All Sorts Of Ruins

It's awesome when churches are doing well. I love hearing about churches that operate debt free. There's incredible impact that is made by long-term pastorates and a stable pastoral staff. Healthy churches make positive changes in the communities they serve. Their effective ministry becomes a go-to recommended resource for those in need and unaware of where to go for help.

Longevity and stability breed greater opportunity for broader influence.

Comparatively, unhealthy churches, with relatively higher staff & pastorate/pastoral turnover, burdened by either debt or low financial income or a combination of the two...struggle to serve their communities effectively.

Turnover rates affect the churches ability to offer stable, effective ministries. Outreaches hindered by financial concerns suffer, either through low-turnout, lack of volunteers or lack of resources to maximize their potential.

It is what it is and I know the struggle is real. There's no condemnation if you are or know of a church in such situations; it's just heart-breaking hearing about them and knowing they exist.

And we have a society with an increasing desire for community and sense of belonging while at the same time wanting nothing to do with the church.

For every church in ruin, for whatever the reasons, there are a small group of individuals, committed and praying things would be different. Stability. Finances. Community. Ministry. Influence. In their neighborhood. For their friends. For their families.

On this #deaconThursday, pray for church operations in ruins. 1500 pastors a month leaving ministry is wreaking havoc and the daily evidence to support it is mounting. They are done, and while its understandable, it's also, largely preventable. Pray for strategies and process to be implemented that will help curb this exodus of pastors and staff. Pray for the miraculous regarding the financial outlook of struggling churches. That debt would be eliminated. That attendance would rise. Pray for a national return to God. For the health of our communities. To reach the lost, the broken, the poor, the suffering & the dying.

Pray for life. Pray for health. In our pastors. In our churches. Mental. Emotional. Physical. Psychological. Financial.

As the pastorate goes, so goes the church. As the church goes, so does the community. As goes....the nation.

-PNC









       

---