5 Spiritual Challenges All Church Leaders Face

Every church leader is plagued by spiritual challenges throughout their careers. These are typically periods of doubt where their own faith may be challenged.

Church members often have spiritual crises of their own. However, church leaders are often expected to stand strong and never have these types of issues.

It takes strength to not only admit you’re going through a spiritual challenge, but to ask for guidance from fellow leaders and even members to help you through. By working together, you all grow in your faith.

1. Finding The Right Way To Guide

This is a common challenge and one that makes church leaders question themselves often. When trying to please everyone, they’re pulled in 20 different directions as they try to find the perfect way to guide everyone in the church.

Some may want a more modern approach, such as interacting on social media often or implementing online tithing. Others may want more ministry programs or longer office hours throughout the week. Finding the perfect strategy may make you question whether you’re able to guide your members at all. However, have faith, talk with your members and uncover the best balance.

2. Lack Of Faith From Members

A lack of faith from members may make church leaders question whether they’re capable of being a shepherd for the flock. For instance, maybe a church leader made a mistake and posted a controversial opinion on the church’s Facebook page. Suddenly, members no longer trust them or believe they’re capable of helping the church grow.

This leads to church leaders feeling like no one believes in them. Instead of being able to recover from their mistake, they lose faith in themselves. It’s one of the more difficult spiritual challenges to bounce back from, but with support it is possible.

3. Feelings Of Not Doing Enough

There will never be enough hours in the day for church leaders to do everything that’s expected of them. Perhaps a pastor has a sick child at home and isn’t able to visit an ailing member in the hospital. Suddenly, the pastor is blamed for not being there and avoiding their duties.

Every church leader struggles with these feelings. It’s a major spiritual battle as they try to reconcile the fact that they have to take time for themselves when members need them. You might feel like you’re not doing enough, but you have to take care of your own family and yourself just as much as your members.

Consider building a team of dedicated volunteers to help with all the numerous responsibilities. Not only do they help out, but they become a support system to help church leaders overcome spiritual challenges.

4. Loss Of Members

Every church leader wants to make a difference in the lives of their members. When members start to disappear and growth turns into decline, leaders face a massive spiritual obstacle. They blame themselves and feel as if they’re not capable of doing God’s work. The problem could be as simple as a large business in the community shutting down, forcing members to move away to find new work. However, it still feels personal to church leaders.

Take the time to figure out why members are leaving. Don’t blame yourself for problems you can’t fix, such as younger members going off to college out of state or people moving away to better paying jobs. You might also discover ways to keep members, such as building an engaging, interactive website or uploading sermons online to appeal to members who can’t attend every week.

5. Modernizing Christianity

A common spiritual challenge church leaders face is modernizing Christianity in their churches. Both modern and traditional Christianity have their flaws. This is where the challenge comes from. Church leaders not only have to consider their own faith, but the faith of their members. This is especially challenging when a church has a wide range of age groups.

Church leaders obviously don’t want to go against their own beliefs. However, adding in more modern approaches can also help bring in a younger audience, which is crucial for long-term growth. Once again, it’s about finding balance and ensuring the spiritual needs of members and church leaders are met.

Staying in close contact with members and finding spiritual support can be as easy as building a church website. Learn more about our website design services and how they help create a stronger sense of community and faith.

About The Author

Thomas Costello

In 2016, Thomas created REACHRIGHT while serving as a bi-vocational pastor in Madison, Wisconsin. With over two decades in ministry across states like California, Texas, and Hawaii, he has also become an expert in church marketing, web design, and SEO. Thomas and his family now call Honolulu home. He serves as the Executive Pastor at New Hope in Hawaii Kai.

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