Pastoring in a Pandemic

Voices for the Ages

Rev. Dr. Albert P. Jackson

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781639035861
• eBook ISBN: 9781639035854
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Pastoring in a Pandemic is a must-read! Some of the leading pastors in the DMV and eastern region have collectively provided testimony of how they have had to creatively navigate their congregations through the perilous times of COVID-19, the resulting economic downturn, as well as having to deal with the political and racial climate of extreme separatism.No other time in history has ever been quite as defining and yet so revealing. There is no doubt that this well-written script will inspire, challenge, and ultimately liberate those who read it and are able to apply its principles to heart.My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will encourage each reader, believer, and nonbeliever. I pray that collectively we will empower men and woman to draw closer to the Lord!Lead AuthorRev. Dr. Albert P. Jackson

Chapter 1

Pastoring

by Rev. Dr. Albert P. Jackson

Jesus said, “If you love me, feed my sheep”

Then He said, “If you love me, feed my lambs.”

—John 21:17 (KJV)

Black may be the clouds about you

And your future may seem grim,

But don’t let your nerve desert you;

Keep yourself in fighting trim.

If the worst is bound to happen,

Spite of all that you can do,

Running from it will not save you,

See it through!

So echoes the sentiments of pastoring inevitably through rough waters. These are the words of one Edgar Guest in his poem “See It Through.” Who would have thought that we would have been here?

Some ten months of COVID-19, hundreds of thousands of dead from this scourge of a virus that has brought terror and mayhem throughout this world, and even our cities have gone through many phases of shutdown.

Who would have thought we would have been here?

It could be said that we were caught with our pants down, unprepared with promises from our governing officials who said that within a month or two, somehow this would all be behind us—only to have it expose us to our deepest vulnerabilities.

Who would have thought that we would end up here?

We as a country have been exposed. Racism and injustice with COVID cases in the black and brown communities have been four times more likely to be infected because of racial disparity and inequality.

If this isn’t bad enough, we have had blatant modern-day lynching of Black people take place in broad daylight.

One case, in particular, rocked us all to the core as the world watched as the knee of a police officer was on the neck of one George Floyd. Everyone was looking in disbelief as the officer casually places his hands in his pockets as Floyd exclaimed, “I can’t breathe,” and called for his mother before he takes his last breath!

He is not the only one, but several Black people are have been gunned down during this pandemic, and we were called to pastor while still in it.

As we pastor through this pandemic, no one could have prepared us for this kind of gut-wrenching, all-hands-on-deck, up-close-and-personal pastoring before now!

*****

The idea of shepherding God’s children is a dirty job. Many who have been given the grace to lead have done so and somehow made it look easy. Yet it is not at all glamorous.

Beyond the faithfulness of your own spiritual disciplines of prayer, study, and stewardship, you must have an incredible amount of patience and trust in the Lord and learn to lead with tenderness as you quickly realize that these are not your children but somebody else’s.

In this journey of pastoring, I have discovered that you must lead even when it’s not popular to lead. Oftentimes, you will bellow a command from heaven in a direction that is not always clear, and you will have to repeat the vision and direction that is to be followed.

In this season of pastoring, all of your skill set, expertise, and experiences are put to the test. So the Lord in His sovereignty has given “some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11–12 KJV).

Again, among all of these gifts given to the body, pastoring is the dirtiest of jobs!

Pastoring is leading. Pastoring is disciplining. Pastoring is feeling. Pastoring is caring. Pastoring is rebuking. Pastoring is going after some of the lost sheep that have gone astray! Pastoring is modeling behavior before a community that you want to see exhibited within that community. So, in fact, if you want to see more love, patience, and understanding, it must be first modeled in your behavior as the desired expectation.

*****

As Dr. Lloyd T. McGriff always has instructed us, and I have discovered it to be true, that is in pastoring, you cannot expect what you do not inspect. So often, we can demonstrate, educate, and illustrate, which are necessary, but if we do not revisit, repeat, and inspect what we expect, those principles fall mute to the ground without proper execution, and the end result could very well be our own frustration in the process.

This idea of “pastoring in a pandemic” was spoken to me so clearly from the Lord. In that moment, all of my years of being raised in the church, as I watched my daddy who was a preacher, my grandmother who was a missionary, my mother who is a Sunday school superintendent and who between them had no formal doctorate level of training to speak of—they had something I dare say is missing and that a lot of leaders in the church lack, and that is they had the Holy Ghost!

It was a call to action from the Holy Ghost, that at all cost we must keep our beloved community together!

So instinctively, I used whatever platform we had to shepherd! We took to the conference call lines, and to social media and reach whoever would listen, and began together to minister to the nations.

Though very crude and even rough around the edges without a lot of polish, we started a “Midday Buffet Prayer-time” on Facebook. Seeking to pastor in a pandemic, we started off on a fourteen-day prayer vigil for our congregation. We did it for our sanctity and our sanity, and fourteen days turned into twenty-one weeks of a daily check in with worship, the word, and fervent prayer.

*****

This would be the lynchpin of our ministry as people in our community passed the word along to their friends and neighbors and shared our posts. This became a community within a community as many held on to a hope that brighter days were going to come.

Pastors would share best practices with pastors, and Zoom meetings would explode all over every soci-civic and religious platform in order to maintain community.

We have had to pastor through graveside only (funerals) home-going celebrations because of COVID. We have had to shepherd through the anxiety of not meeting for worship, and guide through various emotions of our congregations while still keeping our peace.

Depression and the dark cloud of doubt covered our nation, and we have been called to pastor even the more through it! This has been the most uncomfortable, aw...

Table of contents

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12