Prepare for Unexpected Storms

by Josh Manley

Josh Manley is the senior pastor of RAK Evangelical Church in the United Arab Emirates.

June 10, 2024

We planted the RAK Evangelical Church in Ras al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates eleven years ago. Since then, I have come to learn personally what I once knew only academically: God’s Word is sufficient to safeguard God’s church—even through the unexpected storms that you and your congregation will endure. Preaching effectively amid trials may seem daunting, but the Lord provides wisdom for how and what to preach.

Prepare by Trusting the Sufficiency of Scripture

Life in our fallen world is turbulent. Some members will be diagnosed with cancer, grieve over wayward children, or see new and wicked laws threaten their job security. Like people preparing for a hurricane with sandbags and boarded windows, pastors must ready their people for the storms that Scripture promises are coming (1 Pet. 4:12, Rom. 8:18).

The best way to prepare is to steadily exposit the Word of God in your sermons and Bible studies. Our preaching ministries should not just react to disappointment and tragedy. We should proactively apply God’s enduring Word to the real and specific struggles of our members. The best time to prepare your people for suffering, persecution, or cultural marginalization is before they face them. The first time your people reckon with the sovereignty of God should not be when a storm hits.

For instance, this week my sermon text pointed to God’s independence and immutability. These two attributes of God will help anchor my church in any storm ahead.

Good doctors don’t just treat the sick—they equip people to pursue healthy habits. Our job is to serve as spiritual physicians, helping our flocks find nourishment and build theological muscle mass before disease cripples them.

Don’t Assume Every Storm Affects Every Member

In our church, I’ve had the privilege of preaching to believers from Afghanistan to Zambia. Those saints have taught me that a storm battering Christians in one country may not rage in the same way elsewhere. While our brothers and sisters from the Philippines may have families picking up after a devastating typhoon, others fight the wicked actions of their oppressive nearby Middle Eastern government. But even in a church where most members share a common cultural heritage, pastors cannot assume that trials pressing hardest in some circles will press the same way in others.

Pastors should not react to every member’s crisis from the pulpit. Yet we are called to share one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). One way is to apply part of a sermon or study to situations on the minds of your people or set aside time during the pastoral prayer and church prayer meetings. You can pray for unemployment concerns, better education, or just laws. Because we are all members of one body, lead your body to care for each part without allowing the storms of a few to overtake the whole.

Persevere by Trusting God’s Providence

Of course, everyone finds themselves in the middle of storms that engulf large parts of our church at once and would be pastoral malpractice to ignore—even when it’s hard to see how highlighting the strife could possibly be edifying. As the Israeli-Hamas war began last October, it quickly became clear that this crisis was on the minds of everyone in our church, and it was provoking theological, political, and cultural questions. What can Christians agree to disagree on politically but not biblically? How do Christians think about war? Our elders agreed we should address these issues with the body.

Since our church lives together on the Arabian Peninsula, this particular conflict came with questions about war and peace for our region. These issues have been all-consuming for our members. Accordingly, I took time in our public worship to topically teach non-negotiables for every Christian navigating political differences—where the Scriptures bind our consciences and where there should be Christian freedom in the political sphere.

When big storms hit your entire church, they come with other voices that compete for your congregation’s minds and hearts, and those voices are not always godly guides. Yet God has ordained you to be their pastor. You have the authority to apply God’s Word to help saints weather the confusion, pain, and anger they’re experiencing. Bringing God-given wisdom to bear in these cases is your job and privilege, and God will use you to care for his flock through challenges you never imagined.

Rest by Trusting That God Knows Your People’s Needs

God knows the storms ahead, and he knows our members’ needs better than we do. He loves them more than we do. The Lord reminds me of that regularly. Right now, for example, I am preaching the Joseph account in Genesis. And God used a sermon I preached a few weeks ago to prepare a family for suffering in the following days. What a joy to hear how that sermon helped them rely wholly on their sovereign God who reigns over confusing events in their lives.

By his Word and Spirit, God enables us to address the unexpected storms before they hit.

Brother pastor, remember that the flock you have been called to shepherd is not your flock, but his (1 Pet. 5:2). They are safe in his hand (John 6:37–39). The great shepherd of the sheep is also the slain lamb who has conquered and rules all of history (Heb. 13:20; Rev. 5:5, 9). When the storms come, trust that not only has the Good Shepherd expected them, he has ordained them and equipped you with everything you need to faithfully shepherd your flock through them.