How Do We Effectively Pastor During This Time?

This is the question the entire Church is asking today: How do we effectively pastor during this time? This is the question that Jared Wilson responds to in his very helpful blog:

A friend messaged me yesterday asking, “How do we effectively pastor during this time?” In this odd season of quarantining and social distancing and church service suspending, how can pastors maintain their duties to the flock?

In some contexts, perhaps the work of shepherding continues fairly normally. For many others, however, the daunting prospect of ministry in the season of COVID-19 entails more than simply figuring out how to live stream a service. If you can’t be near much of your congregation, how do you pastor them? Some suggestions:

1. Keep preaching.

Obviously, conscience and conviction may dictate whether you want to preach via the internet, but it’s still important to put the gospel in front of your people as many ways as you can. If that means broadcasting a full sermon each Sunday, do it. It may also mean publishing podcasts, vodcasts, blog posts, tweets, or Facebook updates involving devotional thoughts. Right now, your people are taking in all kinds of messages—some helpful, some not, some simply distracting. Don’t let other voices tempt them in their loneliness or anxiety to tempt their eyes away from Jesus. Figure out the ways that work best for your convictions and your context to “show them Jesus.” This is your prime directive.

For the rest of the list, click here.