What I Wish Pastors Would Preach About

Let me start by saying something important: I love pastors. I love what they do. I love the calling on their lives. I could not do what they do, and I am grateful for the people who step into that role week after week, standing in the gap between God and His people.

This post is not an attack on pastors. It is an observation, offered in humility, from someone who sits in the pew week after week and sometimes wonders why certain things never get preached on.

Here is what I wish pastors would preach about more.

Mental Health Without the Spiritual Bypass

Every church I have ever been to has some version of a message about anxiety or depression at some point. But so many of them go the same way: it is really a spiritual problem, it is really a lack of faith, it is really the enemy attacking you.

And maybe sometimes those things are true. But sometimes it is just depression. Sometimes it is a chemical imbalance. Sometimes it is trauma that needs therapy, not just prayer.

I wish pastors would preach on mental health the way Jesus handled it: with both hands. With prayer AND with professional help. With faith AND with medication when needed. With the understanding that God created doctors for a reason, and that taking care of your mental health is not a lack of faith, it is wisdom.

And I wish they would preach to the people sitting in their congregations who are struggling and tell them it is okay to not be okay. That they do not have to pretend. That church is supposed to be a safe place to be real.

Money and Power Honestly

Jesus talked about money more than almost any other topic. And yet many churches are terrified to preach about it. When they do, it is usually in the context of giving, which, while important, is only one piece of the conversation.

I wish pastors would preach about the love of money, the danger of wealth, the way accumulation can become idolatry. I wish they would talk about economic justice, about how God cares about the poor, about how the early church shared everything in common.

And I wish they would preach about power. About how dangerous it is. About how the church has too often been captured by it. About how Jesus explicitly told His followers they would not be like the Gentiles who lord it over each other.

These are Kingdom topics. They are in the Bible constantly. And they are mostly absent from our pulpits.

The Reality of Deconstruction and Doubt

People are leaving the church in record numbers. And one of the main reasons is because they have questions they cannot ask. Doubts they cannot voice. Struggles they cannot share.

I wish pastors would preach about doubt the way the Bible presents it. Thomas doubted, and he was called blessed. Job doubted, and his story is in the Bible. Even Jesus, on the cross, asked why His Father had forsaken Him.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Sometimes it is the beginning of a deeper faith. And I wish more pastors would create space for people to ask the hard questions without fear of being condemned.

Because the people who are leaving are often the ones who are asking the most honest questions. And if we cannot hold space for them in the church, we are going to lose them.

The Church's History of Hurt

I wish pastors would acknowledge, more often, that the church has hurt people. That we have not always been the hands and feet of Jesus. That there are people sitting in our pews right now who have been wounded by other Christians, by leaders, by communities that were supposed to love them.

When someone has been hurt by the church, telling them "the church is so great" is not helpful. It minimises their experience. But acknowledging the wound, validating it, and then showing what the church is supposed to be, that is pastoral.

I wish more sermons included: "I know some of you have been hurt by the church. I know some of you have been abused, neglected, dismissed. I want you to know that what happened to you was wrong, and Jesus weeps with you in it."

That would reach so many people who are quietly struggling.

What It Actually Looks Like to Follow Jesus in Daily Life

So many sermons focus on what we should believe. I wish more focused on how we should live.

I wish they would preach about what it looks like to love your neighbour when your neighbour is difficult. What it looks like to forgive when you have been deeply wronged. What it looks like to live simply in a consumerist culture. What it looks like to be a peacemaker in a divided world.

Give us practical theology. Give us something we can actually do on Monday morning, not just something we should feel on Sunday morning.

The Sermon on the Mount is full of this kind of teaching. It is down-to-earth, specific, and actionable. And we barely preach on it.

A Call to Pastoral Courage

I know why pastors avoid some of these topics. They are hard. They are controversial. They might offend some people. They might lose some attendance.

But here is what I have noticed: the sermons that change people are rarely the comfortable ones. The sermons that people remember years later are the ones that made them uncomfortable. The ones that challenged them. The ones that asked something of them.

And the sermons that people actually need are often the ones we are most afraid to preach.

So this is my encouragement to pastors, from someone who loves the church: be brave. Preach the hard things. Create space for the questions. Acknowledge the struggles. Tell the truth even when it costs you.

Your people are watching. And they are hungry for something real.