5 Challenges Of Pastoring Through COVID-19
This past year has been hard on everyone. Given each person’s current season of life, what they do, and what they are involved in, it has created unique challenges for all of us.
Pastors have experienced their own particular struggles over the past year as well that I thought I would share. To be clear, I do not want you to read this as “woe are the pastors.” In many ways, this is what we signed up for when we entered vocational ministry. And there is no doubt you could also make a list of difficult challenges people like you have faced this past year.
My hope here is to simply give you a peek behind the curtain of some of the challenges pastors have faced throughout COVID-19 to see what it has been like for many of us. Here are five challenges in particular.
1. Emphasizing financial need without people thinking your church only cares about money
COVID-19 has been financially devastating for many people, businesses, and non-profits. Many people and organizations are struggling financially through no fault of their own, and this includes churches.
And while churches could apply for government assistance through the Payment Protection Program loan, there are other additional assistance programs that various businesses have been able to apply for that churches cannot. Given that the pandemic continues to drag on, this has caused a financial strain for many churches.
On a personal note, the generosity of the people of New City Church where I lead has always been humbling. So while this pandemic has caused its share of challenges for our church, we are not as bad off as many others.
Our mission at New City is to help people meet Jesus and grow in a relationship with Him. This is why we and most other churches exist. It isn’t about the money, but financial health is vitally important to make it possible for churches to impact people with the Gospel. And so, churches have to talk about it a lot right now if they want to stay afloat financially.
The bright side to all of this is that I believe churches, generally speaking, should talk about money more often. After all, Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So this can be a positive change coming out of COVID-19. However, there is always the tension of not wanting people to think you only care about your money, because for the vast majority of churches that is simply not true.
2. Not being able to sit with people in pain
We have a family at our church how lost their oldest son a week before COVID-19 shutdown our country. Because this couple is older and is also taking care of elderly family members, they have not been able to come to any in-person gatherings since the pandemic began. The last time I was able to see them in person was at their son’s funeral.
The best thing we can do when someone is hurting is simply to sit and be with them. COVID-19 has not only increased the pain and suffering for many of us, but it has also isolated us in the process and thereby making it even worse.
One of the honors of pastoring people is walking with them in times of difficulty. It is a heavy thing to do, but it is a privilege to do so. Phone calls, emails, and texts are no substitute for being with people in pain. It’s been hard to care for people from a distance during this pandemic, and it often leaves you wondering if you are making any positive difference at all.
3. Engaging people online in a meaningful way
Another positive shift in the midst of all the negative that has come from the pandemic is how it forced churches to take more seriously their online presence. Churches have had to learn how to livestream, use social media more effectively, and create and try new ways to engage people online. And (hopefully) getting better at all of these things in the process.
However, it would be wrong to assume that because your church has created online content that therefore people are actually watching it and it is helping them in their faith in some way. Throughout COVID-19 our church has tried a number of different ways to try and engage with our people online. Unfortunately, it’s harder to tell how much of an impact you are making online compared to the interactions you have with people in-person.
For many pastors, this has also caused a lot of discouragement. They are trying to figure out new ways to help their people, and after the time and effort they put in to do these things, it’s hard to know how much of a difference it is making.
It can also be difficult when you see (typically larger) churches doing so well at this. Larger church budgets lead to more specialized people doing specific things well as well as better equipment and processes to create content online. And this is a good thing, it’s great to see churches who are excelling at this. It’s much needed!
However, for smaller churches with smaller teams and smaller budgets, comparison can cause even more discouragement if we are not careful. At the end of the day, churches exist to engage people with the Gospel, and while it’s great to have online tools to reach more people, it’s hard to know at times how impactful it actually is.
4. Navigating the various opinions on COVID-19, social justice, and politics
This past year has seen significant cultural tensions made more difficult because of the effects of the coronavirus and the isolation from one another it has caused. And while all of these things are important, it’s been difficult for pastors to lead their churches through these things from a distance given how COVID-19 has limited our interactions with one another.
There is nothing wrong with people having political convictions, thoughts on the best ways to handle racial injustices, and the best way to navigate a pandemic. But when how one views these things become more important than loving Jesus and loving others well, it has caused a lot of hurt for pastors.
Put another way, people leaving their churches and treating their fellow church members with vitriol and contempt over differences of opinion (often online for everyone to see) has been a real pain point for churches.
None of us are perfect and no pastor expects people to be, but you would hope that people who follow Jesus would want to love people well. Particularly those we disagree with. After all, the people we disagree with most are often the people we claim we want to see be transformed by Jesus! Yet when we disparage one another in horrible ways, the mission of the church is greatly hurt.
Many pastors have people in their churches who disagree with each other (and this is a good thing). However, when they talk to the pastor about it, most people assume their pastor agrees with them and must act, preach, and lead accordingly. Clearly, this is impossible to do when the pastor is being told different things from different people.
Again, I have personally been fortunate as this hasn’t been my story leading New City. Yes, we have people in our church who disagree with each other and even some of the things we hear from me, but we haven’t experienced some of the nasty church splits and as hurtful things said and done as some churches have experienced.
Even still, it’s hard. It’s hard because you want to lead your people in the way of Jesus when everything in our culture is leading people in the other direction. Pastors want to speak the truth in grace without alienating people. But at the same time, people can feel alienated when you press against their idols. Pastors are in a tough spot in this area right now.
5. It’s hard to know if you're making a difference
Finally, given the fact that there is much less in-person contact with one another in spite of everything going on right now, pastors are struggling to know if they are making much of a difference.
To be honest, this is a struggle for most pastors regardless of being in a pandemic. But when you are interacting with people less, it's even more difficult to know if what you are doing actually matters. Not to mention that pastors are people too, and they have their own worries and anxiety about all this going on, on top of trying to lead a church.
Given this reality, many pastors are struggling to know if what they have been doing over such a trying and difficult year matters at all. Of course, it does matter, but it can be hard to believe it when you’re faced with so many unknowns.
A challenge to end with
As I mentioned in the beginning, this post is not designed to garner sympathy for pastors. This past year has been hard on all of us in unique ways, this post was simply meant to give you a peek behind the curtain to show you the specific ways it has been hard for pastors.
In light of that, I’d like to end with a challenge. If you’re connected to a local church, I would encourage you to write, email, text, or personally tell your pastor next time you see them that you are thankful for how they have led over the course of the past year. No doubt your pastor hasn’t done this perfectly, but I cannot tell you how hard they have tried.
They’ll never ask you to do this for them, but it would mean more to them than will know.
