1 phrase pastors should stop saying

Bud Brown May 23, 2020

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I hope I shall never again hear a pastor utter the dreaded phrase, “when things get back to normal.”

I’ve heard it time and again these past few months. At first, I empathized. Living in that liminal phase between the “old normal” and the as yet unknown “new normal” is disorienting, confusing, and draining. But as the quarantine has dragged on, I’ve been asking pastors what they meant by that phrase.

My fond hope and prayer is that every pastor in America would make a solemn vow to never speak those words again and that they would correct church members who long for a return to the status quo. Would that no church in America would ever “return to normal.”

Think about it for a moment. “Normal” was why 70% or more of our American churches were either on plateau or in decline! Who in their right mind would want to go back to that miserable state of impending doom, just waiting for the last service before the doors close forever? I hope that your church, the way you conduct your ministry, the way that the members view the church, and how your church connects to the community never return to normal.

One of the problems with the good old days is that they just keep getting better as time goes by. So, let’s stop for a moment to think soberly and honestly about what “normal” looked like just a few months ago.

Back in January normal meant that your church rarely saw people come to faith in Jesus. Normal meant that the spiritual lives of many members were stuck in a rut; progress toward being fully conformed to the image of Jesus was slow. Youth ministry was a strained, under-resourced effort work with high schoolers, the majority of whom would fall away from the faith (perhaps for a few years, perhaps for good) when they got to college.

Normal in many smaller churches meant that church members saw the pastor was an employee paid to do the tasks they were unwilling to do. Normal meant prayer was perfunctory, largely focused on minor inconveniences in daily life but rarely burdened with the eternal fate of non-believers. There was almost no desire to help deliver the community from the ravages of whatever ailment was destroying lives.

I’m so old I can remember when, in many churches, normal meant simply hanging on to the old ways in the vain hope that others would join the church to keep the doors open a few more years. Not long ago normal meant we were delighted with visitors whom we expected to never see again. We were surprised on those rare occasions when they did return!

Three months ago, normal for most churches meant a rarely used baptistery. It meant no real leadership training for people in positions of authority. Normal meant that the few people in the community even knew our churches existed, even those people who once every four years made the trip to our church property in order to vote!

Normal meant frustrated and discouraged pastors. They were drained of vitality because the members of the congregation were lackluster in their commitments, they saw mission as one option among many, and they viewed the church as existing for their benefit. And it happened because pastors failed to understand one fundamental truth about pastor ministry.

Pastors are change agents

Pastors are change agents; they are not managers charged with protecting the status quo. Ephesians 4:11–12 is abundantly clear: the pastor’s job is to ensure that church members continually grow from one degree of ministry readiness and effectiveness to the next, without end. The pastor’s job is, and always has been, to introduce deliberate, planned, and purposeful change so that the church grows increasingly effective in its mission of making new disciples.

That’s the “new normal” I’d love to see. The time to take a stand on that position, pastor, is right now. A great opportunity has been handed to you. The old normal has been broken apart. Policies and procedures and ministries that have been on plateau for decades have been swept away.

Why would you want to go back to that?

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Bud Brown is an experienced ministry leader, writer and educator. He is co-founder of Turnaround Pastors and co-author of the ground-breaking Pastor Unique: Becoming A Turnaround Leader. He brings special expertise to change leadership in the local church, mentoring pastors to become revitalization leaders, training churches how to find and recruit the best talent, and training leadership teams how to achieve their shared goals. Learn More »

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