destroy them or their ministries, even if I had likeminded allies.  That’s doing the devil’s work for him.  That is what he wants.  Remember, the Pharisees and Sadducees believed they were doing God’s work by arranging for Jesus’ execution when all the time, they were just putty in Satan’s ugly little hands.  Their hatred for Jesus caused them to form an alliance with Satan.

In addition, Satan aims to deceive people into believing lies.  His arsenal includes innuendo, exaggeration, speculation, rumors, misinterpretation, false accusations, and outright falsehood.  Jesus asked His countrymen’s leaders in John 8:46: “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?”  They couldn’t.  But because they wanted to destroy Jesus, they eventually chose to deceive people into believing that He was guilty of three capital crimes: blasphemy against God, desecrating the temple, and sedition against Rome.  Jesus was executed on trumped-up charges and behind them all was the forked tongue of the deceiver himself.  Satan’s lies were parroted through the mouths of religious people.

If Satan uses destruction and deception to eliminate Christian leaders – and he hasn’t changed his template in twenty centuries – how can twenty-first believers defeat his attacks?

First, seek restoration rather than destruction.  When Christians lie about a leader to get rid of him, that’s Satanic.  When believers “play politics” to kick out a leader, that’s Satanic.  When believers charge a leader with unproven charges to force him to resign, that’s Satanic.

Before Christmas, I was sharing the story of the way I was forced to leave the last church I served as pastor, and the person with whom I was speaking, a long-time Christian leader, interrupted me and said, “That’s Satanic.”

The biblical way to handle a sinning or ineffective leader is to gently encourage that person (Galatians 6:1-2) to repent of any known sin (1 Timothy 5:19-21) with the purpose of “winning” them (Matthew 18:15-17) or “restoring them” (Galatians 6:1) to spiritual health.  While the New Testament clearly permits “kicking out” believers from a church, it is only to be done when those same believers have been sinning and repeatedly refuse to repent (Matthew 18:15-17; Titus 3:9-10).  The New Testament knows nothing about destroying a leader’s reputation or lying about him just to force him to leave.

Second, seek truthfulness instead of deception.  Christians, who believe that Jesus is “the truth” and that “the truth will set you free,” can sometimes become the purveyor of lies.  If we like someone, we are slow to believe anything negative we hear about them.  If we don’t like someone, we are quick to believe the dirt.  The better way to handle rumors and speculation is to go to the source about an accusation and ask him/her about its accuracy.  If possible, ask the person for evidence that they’re telling the truth.  Sometimes it takes just one phone call to dispel a rumor.

But more than anything, be determined to tell the truth in every situation and to every person.  I know that’s what our parents taught us to do, but it’s amazing how Christians have a hard time doing just that sometimes.  The best way to combat lies is with the weapon of truth.  Tell the truth, over and over and over again, and watch Satan run!  Lie and he’ll move toward you.  Be truthful and he’ll scamper away.

One of my mentors was forced to leave his church as pastor, but before he left, he told the congregation that he would vigorously defend his character and his ministry.  (And he had an attorney friend in the church to make sure that happened.)  Pastors, when people lie about you and you leave the record uncorrected, who gains?  Not Jesus.  Not the kingdom.  The enemy does.  And he not only seeks to harm you, he seeks to harm that church as well.

If you’re in a church, and you’re unhappy with your pastor for some reason, refuse to harm him or spread lies about him.  Instead, pray for him.  Encourage him.  Do something tangible for him.  Expect nothing in return.  If matters don’t change after a while, refuse to say, “This is my church!  He needs to leave!”  Instead, you quietly depart and begin searching for a church where you can fully support the minister and the ministry.

The greatest thing Peter ever said was that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus attributed Peter’s insight to “my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17). But maybe the worst thing Peter ever said followed Jesus’ prediction that He would eventually be killed: “Never, Lord!  This shall never happen to you!”  Jesus immediately told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!”

If God could speak through Peter one moment, and Satan could speak through him the next, then you and I need to be on our guard so that the enemy does not use us as well.

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