{"id":31407,"date":"2022-09-10T15:29:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-things-every-pastor-can-do-during-the-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:29:08","slug":"3-things-every-pastor-can-do-during-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-things-every-pastor-can-do-during-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Things Every Pastor Can Do During the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">Laura Dewilde photo &#8211; Unsplash <\/p>\n<p><em>By Kyle Bueermann<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There are scores of posts about what pastors and churches can&#8217;t do during the COVID-19 pandemic. And it&#8217;s true. There&#8217;s a lot we&#8217;re unable to do.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Churches are unable to gather together in person these days. Small groups can&#8217;t gather together. We can&#8217;t meet with other pastors at local restaurants or coffee shops for times of encouragement or accountability.<\/p>\n<p>If I&#8217;m frank, there&#8217;ve been a lot of days I&#8217;ve fretted over all the things we can&#8217;t do. I miss deeply the privilege of gathering together with the saints week in and week out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s much to lament in this season. But there&#8217;s much more we can celebrate. What&#8217;s more, there are many things we can all do, even during these days of stay-at-home orders and social distancing.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>1. We can proclaim the gospel.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>One of the things warming my heart immensely during this time is how my social media timelines are filling with solid, gospel-centered preaching and teaching.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0;clear: both'> <\/div>\n<p>We have incredible tools at our disposal right now to proclaim the gospel from living rooms and church foyers to the very ends of the earth. <\/p>\n<p>Seeing the churches do drive-in services with parking lots full of cars is awesome.<\/p>\n<p>Given the global pandemic we&#8217;re experiencing and the technology available to us, there may have been more hearing the gospel on Easter Sunday 2020 than any other day in all of history.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Keep proclaiming the hope we have in the gospel!<\/p>\n<h3><strong>2. We can love our church members.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>While we can&#8217;t gather in person these days, we can still shepherd the flocks that God has entrusted to each of us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Through the blessing of digital tools like Google Hangouts, FaceTime, and Zoom, we&#8217;re able to see our members face-to-face and encourage them. <\/p>\n<p>Through text messaging and social media, we&#8217;re able to be in contact with our members regularly.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And don&#8217;t underestimate the value of a simple phone call to check on a senior adult who doesn&#8217;t have a smartphone or internet access.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no substitute for being able to shake a hand or hug a neck, and those days will return, but in the meantime, we can still love on the folks who are a part of our churches.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>3. We can encourage one another.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It might be clich\u00e9 by now, but this experience has been a great leveler. Churches large and small have had to figure out how to navigate these uncharted waters. <\/p>\n<p>None of us knew how to minister when you can&#8217;t gather in-person for an extended period.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, lean deeply into relationships with fellow pastors in these days. <\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re able to meet in person one-on-one (within social distancing guidelines, of course), then I&#8217;d encourage you to do so. Maybe get a few pastors together for a Zoom chat.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pastor, you&#8217;re not alone. If I can serve you in any way, please reach out, but above all, stay faithful. <\/p>\n<p>Spend more time in Scripture than you do reading news or social media. And remember that these days, however long they may last, are still only temporary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KYLE BUEERMANN (@kylebueermann)<\/strong><em>&nbsp;co-authored Replanting Rural Churches and is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Alamogordo, New Mexico,&nbsp;director of replanter development for the North American Mission Board, and co-host of Not Another Baptist Podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-box su-box-style-default\" id=\"\" style=\"border-color:#000000;border-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"su-box-title\" style=\"background-color:#333333;color:#FFFFFF;border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px\">Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box-content su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"one-third first\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"two-thirds\">\n<h2>Disaster Ministry Handbook<\/h2>\n<p>Jamie D. Aten &amp; David M. Boan<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em\">\n<div class=\"centered-text-area\">\n<div class=\"centered-text\" style=\"float: left\">\n<div class=\"u7e5d35ad2091de04057c4ef655123588-content\">See also&nbsp; The Group Most Likely to Still Be Missing From Your Church<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ctaButton\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-template-thumbnails'>\n<h3>Related posts:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"yarpp-thumbnails-horizontal\">  What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times?  What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation?  3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Laura Dewilde photo &#8211; Unsplash By Kyle Bueermann There are scores of posts about what pastors and churches can&#8217;t do during the COVID-19 pandemic. And it&#8217;s true. There&#8217;s a lot we&#8217;re unable to do.&nbsp; Churches are unable to gather together in person these days. Small groups can&#8217;t gather together. We can&#8217;t meet with other pastors &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-things-every-pastor-can-do-during-the-pandemic\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;3 Things Every Pastor Can Do During the Pandemic&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}