Anxiety and Its Antidote
It is running rampant in churches these days, which comes as no surprise. Far more contagious than the coronavirus, anxiety is actively infecting our congregations and those who lead and serve them. [1] Within less than a week’s time, I had 10 conversations with ministers or elders that highlight the usual symptoms of anxiety:
“They let me go – after 10 years!”
“People won’t wear masks and threaten a lawsuit if the elders continue to recommend such a thing.”
“Attendance is way down in our services and online.”
“A group of our members simply up and left. They were disgruntled before COVID-19; now they are off to start their own little church.”
“Every leaders’ meeting is either frosty or heated!”
“What will things be like when we are able to meet again like we used to?”
“Our young adults seem to be disappearing.”
“What will church be like by next summer?”
The coronavirus pandemic is real, no doubt. Yet the pandemic of anxiety is what truly threatens churches and the spiritual well-being of countless Christians. Anxiety paralyzes creative, hopeful action. It diminishes prayer. Anxiety, like J.K. Rowling’s Death Eaters, will suck the life right out of a leader’s soul, leaving behind a shell. Before you know it, leaders will pass the anxiety virus right along to others.
One of the deadly side effects of anxiety begins to emerge when leaders deliberate. Instead of asking what can be done, church leaders wring their hands over what they can’t do. Fear rather than prayer dominates the virtual conference rooms, while paralysis rather than purposeful action becomes the order of the day.
Another deadly side effect is the emergence of survival or nostalgia as the operative goal. “If only we could” begins far too many sentences. Anxiety begins to control thought processes, pushing out the one thing our faithful Christian witness needs. What is that one thing? A firm conviction that God is God and there is no other!
The apostle Paul had his own seasons when worry and anxiety floated in the air around him. Yet he wrote encouragingly to the Philippian community with these well-known words:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:4-7)
Paul was no Pollyanna. His realistic view of the world did not, for one second, depict everything as all roses and sunshine. But Paul knew that God’s presence in the world and God’s determined and purposeful commitment to transform the world would not fail. Such a conviction in God’s gracious and powerful presence simply left no place for anxiety in Paul’s heart and mind.
For those of us today who are called to care for God’s community and lead God’s people toward God’s preferred future, let us refuse to allow the contagion of anxiety to sweep us into despair. Rather, with a renewed vision of God’s purpose, step into hope, prayer, and compassionate action. The church and the world desperately need leaders who choose to lead with hope, courage and an unwillingness to succumb to the virus of anxiety. Will you rise up, guarded in Christ Jesus by God’s peace?
—
[1] In this article I seek to offer a pastoral word on feelings of anxiety, worry, and angst as distinct from clinical anxiety disorders.
