Jesse Reimers

  A Pastoral Introduction to the Realities Shaping Today’s Congregations There has never been a time in ministry where the landscape of church attendance, commitment, and congregational stability has shifted more quickly than it has in the last few years. If you are a small church pastor, you already know this—not because you’ve read the studies, but because you’ve lived the stories. You have felt the empty seats. You have watched the once-faithful family slowly disappear. You have shepherded through COVID shutdowns, political turbulence, cultural division, and the rapid reevaluation of people’s lives and priorities. And if you’ve felt any of the following, you are not alone: “Why did they leave?” “Could I have done something differently?” “Is something wrong with me, or wrong with the church?” “Why does it feel harder to keep people than it used to?” The Lifeway Research article on “church switchers” is not just data—it gives language to what many pastors have exp...

God never calls anyone into pastoral ministry in isolation. The call may begin privately—in prayer, in Scripture, in conviction—but it is always confirmed publicly through the local church. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s pattern is unmistakably consistent: God calls. God forms. God tests. And God’s people affirm. Pastoral calling is never self-appointed, self-anointed, or self-promoted. God does not raise up lone wolves, independent operators, or spiritual entrepreneurs who exist outside the authority and discernment of the body of Christ. The church is not merely a spectator in the calling; it is an essential participant in God’s process. As someone who has spent decades pastoring, developing leaders, coaching ministry teams, and observing the rise and fall of many ministries, I have learned this truth firsthand: when a calling is real, the church will see it, affirm it, and eventually send it. When a calling is forced, the fruit will reveal its weakness, and the church will...