Unburdening the Church

(1 Thessalonians 2:9)

We hear too often today about pastors, ministers, and preachers who are being burned out. And similarly, we hear about the congregations of the church suffering through a lack of spiritual food, which affects their ability to stand in the face of opposition.

It makes me wonder why this is the case. The ministry of the church should not be such a heavy burden that pastors, ministers and preachers are struggling. Neither should congregations be suffering as they do.

It is clear that both the leadership and members of the church today are burdened to the point of breaking. So it is important that the church seeks the right solutions to start unburdening the church.

The challenge for leaders unburdening the church

A big part of the issue for the church starts in the leadership ranks.

When it comes to unburdening the church, it is the role of the leadership of the church to lead the way.

The way many modern churches are structured and financed is wrong. They are not set up in accordance with the way the Bible and the Lord instructs. That is why both the church leadership and congregations are struggling.

Looking at the words of Paul in this scripture today and we get a glimpse of where some things have gone wrong today.

For you remember our labor and toil, brethren; we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you, while we preached to you the gospel of God. (1 Thessalonians 2:9)

Paul and his companions worked with their own hands to ensure the church of the Thessalonians were not burdened. They did not take from the church for their needs, but worked to earn their living in their respective trades so that the church would not be burdened.

Paul was a tent maker by trade, and he plied his trade to pay for his own living expenses. He did not rely on the church for his living and to pay for his food, clothing and lodgings.

Why? Because he was unburdening the church. He did not want anyone to suffer any kind of a burden as he preached the gospel.

The modern church financing

Paul’s approach is a stark contrast to the way much of the modern church operates.

Much of the modern church today seeks tithes and financial offerings from the congregation to finance the church and to pay the ministers and leadership of the church. By doing so they are not unburdening the church, but piling burdens upon the congregations that are not scriptural and not the way the church is to be funded and financed.

I will not go into details as to how and why this is wrong from a scripture perspective, but I have written a free eBook about tithing in the modern church. It looks at both how and why tithing is being done incorrectly, and how the church should be financed under the new covenant.

The bottom line is that when the leaders of the church rely upon the church to finance their lifestyles, then they are burdening the church unnecessarily. If leaders took a page from Paul’s book, they would be unburdening the church and also find peace within themselves so that they are not burning out.

Which brings me to the reason why pastors, ministers and preachers are burning out and the congregation’s role in this problem.

Unburdening the church – Congregation Responsibilities

The main reason why pastors and leaders in the church are burning out is because they are doing too much.

I’m sure that any pastor, minister, or preacher reading this would be thinking how they could possibly work at a job with all of the responsibilities they have in the church.

And therein lies the problem. The reason why the pastors, ministers, and preachers are so burdened is because the congregation places the burdens on them. They expect the leaders in the church to do EVERYTHING. And it isn’t just the teaching that is expected but to provide all manner of physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual support for the congregation.

This is not right and needs to be changed if we are unburdening the church.

The ministry of the church is given by God. There are a variety of gifts of ministry given by God to ensure the church grows to maturity. And the gifts are not ALL given to just one person.

11 And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12)

You will note that the gifts are not all given to the same person but to different people in the church. They all work together doing different works in the church, but combining so that the WHOLE church is built up and comes to maturity in Christ Jesus.

By contrast, the modern church congregations expect the pastors and leaders of the church to do it all. They expect one person to be all things to everyone in the church, and that is wrong. If we are unburdening the church then the first thing that needs to be done is to spread the workload in the congregation. The Lord will give these gifts to those He chooses and so ease the burden on the ministers.

We see that in the early church it was not expected that the twelve Apostles should do everything for the church. In fact as the church grew they appointed others to pick up additional workload so that they could concentrate on the things they had to do, which was to preach and teach.

2 And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4)

By doing this they were unburdening the church so that the work could be spread and done efficiently and effectively.

In the same way, a church service is not the sole responsibility of the preacher. We see that Paul defined how a service should be run when he wrote to the Corinthians.

26 What then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. (1 Corinthians 14:26)

The ministry in the church needs to be done by all members of the church. This will take the pressure off the pastors and ministers so that they can focus on what they are best at based on the gift of God given to them.

When the work of the church is spread among the members of the church it allows the leadership to work for their living outside of the church which takes the financial pressure off the members.

All of this leads to unburdening the church so that it operates in the manner that Jesus seeks it to run. It enables the best possible outcomes for the church to grow in maturity in accordance with the will of God. And unburdening the church is the only way this can happen.

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