The church in Canada has a serious problem: there are not enough pastors, even for the churches that already exist. In a now somewhat famous article in Faith Today, “Waking up to the pastor shortage”, Rick Hiemstra writes, “evangelicalism in Canada, as a movement, needs 625 new pastors per year over the next 12 years just to deal with retirement attrition. And of course, that’s not the only reason pastors leave active ministry.”
With this qualification, too, the problem is still understated, because addressing this issue would not touch the lack of church planters needed to start new churches.
Jesus told us to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). And above all, that’s what we need to do. However, prayer does not exclude action. Some causes have been mentioned by Hiemstra in his article. Others I have seen or heard about through my work training church planters in Canada through Movement Seminary and Acts 29 Canada. Over the course of this article, I want to address one important cause leading to this shortage.
Reasons That Canadians Doubt the Gospel
The most foundational thing that churches need to do to solve the problem will probably seem obvious, but needs to be said anyway: they need to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
This needs to be done in general, but also in specific ways, for every age and place has specific ways in which the truth and goodness of this news is challenged. And when the message of Jesus seems untrue and unworthy of belief, it will not be a shock that people do not feel inclined to devote their lives to a vocation focused on sharing that message and training people in it as a way of life.
In the present-day Canadian context, with culture deeply influenced by sources such as social media, government, public schools, corporate marketing, and others, perspectives like materialism (both in terms of philosophy and in terms of money) and New Age spirituality are commonplace. When they are believed, they cause doubt in the power and goodness of Jesus.
Materialism especially causes doubt in his power as it presents a world where only objects that can be perceived by our five senses can affect our lives. The New Age, one could argue, especially sows doubt in his goodness, because his claims to have the answers to life’s questions seem harmful to those who trust their own inward depths above all.
Materialism and the New Age are often, in this culture, combined with expressive individualism, which can be understood as a movement that elevates our unique and various inward desires to the highest place, to the point where society should be altered as much as is needed to make their fulfillment possible.
How Our Doubt Leads to a Pastor Shortage
When this way of thinking is inculcated amongst believers, many things suffer. But one of those things is the process of developing new pastors and planters. If, at a very deep level of our hearts, we think the world of the senses—of money, metal, glass, and machines—is what really matters, we will not consider it worth it for anyone to give years of their life to learn how to spiritually care for other people.
Better to go into some line of work more “obviously” beneficial in earthly terms. And if we think that the spiritual world is real but Jesus is not worth giving our lives to, then while we might strive to be a wellness influencer or something even more magical in nature, we won’t consider it worth it to spend the time needed to grow shepherds and harvesters.
More generally, if we believe that we human beings are mainly here to please and express ourselves individually, we will be resistant both to giving and to receiving the hard truths of Scripture, including the need in every age for faithful shepherds who know how to handle the Word.
How the Gospel Answers Doubts About Itself
How can the preaching of the gospel address challenges like these to its own message, and to the needs of the church that come with it? At the center of the good news is that Jesus did not stay dead after he was crucified, but that he was gloriously resurrected.
In addition to his resurrection from the dead, the life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel accounts is full of him performing deeds of power, such that “Were every one of them to be written … the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Teaching the good news needs to highlight Jesus’ power, both in the past and in the present day. This means remembering and sharing answers to prayer, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
At the core of the good news is also a message of loving sacrifice: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). For this reason, we should not be surprised to see that Jesus’ life was also full of signs of love: giving relief to those facing incredible shame, restoring to human contact those who had been totally excluded, making whole those who had been ravaged by the pain of life, and receiving those who wanted a way out of living only for themselves.
As with his power, so also the stories of his love towards people continue today, and should be continually shared. There are countless examples of the love of Jesus bringing meaning, mental and emotional and physical and familial health, and peace about mortality, to people who never found it anywhere else. The world wants to know this is possible, and where to find it, and so do people in our churches.
How the Gospel Motivates Us to Raise Up Pastors
This message has countless implications, but one of them is that there is a person whose power is unmatchable and whose goodness is incorruptible, unlike the rest of us. And what this disparity opens up is the possibility that our individual sense of what will make us happy may not be accurate, but that his understanding of what will do so always will be so.
It is not wrong for people to want happiness—they cannot help it. But their understanding of what will make them happy, like the cases of the prodigal son or Saul the Pharisee, certainly can be deeply mistaken and self-defeating.
If the world really is as the gospel says it is, it means a radically different way of discerning what to do with our days, and our lives. It means seeking the counsel of Jesus first, and our own counsels only as they line up with his.
Which brings us full circle back to where we started. Jesus told us his will for us, to pray for harvesters, to make disciples, and moreover, disciples who can do everything Jesus commanded, including to make more disciples. Pray, then, that the Lord will send qualified shepherds to his flock. Maybe even you.
