QUESTION 7:

JOURNEY’S PASTORS OFFER THEIR THOUGHTS

With the national conversation shifting to the question of ending the quarantine, pastors find their burden not lifted, but shifted as well. And deepened. As they shepherd their people in quarantine, they are asking how they will Psalm 23-shepherd through the transition back to normal. They are asking what the new normal will look like.

In recent weeks as we have processed the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown, several significant threads have become apparent in my conversations with the U40 ministers I coach and with peers. 

Two weeks ago we looked at nine questions that COVID-19 is asking CHURCHES. You can access that article here.  Questions one through six in our PASTORS series are available here.

In this seven-day series, we’re posing Seven Questions COVID-19 is asking PASTORS about life, church, and ministry after COVID-19.

Here are the questions we’ve asked so far: 

• QUESTION 1:  Will pastors first be seekers of Jesus or seekers of followers?

• QUESTION 2:  Will pastors become talking heads?  

• QUESTION 3:  Will this lead to more pastoral care among people who are suffering? 

• QUESTION 4:  Will Ephesians 4.12-16 pastoral ministry make a comeback?  

• QUESTION 5:  Will pastoral ministry be primarily prophetic or merely visionary? 

• QUESTION 6:  Will pastors survive or thrive?

In preparing for this series, I asked our pastors in Journey Pastoral Coaching and several peers in ministry to share with me the questions they hear COVID asking pastors as we come out of this season. Their responses helped me as I prepared the above six questions. My thanks to everyone for their help. 

Contributors offered so many great questions, I decided to make them the collective “seventh” question in our series. Each question they offered is listed by category and is worthy of our consideration. 

PASTORAL CARE

1. Will I be content to be a ‘buffet shepherd’ or will I serve my people up close? 
2. Will I be content to post information on social media or be willing to put forth the effort to make personal touches and care for people one-on-one?
3. Will we be entrepreneurs or shepherds?
4. Will we become shepherds or showmen?

PASTORS AND PROPHECY

1. Will truly prophetic ministry be restored among pastors. 
2. Are we prepared to lead people in end times faith?
3. Will we fear what is to come or rest in the peace/promises of Revelation? 

PASTORS AND GOVERNMENT

1. Are we willing to be leaders who follow God instead of people who follow governments/politics? Or at what point do we put our faith before the government?

PASTORS AND INTEGRITY

1. How will COVID-19 affect the motivations of pastors? What will our motivations be? 
2. Will pastors find a healthy way to walk with people in truth and transparency in our own lives?
3. Are we willing to be vulnerable and honestly walk with people through hard times/feelings even if we don’t have all the answers?
4. Will we spend as much time alone with God as we do in front of cameras?
5. Will we spend as much time alone with God as we do in front of social media?

PASTORS AND SUFFERING

1. Can we talk about sickness in a way that is heard by our culture (right now a lot of it feels tone deaf)?
2. How are we to minister to the sick and dying at this time? Surely our presence is needed. But what about our families? Do we quarantine ourselves from our families in order to minister to others (like some doctors are doing)? Is that even an option?

PASTORS & SOCIAL INTERACTION CONCERNS

1. Everyone now has different standards for social interactions. Will those persist and how will pastors navigate those various standards in a single congregation?
2. Is there a safer way to share communion and meals?
3. How will we handle kids’ space and parents’ potential fears that sicknesses will be shared?  

PASTORS & DIGITAL MINISTRY

1. How can pastors create content helpful to people outside of our congregation? How can we do it in such away that it doesn’t become overly burdensome as we lead physical services again? 
2. Will pastors transform their local churches from local gathering places into national studios?
3. Will pastoral ministry return to its historic foundations of spiritual contemplation or go pedal-to-the-metal digital communication?
4. How will pastors lead discipleship ministry? Will people continue to enter into small groups or will we have to promote digital venues like Zoom?
5. Will we answer the call to the word and prayer or the opportunity to be social media celebrities?
6. How will we resist the urge to become a digital factory rather than a body of believers who make disciples? 
7. Will digital become the servant or the master for pastors?
8. Will online clicks transform us into celebrity-wannabes?
9. Will pastoral ministry be digital or analog? Will pastors be able to establish a balance between digital and analog?
10. Will pastors become exhausted from creating a digital platform in addition to their “regular” pastoral ministry? Some pastors feel an incredible burden that they must surge into the digital age or die. While I know we must adapt, we can’t think that discipleship must now all be onscreen. Will we be ready and willing to invest more in face-to-face discipleship?
11. Will pastors become performers on small screens?  
12. Will pastors live online and in social media? Will they use the time they could have used for prayer, word, and people to cruise online? 
13. How can we balance between creating digital platforms and engaging in face-to-face discipleship?
14. Will we be entrepreneurs or shepherds?
15. Will we become shepherds or showmen?

PASTORS & THE FAITH COMMUNITY

1. How can we celebrate being able to meet again, but not making the Sunday meeting the most important spiritual practice for our people?
2. How will we respond to people possibly attending because they enjoy streaming online at home?
3. What are we really about? Is church just a service/a sermon? Are we content live-streaming and leaving it at that? Is community a weekend gathering or something more?
4. What does this experience show us about what the incarnate (physical, in person) church offers that online church does not?
5. Will our church community be Christ centered or technology/relationship/community centered? In other words, what is our foundation? What unifies us or brings us together?
6. Will pastors have to re-engage people to want community or will it be natural?
7. Will pastors transform their local churches from local gathering places into national studios?

PASTORS & THE GOSPEL

1. Will our declaration of the Gospel change? Will it be pandemic-colored? 
2. Will our preaching change from preaching the hope that is ours in Christ to one of destiny or fate?

PASTORS & DISCIPLESHIP 

1. How will pastors lead discipleship ministry? Will people continue to enter into small groups or will we have to promote digital venues like Zoom?
2. How can we balance between creating digital platforms and engaging in face-to-face discipleship?

PASTORS & THE METANARRATIVE

1. What is God teaching pastors through all of this?
2. Will we allow this to change our churches or will we try to sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen? Are we willing to listen to God’s leading in how He may want our traditional church practices to change? How does God want to use this to change/improve how we do church?

PASTORS & THE CHURCH – GENERAL

1. What things did we do before this that we do not need to start doing again?

PASTORS & HEALTHY LIFELONG MINISTRY

1. Will pastoral ministry return to its historic foundations of spiritual contemplation or go pedal-to-the-metal digital communication?
2. Will pastors be done with comparing themselves to other pastors?
3. Will we answer the call to the word and prayer or the call to be social media celebrities?
4. Will the pandemic finally call pastors back to studies, altars, and lives of reflection?  
5. Will pastors be sprinters or marathoners? 
6. Will pastors become exhausted from creating a digital platform in addition to their “regular” pastoral ministry? Some pastors feel an incredible burden that they must surge into the digital age or die. While I know we must adapt, we can’t think that discipleship must now all be onscreen. Will we be ready and willing to invest more in face-to-face discipleship?
7. Will pastors break through floors of self to their true foundation in Jesus?
8. Will we spend more time in the Word and prayer or in front of cameras?
9. Will we spend as much time alone with God as we do in front of cameras?
10. Will we spend as much time alone with God as we do in front of social media?

FINAL THOUGHT

In his book, The Conviction to Lead, Dr. Albert Mohler writes,

“The most faithful and effective pastors are those who are driven by deep and energizing convictions.”

But what is conviction?

Conviction is what drove Martin Luther to stand before the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet at Worms and say,

“Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me.”

Conviction is what drove missionary Jim Elliot to say in words and in his very blood, 

“He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Conviction is what drove an unnamed and persecuted Vietnamese disciple of Jesus to say,

“Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God is the worst thing.”

Conviction is what drove Pastor Kim and his congregation in North Korea to sing as the steamrollers moved steadily toward them,

“More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee.  

Thee alone I seek, more love to Thee.

Let sorrow do its work, more love to Thee.

Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise.

This be the parting cry my heart shall raise; 

More love, O Christ, to Thee.”

Conviction is the difference between dead religion and living reality of Jesus Christ. Conviction is the difference between a clergyman’s career and a pastor’s calling. Conviction is what turns an office into a study, a position into a place of service. Conviction is what turns a leader into a pastor, a CEO into a shepherd. 

Conviction is the heartbeat that provokes us to preach the Gospel purely and without fear. Conviction is what puts a pastor in a sickroom with the suffering and calls him to share the sufferings of those who mourn. Conviction is what compels a pastor to stand in the day of testing and not flee. Conviction is what sets a pastor like a wall between danger and his people. Conviction is what turns off a TV and opens the Word of God. Conviction is what transforms Sunday sermonettes into solid, study-bred, meat for men’s souls. Conviction is what prompts a pastor to do the holy and righteous thing instead of the easy and popular thing. Conviction pulls us off of our popularity platforms and puts a basin and a towel in our hands; it compels us to gladly yield the place of honor and seek the place of the least. Conviction is what leads a pastor to give his life for his sheep. Conviction is what places a man on his knees daily before His God in desperate but confident hunger for Him. 

Conviction is what gets a pastor out of bed every day at the same time to shower and shave, dress for the day, drive to the church, unlock the door, turn on the coffee pot, and take his place at his desk or on his knees as he begins yet another day faithfully pastoring the people of God. 

Many of the questions above will remained unanswered until Jesus comes. But that’s not the issue. The real question has already been answered and will be answered every day until Jesus comes. To quote Mohler again, “The most faithful and effective pastors are those who are driven by deep and energizing convictions.”  Driven by deep and energizing convictions, faithful pastors will effectively lead God’s people – in every season of life: seasons of much and of little; seasons of answers and of questions; seasons of certainty and seasons when the world itself seems to have been turned upside down. Before COVID. During every COVID. And after COVID. 

Thank God for pastors like these. 

———-

NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry. 

Now, more than ever, we need your help. 

If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers in 20 US states and 5 nations build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to contact us by email or to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.

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“In the early years when I was becoming a pastor, I needed a pastor.” 

 Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir