I’m kind of tired of hearing the same messed up verbiage all over the place. So let’s reframe the story a little.
We don’t have a pastor shortage. We have a stewardship problem.
I recently sat in a room where we heard the numbers, nearly 13% of our LCMS churches here in Ohio are currently calling pastors. And that doesn’t even include the number of congregations without pastors who aren’t calling at all.
That should stop us in our tracks.
But not for the reason you might think.
The Easy Explanation (That Isn’t Actually True)
It’s easy to say, “We just need more pastors.”
And sure, raising up more pastors matters. We should absolutely be investing in young men, encouraging theological education, and calling people into church work.
But let’s be honest: even if we magically added 50 new pastors tomorrow… would that actually solve the problem?
Or would we just spread them thinner across a system that’s already struggling?
The Harder Truth
Here’s the uncomfortable reality: We have too many churches trying to survive instead of too many churches trying to reach people.
We’ve confused preservation with mission.
We’ve convinced ourselves that maintaining a building, a name, and a location is somehow the same thing as advancing the Gospel.
It’s not.
And deep down, we know it.
The Quiet Drift Into Ineffectiveness
It rarely happens overnight.
A church that was once vibrant slowly declines. Attendance shrinks. Energy fades. The surrounding community changes, but the church doesn’t.
And instead of asking, “How do we reach people now?” the question becomes “How do we keep this going just a little longer?”
So we keep the doors open. We keep the lights on.
We call a full-time pastor… to shepherd six, ten, maybe twenty people who are no longer reaching anyone beyond themselves.
And we call that faithfulness. Faithful to what?
When Care Becomes Coddling
Pastoral care matters. Deeply.
But there’s a difference between shepherding a flock and propping up a system that has lost its mission.
When we assign a full-time, seminary-trained pastor to a congregation that is no longer engaged in reaching its community, we’re not just caring for people we’re misallocating Kingdom resources.
That same pastor could be:
- Leading a growing church
- Planting something new
- Revitalizing a community with real potential
- Multiplying leaders and disciples
Instead, he’s often asked to maintain what is already fading.
Not because it’s fruitful. But because it’s familiar.
Buildings Aren’t the Mission
Hard truth for today: The Church is not the building.
It never has been.
And yet, we act like closing a location is equivalent to abandoning the Gospel.
But that’s simply not true.
Sometimes the most Gospel-centered thing a congregation can do is say: “We’ve done our part here. Now it’s time to release these resources for the sake of something new.”
That’s not failure. That’s faithfulness.
Actual Reality
We don’t just need more pastors. We need better questions.
- Why are we holding onto churches that are no longer reaching people?
- Why are we reluctant to merge, partner, or reimagine ministry?
- Why do we treat decline as something to manage instead of something to confront?
- Why do we assume every church deserves a full-time pastor, regardless of mission impact?
These aren’t easy questions. But they are necessary ones. And I’m not at all saying to close every church that’s struggling. But if the local church values its name, building or brand more than the Kingdom impact it once had we have a HUGE problem!
A Call to Courage
Friends this isn’t about numbers. It’s about faithfulness.
Faithfulness to the mission Jesus actually gave us. You know the whole while you are going to make disciples, to reach people who don’t yet know Him.
If we’re honest, some of our structures are getting in the way of that mission.
And it’s going to take courage to change. It takes courage for:
- District leaders to say hard things and force hard conversations.
- Congregations to let go of what once was
- Pastors to lead through uncomfortable transitions
- Churches to prioritize mission over memory, maintenance or building
What if instead of asking, “How do we keep every church open?” we asked: “How do we reach every community?”
What if instead of distributing pastors evenly, we deployed them strategically?
What if we saw closing, merging, or relaunching not as defeat but as multiplication?
What if we actually believed that the Gospel is bigger than any one building?
My Heart
This isn’t about blame. It’s about honesty.
We don’t have a pastor shortage.
We have churches holding onto yesterday at the expense of tomorrow.
And if we don’t address that, no number of new pastors will fix what’s really broken.
It’s time to stop managing decline.
And start stewarding the mission.
This is so spot on. When an auditorium can attract a thousnd young people who join in singing and praising we need to look at what we are doing in traditional churches.
What about the sacrament of baptism and communion? Should we congregation members accept that we should not regularly take communion or worship liturgically in order to grow attendance and programs? Can the author reconcile the call to liturgical corporate worship with the commission to go make disciples? Without Pastoral initiative how would the new disciples learn the Lutheran confession?
Thank you for the comment! I’m very aware of the need for properly administered sacraments. Nothing in the post here however indicates anything that would prevent properly administered sacraments. It’s more a matter of biblical stewardship of resources. I’ll get into more specifics in future posts, but merging churches and sharing staff and honestly helping church members connect with local expressions of the body of Christ of the same confession that are financially viable is another option. The key is not closing churches and giving up on sacraments. We simply need to realize that several of our physical buildings are in areas that have changed and the church has refused in many of those cases to reach their communities. This has resulted in local expressions that are no longer viable financially. Again thank you for your love for the people of God!