Sighing on Sunday: 40 Meditations for When Church Hurts

Megan Hill, Sighing on Sunday: 40 Meditations for When Church Hurts. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 2024. 120 pp. $17.99, cloth.

Megan Hill loves the church. Each of her books and articles reveals the depth of that love. Sighing on Sunday is no exception.

The book emerged from a conversation. She asked, “What are the reasons why church can hurt?” She listened and—in subsequent months—kept listening to many more stories of saints who found life in the church hard and painful (93). From these conversations come forty meditations that comprise this book. They explore the sources of pain that may hinder members from gathering on Sunday—or, when they go—to rob them of their joy of worship and fellowship. Just as importantly, these meditations unfold why the church is precious to our Savior and must be precious to us, too.

The meditations are arranged under six headings.

• What Is Happening? (Hurts that members experience within the church include neglect, being sinned against, difficult circumstances, congregational conflict, grief, being led by sinful shepherds, and rejection.)
• Why Is Church So Hard? (The world is fallen, the church is subject to Satan’s assaults, and people are weak and sinful.)
• Why Should I Trust God When Church Hurts? (God is sovereign, powerful, never changing, and loving)
• What Can I Do? (Express sorrow, confess sin, trust the Lord, seek help from God and wise counselors, decide to remain or leave a congregation, and beware of bitterness, self-righteousness, doubt, pride, isolation, and strife.)
• Why should I keep showing up? (It is Christ’s church! It is “established by God and given to Christ”! [65])
• What Have Others Done in My Situation? (A look at seven biblical examples)

Readers will quickly sense that Hill understands the hurts she identifies—both from her own personal experiences and by sharing in the experiences of others as they struggle.

Reasons why pastors and church leaders should read this book:

First, many of us who lead are unaware of the breadth and depth of the hurts our members experience. A remedy for our lack of knowledge is listening to the voices of the wounded and those who walk with them. Though compact, this book touches on a large number of hurts that can make gathering for worship painful; wise leaders will listen.

Second, the author’s counsel is sound, biblical and practical. For example, while it is true that hurts may come directly from the sins of fellow church members, many of the other frustrations we find in church life—like budget shortfalls, deteriorating facilities, members moving away, illness and death, plans that don’t gel (to name but a few)—are “ordinary difficulties and discouragements” that make up life in a fallen world. They’re to be expected. We mustn’t become frustrated with our Christian brothers and sisters when we encounter the sufferings common to all who live in a fallen world. Nor should painful realities rob us of anticipating the joy that will be ours in the age to come (19–20).

Later she warns that when church hurts, it can be easy to think the present difficulty is our “one bad thing to get and relax our vigilance against other threats,” like bitterness (41).

A simple and direct question helps us obtain the right frame of mind for worship: “How do you spend the time on your way to church on Sunday?” (48).

Third, the book is brief. Persons in anguish frequently find their ability to concentrate diminished. This book provides brief, clear, and biblical counsel that communicates the Lord’s compassion to the broken hearted as well as a path forward. Recommended readings on the doctrine of the church are provided for those who wish to pursue further study (95).

Fourth, preachers and teachers can learn to formulate apt and concise illustrations that illumine the text and apply scriptural truth with sensitivity. The author draws her examples from the biblical text and personal experience.

In a meditation on God’s immutability, she describes how she clung to that doctrine for comfort when a very large congregation became her new church home and “every week, it felt like I was walking into a brand-new church” (33). She cites the example of Anna in Luke 2: through a life of painful disappointments that spanned decades, Anna becomes an example of persevering worship and grateful witness (83; see Luke 2:37–38).

Fifth, the book is well-suited for individual and group studies. Each chapter concludes with scripture passages, reflection questions, and directions for prayer. Her reflection questions are probing: “In [an earlier reflection] we saw that recognizing other Christians’ weakness can help us understand that their actions don’t necessarily align with their intentions. How can recognizing other believers’ ongoing battle with sin similarly help us understand their conduct?” (26).

Sixth, pastors and church leaders are by no means exempt from the hurts experienced in Christ’s church. They too can find comfort from the spiritual balm the author applies.

Seventh, the book has a high view of the ordinary means of grace.

As head of the church, Christ pours out his Spirit and indwells his church, filling it with his fulness. We see this most clearly in the church’s weekly gathering for worship. Christ speaks to us in the preaching of the Word (1 Thess. 2:13). He prays with us in the corporate prayers of his gathered people (Rom. 8:34). He calls us to sing together and draws our hearts to praise (Heb. 2:12). He gives us confidence to confess our faith (Heb. 4:14–16). He seals us for his own in the visible, tangible signs of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 11:24). Sunday after Sunday, Christ comes to his church, ministers his grace, and displays his glory (65–66).

This book is a gift to the church. Leaders will find their appreciation of the church’s beauty enriched, their sympathy for struggling believers deepened, and the shape that pastoral care must take. All of this is good news for the church that confesses: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in Spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

Charles Malcolm Wingard
Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson