Discouragement and depression are weapons of the enemy, but as believers we have what we need to defend ourselves — the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“When you become despondent, realize you’re part of a larger brotherhood,” said pastor and church planter Mark Clifton, speaking during the afternoon session of the 2022 Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference. “Think about the hope of future glory, talk to one another and pray with one another. … Find your purpose and your meaning in the risen Christ.”
Clifton, pastor of Linwood Baptist Church in Kansas, shared his personal experience with depression and how several church members recognized his pain and encouraged him.
Biblical examples
He pointed to biblical figures like Elijah, as well as more contemporary giants of the faith who also struggled with depression.
“In the case of Elijah, in the case of Charles Spurgeon, in the case of (Adoniram) Judson, in the case of (Martin) Luther, God was not through with them,” Clifton said. “The spirit of God returned to them and restored them.”
Reading from 2 Corinthians 1, Clifton noted the despair in Apostle Paul’s words in verse 8.
“We don’t know what they faced in Asia, … but it was so difficult that he’s not speaking hyperbole here. He really is saying, ‘I thought we were going to die.’”
Paul didn’t try to hide his feelings from the believers in Corinth, Clifton said.
“He wasn’t trying to act like he never had a problem, that he was overcoming everything. Rather he makes it abundantly clear to the Corinthians and to you and I today, ‘we were so burdened when we were in Asia that we didn’t think we were going to be able to continue. In fact, we thought we were under the sentence of death.’
“If the Apostle Paul, who had a personal encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus can have a season and a time when he feels so utterly depressed that he’s fearing for life itself, that he feels as though he’s under a sentence of death, then probably you and I will have those feelings as well.
“And I’m grateful to Paul, under the leadership and the influence of the Holy Spirit, was led to share that story with us.”
Facing adversity
Though no one is immune from despair, pastors of small churches face especially significant challenges, said Clifton, who in addition to his role as pastor serves as senior director of replanting for the North American Mission Board.
“The adversary knows the real [spiritual] power that is untapped are the 40,000 normative size churches across North America,” Clifton said, noting that the median size Southern Baptist church has 70 in attendance on Sunday mornings.
“But we have to come to grips with the fact that there’s some serious spiritual warfare going on in our churches.”
Clifton said a lesson he learned years ago while serving a dying congregation is that a pastor must love the church God gives him.
“When I began to love the church God gave me, everything turned around,” he said. “Those dysfunctional people were there to edify me, to take away my pride, to take away my ego, to shape me and to force me to do what the Apostle Paul had to do when he became depressed.
“If you look at the very next phrase, Paul says, in [2 Corinthians 1:10], ‘He delivered us from such a deadly peril.’
“We felt we’d received the sentence of death [Paul writes] but this was to make us rely — underline this — ‘not on ourselves but on God who raised Jesus from the dead.’
“We do not preach Jesus Christ enough,” Clifton emphasized. “You’re going to be depressed. You’re going to be discouraged. There are going to be difficult times.
“But those are times, as Paul said, to force us to quit relying on ourselves and rely rather on the power and the presence of the risen Christ. … He’s coming again. That is what I need. And that is what we all need.”
To view more photos of Mark Clifton’s address during the 2022 Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference, click here.
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