Let me begin this article by confessing, as a pastor, I hate election years. And I think these are probably my top three reasons:
- Emotions run higher on elections years, and people (including Christians in my congregation) are more on edge. This year was no exception, and in fact, considering that there was an assassination attempt on one of the candidates, one could argue this time has been a time of especially high anxiety.
- Depending on how the campaigns and elections go, some people (who liked me during the previous three years) will become unhappy with me for not telling people who to vote for in November. And this is not about their need for pastoral guidance. These people never want their pastor to actually tell them who to vote for (they already know who the right candidate is.) Rather, they become discontent when their pastor doesn’t tell other people to vote for the same person that they are voting for.
- During high-anxiety political times, many people do not treat their pastor like the other Christians in their life. For instance, if their next-door neighbor (who professes faith in Jesus) does not pray aloud out in his front yard about Donald Trump (or Joe Biden), that is perfectly fine. But woe to the pastor who doesn’t pray aloud about Donald Trump the Sunday after the assassination attempt.
And it’s actually reason #3 that I’d like to focus on in this article. In fact, reason #3 is of particular concern because the push for this happens during non-election years as well.
Because I have a platform (though I admit it’s a pretty small one) there are people who care greatly about what I pray about, and they have strong preferences about the way that I pray publicly. At least that is the way that it is usually phrased: “I sure hope the pastor prays about ______________ on Sunday.”
(That’s actually the nice way of phrasing it. Sometimes the attitude is closer to “The pastor better pray about __________________ on Sunday or I’ll be upset and leave the church.”)
I’ve learned that prayer is usually not what the people actually want. Rather, they want the pastor to make a political statement under the guise of prayer. You can tell this by looking at how this issue is often handled. Just check out this article as an example.
One thing that jumped out to me right away is that the article is titled: “Pastoral Prayer After the Failed Assassination of President Trump,” but the majority of it is not a prayer at all. When the author says “Murder… is a violation of God’s law” he is not informing God about that. God already knows that murder is a violation of His law. This pastor is making a statement to his congregation (a true statement, certainly; but my point is that this is not a prayer.) When the pastor says that we must also pray for Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis at this time, he is not addressing God there either. He’s making a statement. In fact, if you look into it, you’ll see that this time of “prayer” was actually ten paragraphs (516 words) of statement and only one paragraph (161 words) of prayer, and the prayer part wasn’t even about the assassination, but was a pre-scripted prayer written in the 1600’s or thereabouts.
Why did the pastor do this? My guess is because that is what the people want. They don’t want to pray about politics. They want the pastor to say political stuff that they agree with and pretend that it’s prayer time. (Note: I’m not actually criticizing the content of what this pastor said; I did something somewhat similar on the same Sunday. I’m only pointing out that we keep talking about how important it is for pastors to “pray” about things, when that is not what we actually mean.)
I have a concern about this trend. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that worship services at Christian churches are for the worship of Jesus. Period. They are not for the sharing of news or for making political statements. That doesn’t mean that news can’t ever be referred to on a Sunday morning (I did briefly acknowledge the assassination attempt in my sermon on Sunday) and it doesn’t mean that we cannot ever pray about a political leader (I also did that; see 1 Timothy 2:1-2). But what I am saying is that making political statements is not what Sunday morning church services are for. We gather to worship Jesus and to learn His word.
I’m not sure how many of you are aware of this, but it is fairly common for people to get angry at their pastors when they do not acknowledge world events or pray about national and world issues publicly. I can remember when I was a youth pastor, and I heard a story about a member of our congregation reaming the senior pastor for not praying about abortion on Sanctity of Life Sunday. I can remember someone else, a couple of years ago, being angry that Good News Church didn’t make a comment about Roe v. Wade the Sunday after that decision was overturned by the Supreme Court. One time, a family left our church because I didn’t increase the amount that I preached on the “bad things happening in our nation” after Joe Biden got elected. On another occasion, a family left our church because I didn’t pray for Israel on a particular Sunday.
Honestly, from my perspective, it almost feels like pastors are being pressured to take the Lord’s name in vain. Why do I say that? Because (during prayer time particularly) I am getting up on a stage and I’m supposed to be talking to God (in Jesus’ name.) And yet the pressure being put on me is to use that time to also say some things that some people in the congregation want me to say about current hot topics. That doesn’t seem like authentic “prayer” to me. It seems like an attempt for me to make public policy statements and then say “in Jesus name” at the end. I simply don’t believe in doing that. That’s not what prayer (or even preaching) is for.
Some people thanked me for addressing the Donald Trump assassination attempt during our church services this past Sunday. And to you I say: You’re welcome. I really did try to say things that I mean, and I tried to make sure the prayer was genuine and not political. However, that will not be happening most of the time that some big event makes the news. On Sundays, we gather together to worship Jesus, to serve with our gifts, and to learn from God’s word. I hope that is enough for you. It certainly is enough for me.
Because I have a platform (though I admit it’s a pretty small one) there are people who care greatly about what I pray about, and they have strong preferences about the way that I pray publicly. At least that is the way that it is usually phrased: “I sure hope the pastor prays about ______________ on Sunday.”
(That’s actually the nice way of phrasing it. Sometimes the attitude is closer to “The pastor better pray about __________________ on Sunday or I’ll be upset and leave the church.”)
I’ve learned that prayer is usually not what the people actually want. Rather, they want the pastor to make a political statement under the guise of prayer. You can tell this by looking at how this issue is often handled. Just check out this article as an example.
One thing that jumped out to me right away is that the article is titled: “Pastoral Prayer After the Failed Assassination of President Trump,” but the majority of it is not a prayer at all. When the author says “Murder… is a violation of God’s law” he is not informing God about that. God already knows that murder is a violation of His law. This pastor is making a statement to his congregation (a true statement, certainly; but my point is that this is not a prayer.) When the pastor says that we must also pray for Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis at this time, he is not addressing God there either. He’s making a statement. In fact, if you look into it, you’ll see that this time of “prayer” was actually ten paragraphs (516 words) of statement and only one paragraph (161 words) of prayer, and the prayer part wasn’t even about the assassination, but was a pre-scripted prayer written in the 1600’s or thereabouts.
Why did the pastor do this? My guess is because that is what the people want. They don’t want to pray about politics. They want the pastor to say political stuff that they agree with and pretend that it’s prayer time. (Note: I’m not actually criticizing the content of what this pastor said; I did something somewhat similar on the same Sunday. I’m only pointing out that we keep talking about how important it is for pastors to “pray” about things, when that is not what we actually mean.)
I have a concern about this trend. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that worship services at Christian churches are for the worship of Jesus. Period. They are not for the sharing of news or for making political statements. That doesn’t mean that news can’t ever be referred to on a Sunday morning (I did briefly acknowledge the assassination attempt in my sermon on Sunday) and it doesn’t mean that we cannot ever pray about a political leader (I also did that; see 1 Timothy 2:1-2). But what I am saying is that making political statements is not what Sunday morning church services are for. We gather to worship Jesus and to learn His word.
I’m not sure how many of you are aware of this, but it is fairly common for people to get angry at their pastors when they do not acknowledge world events or pray about national and world issues publicly. I can remember when I was a youth pastor, and I heard a story about a member of our congregation reaming the senior pastor for not praying about abortion on Sanctity of Life Sunday. I can remember someone else, a couple of years ago, being angry that Good News Church didn’t make a comment about Roe v. Wade the Sunday after that decision was overturned by the Supreme Court. One time, a family left our church because I didn’t increase the amount that I preached on the “bad things happening in our nation” after Joe Biden got elected. On another occasion, a family left our church because I didn’t pray for Israel on a particular Sunday.
Honestly, from my perspective, it almost feels like pastors are being pressured to take the Lord’s name in vain. Why do I say that? Because (during prayer time particularly) I am getting up on a stage and I’m supposed to be talking to God (in Jesus’ name.) And yet the pressure being put on me is to use that time to also say some things that some people in the congregation want me to say about current hot topics. That doesn’t seem like authentic “prayer” to me. It seems like an attempt for me to make public policy statements and then say “in Jesus name” at the end. I simply don’t believe in doing that. That’s not what prayer (or even preaching) is for.
Some people thanked me for addressing the Donald Trump assassination attempt during our church services this past Sunday. And to you I say: You’re welcome. I really did try to say things that I mean, and I tried to make sure the prayer was genuine and not political. However, that will not be happening most of the time that some big event makes the news. On Sundays, we gather together to worship Jesus, to serve with our gifts, and to learn from God’s word. I hope that is enough for you. It certainly is enough for me.
