I often think of pastoral ministry as occurring in seasons. Each season of the year creates a unique dynamic in the church calendar. Yet we could also think of seasons as times of sowing, watering, and reaping. That Scriptural principle describes the world of agriculture. But I mean “season” in a broader sense.
During most seasons of ministry, pastors do the normal work of praying for others, studying for sermons, leading meetings, and working through our list of people to care for, counsel, and disciple. This is the “typical season.” But then during some seasons, we find ourselves adapting to new circumstances. Sometimes these seasons are of our own making, like hiring new staff or constructing a new facility. Other seasons force particular circumstances on us.
I pastor in the Midwest where harsh winters come often. Certain seasons (literally seasons) have felt like we had to cancel more services than we’ve actually held. Pastors also occasionally have seasons where, in a three-week span, they perform three funerals and wedding. These events are emotionally and logistically complex. Although that is the nature of the work, such seasons can disrupt the rhythm of a pastor’s schedule for weeks, and sometimes months.
A Strange Season
Pastors around the world are currently in an unfamiliar season: leading during a pandemic. Many churches have suspended services for weeks, and in some cases indefinitely. From what public health officials suggest, months may pass before some gather to worship again. The prospect of extended cancellations is difficult for any faithful Christian to imagine, but it’s uniquely challenging for pastors. Much of our weekly work culminates on a day of the week when we have the privilege and burden of sharing a message (sometimes more than one) with God’s gathered people. Pastors spend much of the week studying for, praying over, and fine-tuning these messages.
Now, not only has COVID-19 disrupted the church’s preaching ministry, but it has also altered the ministry of member care and discipleship. Social distancing is essential. Small groups have been suspended. Hospitals and nursing homes are shuttered to visitors. And more may still change.
Some pastors will feel that they must somehow justify their existence to the world, or even their flock. After all, if you can’t perform the most routine, visible ministry that you do (preaching and teaching), what good are you? Moreover, how can you lead and care for a flock you mostly can’t be among, indefinitely?
Yet we, along with all our neighbors, find ourselves in this situation within God’s providence. We’re not the only ones whose work and life have been disrupted. How can we step back and see our ministry with clear eyes at this moment? During this strange and unusual season, consider these five practical ways pastors can use their time wisely.
(1) Prayer and Study
Prayer and teaching are so important that the Holy Spirit established a biblical office to ensure that church leaders didn’t get distracted from doing them. Deacons are among those who bless the body through their gifts of ministry and service. Just as God used the ministry of deacons to help the apostles better focus on their work (Acts 6), He still calls pastors to keep the main thing the main thing. Yet I don’t know a single pastor who wouldn’t admit that getting pulled away from this important work is all too easy.
In a season when pastors may not be preparing for the same amount of teaching and preaching, they should embrace this opportunity for prayer and study. They should pray through their prayer list, mindful of the anxieties and uncertainties their flock is feeling. They can pull out the journal they haven’t touched in months to reflect more deeply than time usually allows. They can sit down with Scripture and study it without the temptation to figure out how best to outline it to preach (we probably should already not think that way!). Even those of us preparing to give messages on Facebook, YouTube, or other online platforms find that sermon preparation just feels different. But it still requires study.
It’s easy to be driven by tasks. This is a great time to press the reset button and to let a hunger for spiritual formation and a fresh passion for the good of God’s people drive us.
(2) Calls and Correspondence
I find it difficult to have to curtail my visitation almost entirely. However, as much as embodied presence is central to Christian spirituality and community, we have other tools that partially involve the flesh-and-blood ways we rightly cherish.
With a telephone, I can hear the voice of God’s people. The better I know them, the more their tone reveals to me their true feelings and fears. Some calls will be brief, while others will turn into something more. Some of us don’t like having a phone pressed to our ears, but in a time of social distancing it’s a tool with which we need to be acquainted. It’s inexpensive, easy to use, and can cover a lot of ground in one day. It’s also essential for those churches trying to coordinate food or supply deliveries to needy people.
But I confess, in this digital age, that I’m still a pen and paper guy. A great pen and clean stationary are valuable tools in the pastor’s desk. Postage continues to creep higher, but is fifty-five cents too much to say to a member, “You are loved by God”? They’re more likely to keep a hand-written note than any sermon handouts they receive at a service.
(3) Humble, Long-term Planning
Pastors must plan, even if there’s no God-ordained template for how far in advance to fill a church calendar or preaching schedule. Leading an organization requires careful planning and preparation. Events don’t plan themselves. Retreats, conferences, or weddings require extensive logistical work.
Yet recent circumstances have reminded us to hold onto plans loosely. Conferences, vacations, graduations, and even weddings have been postponed or cancelled. The Bible presents an important balance when it comes to planning. James 4:13–17 pictures a man who plans presumptuously, confident he has tomorrow to conduct more business. Luke 12:16–21 presents a similar picture of a man planning more barns to amass greater wealth. The plans themselves, however, aren’t the problem. The first man lacks humility and awareness of his finitude. The second man hasn’t made adequate spiritual preparations for his future.
Pastors will have to take this time to consider alternative scenarios for events, services, and messages they had planned for the next few months. Such reorganization will occupy a great deal of time. But this season can also remind us to pray more as we plan, and to build more contingencies into our planning. What happens if the facility construction or renovation isn’t finished on time? What if we don’t meet our budget goal? What financial adjustments may be needed for 2021? This last question seems especially prudent given that many economists say we’re now in a recession. We definitely must avoid knee-jerk reactions, but circumstances like these remind us to plan humbly.
(4) Updating Policies
One of the most wearying administrative tasks is the development and implementation of policies. Yet no pastor alive hasn’t discussed an existing policy with other leaders and said, “Yeah, we probably need to update that.” This season may be an opportunity for pastors to work with others, especially those who are gifted administratively or detail-oriented, to review and consider revisions to existing policies.
Sometimes our policies don’t reflect the current realities of the ministry. They refer to positions that no longer exist, persons who are no longer with the ministry, or practices that aren’t consistent with best practices for churches. Worse still, some policies simply don’t follow biblical principles closely enough. Reading, reviewing, and thinking through policies that often haven’t been updated in decades takes time, so this season may be an ideal opportunity to tackle those.
(5) Clarity on Thorny Topics
Every pastor has a set of questions they get asked often by church members. Some are serious: How do we know infants who die go to heaven? What about believers who commit suicide? Others are complex in a different way: Who are the Nephilim in Genesis 6? And some return every generation: How do I choose the right Bible translation?
Hopefully all ordained pastors could give a basic, clear answer to these questions. However, we all need to refresh ourselves on these and ones like them. More than likely a pastor has considered preaching on a certain topic but knows that he hasn’t yet invested the required study. Or a question similar to those above keeps cropping up. This season is a good time for pastors to dig into their libraries and be the lifelong learners that they desire their congregants to be. Not only would this be personally edifying, but it also follows the principle of equipping oneself so as better to equip others.
There are certainly more ways pastors could make good use of this season. To be clear, it’s not as though other tasks don’t arise in times like these to fill the time! But this season will likely present some gaps in their schedules, and there are plenty of worthy, spiritually fruitful ways to use that time to serve our churches well.
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