Addressing Anxiety: Why Pastors Need to Preach on Peace In An Anxious World

On December 31st, 2019, as the United States counted down the last 10 seconds to midnight, perhaps already anticipating a heated election year, the world could not have expected the tidal wave that was COVID-19. 

A time of fear and confusion began, as people took precautionary efforts to combat and evade the potentially deadly disease while navigating the murky waters of the media. The pandemic was not only a catalyst for controversy, drawing a dividing line between the topics of government mandation and personal autonomy –– but was also accompanied by protests over police brutality and racial discrimination, adding fuel to the flames of an already tumultuous political year. 

I was a student in college when the “flatten the curve” lockdown went into full effect. While my introverted tendencies found some comfort in studying and attending classes from home, I felt a heightened sense of anxiety from what felt like the world unraveling from every seam. There was an uneasiness in being left alone with the world’s problems, trying to make sense of them, and eventually having to become reacquainted with social settings after months of quarantine. 

While global lockdowns have lightened up since 2020, there always seems to be an unending cycle of bad news across the globe. Whether it’s a lasting effect of what the world experienced in the last three years or simply a product of modern life, many people continue to be affected by the phenomenon that is anxiety.

In today’s blog I will be talking about some of the reasons why so many of us may be affected by anxiety and why it’s important for pastors to address the topic of anxiety in the Church.

What Do We Mean When We Talk about Anxiety?

The first part of talking about anxiety is understanding what’s meant by anxiety. 

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.” Expanding on this definition, online medical resource, MedlinePlus, describes anxiety as a “feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness,” explaining that “It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat.” It also adds that “It can be a normal reaction to stress.”

It’s important for me to make a distinction here between lowercase “a” anxiety and uppercase “A” Anxiety. What I mean by this is that while anyone can experience feelings of anxiety (lowercase anxiety as a general experience), people can also be affected by anxiety disorders which are clinically diagnosed (uppercase Anxiety as those experiencing mental illness). 

MedlinePlus defines an anxiety disorder as a “condition in which you have anxiety that does not go away and can get worse over time” to a point where “the symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, schoolwork, and relationships.”

I will mainly be speaking on anxiety in the lowercase sense, addressing the ways in which it affects the general population.

Four Types of Anxiety

From Psychology Today, Dr. John G. Cottone––author, assistant professor and private-practice psychologist––developed a schema of four broad types of anxiety that people tend to experience outside the specific criteria of clinical anxiety disorders. 

These four types are identified as:

1. Situational Anxiety: The kind of anxiety we tend to experience in response to stressful situations. During the pandemic, for example, people may have experienced situational anxiety in response to the reported rise in COVID cases. Situational anxiety could also come from everyday life, such as worrying about whether you can pay next month’s rent.   
2. Biological Anxiety: A form of anxiety that is a chemical imbalance of the body, specifically of neurotransmitters or hormones. In this case, anxiety tends to be a “fight or flight response” from the sympathetic nervous system that’s been “triggered” by increasing “arousal” –– such as high heart-rate or blood pressure. 
3. Psychological Anxiety: This form of anxiety tends to come from conditioning (such as negative experiences or associations) or “cognitive distortion” (overgeneralizing or thinking in worst-case scenarios). While situational anxiety is a “rational fear response” to a very real threat, psychological anxiety is a “disproportionate” fear response to a threat that can either be real or imagined. An example might be: not wanting to chew gum due to a negative memory of almost choking on gum or having crippling fear over the assumption that a new mole is cancerous. 
4. Existential Anxiety: This last type of anxiety is concerned with the idea of death. Cottone considers existential anxiety to be “the mother of all anxieties,” as the acknowledgment and self-awareness of death’s inevitability is unique to the human species. Someone with existential anxiety may avoid funerals, cemeteries, and terminally ill family members, or even obsess over their legacy.

Why Do We Experience So Much Anxiety Today?

While anxiety has been around for the ages, it’s difficult to make a substantial argument that people experience anxiety now more than ever before.

Though there’s certainly an argument to be made that in today's fast-paced and interconnected world, anxiety has become a destigmatized yet prevalent issue that stems from many different factors in all kinds of forms. 

One of these factors may be the omnipresence of social media. Constant barrages of curated images, idealized lifestyles, and advertisement after advertisement cause people to compare themselves to others and create a void of dissatisfaction, contributing to a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt. 

There are economic uncertainties (such as rising inflation) and job insecurities (especially with evolving industries) that contribute to stress, as people grapple with the pressure to secure stable futures. 

The relentless news cycle reporting, often negative or distressing, generates headlines from all around the world that can lead to a heightened sense of fear and uncertainty about the future.

The demands of modern life––often characterized by long working hours, constant accessibility through calls, texts or email, increased academic pressures, and skyrocketing tuition that often comes with student debt––can overwhelm individuals, creating a breeding ground for anxiety. 

Lastly, there’s the growing tension of divisiveness over political issues from race, gender, sexuality, environmentalism and global conflict, that becomes increasingly harder to rectify in a world vast with echo chambers of selective information and strong opinions. 

A Call to Address Anxiety

As society evolves, it’s important for pastors to understand and address these multifaceted causes of anxiety, providing a sense of peace and direction from the position of God’s word and authority.

More than ever, pastors should use this opportunity to show the importance of prayer, worship, meditation on the Word, and living out the lifestyle that Jesus and His disciples modeled for us. 

A Tool for Assisting Pastors in Addressing Anxiety

Because the anxieties of the world––whether globally or personally––are such heavy topics to address, pastors need all the help they can get. 

While pastors should have a team of assistant pastors, elders and mentors surrounding them, providing community, collaboration and support, it also helps to have access to sermon preparation tools that can assist in creating strong messages. 

These tools help by not only streamlining the sermon preparation process through generating sermon outlines, but can help users to create character studies with ease, conduct research for relevant Bible verses, and contextualize stories of the Bible with modern day examples.

Final Thoughts on Addressing Anxiety

While society may look different now than during the days of Christ, the nature of humanity remains the same. We can see the ways in which people have always faced situational anxieties, existential anxieties, psychological anxieties or even, perhaps less obvious, biological anxieties.

The good news is that we still belong to the same God and can find peace in being reminded of, meditating on, and living out verses such as Philippians 4:5-7:

“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

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