Last Sunday was Easter. Easter is a big day in the Christian calendar - arguably THE big day. The theological and spiritual reasons for this are clear as the death and resurrection of Jesus are central in Christian theology. It turns out that Easter is also a big day for church. People tend to show up. This can be a great encouragement to pastors and church leaders, “Look at all of these people!”
However, Easter Sunday is, for as long as I can remember, always followed by the Sunday after Easter. No matter how often well-meaning people reach back into church history, recovering the reminder that Lent is 40 days and Easter is 50 days, people who attend church mostly think of Easter as being one day, one service.
The Sunday after Easter, while called in some denominations the “second Sunday of Easter,” is also sometimes referred to as “low Sunday.” This could well refer to a “low” expression of liturgy, of ceremony, but it has also come to refer to the number of people who show up. However many were there on Easter Sunday, the Sunday after Easter is low, maybe even one of the lowest Sundays of the year.
I am not complaining. I will be speaking at a church this coming Sunday and I am grateful for the opportunity. I used to be a full-time pastor and low Sundays used to bother me more than they do now. Part of the reason for this is that, in full time work as a pastor, there is the ever present concern of how successful the church is, and success is often measured in how many people are there.
This becomes especially concerning for pastors in times like our time, culturally and religiously.
How many people do you know who used to attend church and no longer do so?
How many people do you know who have changed churches multiple times?
So much has changed in our culture and faith over the last number of years that, chances are, you know very few people who have the same relationship with church that they used to have.
I say this not without hope, but rather hopefully, expectantly even.
The way we used to do church is arguably disintegrating, but this does not mean that church or faith is disintegrating. In the midst of such change, I do feel sympathy for pastors. It must, at times, feel like trying to hold something together that most people are no longer interested in, while at the same time being judged by how much interest can be generated.
I came across an article from within church circles recently that addressed how more and more, churches are moving away from hiring full-time pastors. The article said that this could be a good thing for churches AND for pastors.
The context of the article was more mainline (that is Anglican, Presbyterian, United Church), but I have felt for a while that full-time pastoring is untenable within evangelical circles as well.
There are a number of reasons I feel this. One worth mentioning is that, as a pastor in a time of cultural change, you will upset more people than you please almost every time you make a decision or even a statement. If you put this together with the ever present threat of people leaving to go to another church or leaving church altogether, then the viability of the full-time position comes into question.
I have seen, and have also experienced myself, the joy of being part-time; of having work outside of one particular church. If, as a pastor, you can be freed from the pressure of “how many attended today” then you might just feel a renewed sense of call and purpose. I am already curious about what Sunday will look like at the church at which I will be speaking. It will be smaller than last week, for sure; and I am looking forward to the gathering.
So - sympathy for the pastors on low Sunday. Maybe you went to church last week and have zero intention of going this week. That’s good, I don’t see a problem with that. There are people who tell me that I SHOULD have a problem with that, some of whom have no intention of going to church on Sunday and attend far less than they used to attend.
Perhaps, if you are the praying type, you might pray for the pastors who will be there again on Sunday, many of them lamenting that just one week earlier, there were so many more people.
When I was an associate minister, I used to call the Sunday after Easter and the Sunday after Christmas “Youth Pastor Sunday.” That’s because the Senior Minister would often (after a busy Holy Week) take those Sundays off. See - even pastors don’t attend on Low Sunday.
Have a great weekend, church or no-church. Though I do “hope to see you there.”
I have always loved your heart, Todd!!!
Good stuff Todd