Addressing Fear in the Pew
How to keep fear from crippling your congregation
Sometimes when analyzing mission and ministry it’s helpful to put ourselves in the pew—to sit figuratively next to each parishioner or visitor and ask, Why are you here?
This is a different question than the more often asked question, Why don’t people come to church?
Why do loyal church members come week after week to participate in the same rituals? What are they thinking as they wait quietly in the pew for the organ music to begin? Listen patiently for the answer. It might not be the first thing that we imagine.
Many people come to church with some form of fear.
There is nothing more humbling than fear.
- Fear of inadequacy.
- Fear of failure.
- Fear of authority.
- Fear of consequences.
- Fear of loneliness.
- Fear of not fitting in.
- Fear of pain or discomfort.
- Fear of death.
- Fear of loss.
- Fear of the unknown.
- Fear that dreams will never be achieved.
- Fear that nightmares will never end.
And so we seek relationship with God. But how do we build relationships when we are so afraid?
This is the crisis that brought the disciples to Jesus with this week’s Gospel plea.
Lord, teach us to pray.
Prayer, we hope, will relieve our fears. Prayer will show us a path through the maze of uncertainties. Prayer will be there when all else fails.
But what happens when prayer fails us.
The temptation is to drop away from Church—distance ourselves from God—fill every minute with activity to avoid facing our deepest concerns—hide like Jonah in the belly of a ship headed far away from our problems.
This happens to us as individuals and collectively as church leaders.
How do we nurture the relationship we already have with God? How do we use that relationship to build relationship among God’s people?
A congregation, its members or leaders, cannot serve when cowed.
We all know the first answer Jesus gave to the disciples. The opening words to the Lord’s Prayer used every week in every church.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Jesus adds important advice.
Keep at it. Just keep at it.
The people who are in church are heeding Jesus advice. Do we take them for granted? Do we overlook their problems and fears as we seek to solve bigger, more selfish, church problems?
The church that actively addresses the fears of the people who enter a sanctuary week after week (no matter how few or how old) will be ready to recognize the fears brought through their doors by their next visitors.
We all come with baggage.
T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.