I preach almost every Sunday in a different church, and I have conversations with pastors all the time. This past weekend, I had a great experience leading a pastor and wives retreat in another state. As I’ve talked with pastors coming out of COVID, I’m hearing again both joys and woes of each weekend’s ministry:
Post-Weekend Joys
- “We’re seeing people in church we’ve never seen before.” Over and over again, I’m hearing this report. Many pre-COVID attenders haven’t yet returned, but many more new people are now attending churches. There’s excitement in new faces.
- “I got to baptize somebody yesterday.” Unless you’ve done it, you can’t fully appreciate the joy of participating when a new believer illustrates faith by baptism. At the risk of sounding overly emotive, my experience is that joy erupts from the water and cascades over the congregation during a baptism service.
- “Somebody told me about an answered prayer.” It’s deeply satisfying when a church member goes out of his way to tell a pastor about an answered prayer. Sadly, we’re seldom expecting it—but thankfully, it’s always encouraging.
- “I got to preach God’s Word yesterday.” I’ve been preaching for more than 40 years, and I’m still overwhelmed by the privilege. I have no idea why God uses any of us—beginning with me—as His mouthpiece. It’s just His gift to us.
- “Somebody made a profession of faith in Christ.” That is, someone destined for eternal judgment experienced God’s grace and found forgiveness and new life in Him. Eternity changed for this new brother or sister, and seeing this happen helps us look past some of the woes listed below.
Post-Weekend Woes
- “A member once again complained about something he didn’t like—and he did it just before the service started.” Troublemakers have an amazing knack for complaining just as the pastor is preparing to preach. It’s as if they’re unaware of what’s happening next.
- “I was privilege to preach, but I messed it up.” We’ve all been there some Monday mornings. We may have prepared diligently, but we laid the proverbial egg this past weekend. If you’re like I am, you lay awake last night still re-thinking the sermon.
- “We’re still missing a lot of people.” No matter how often the church experts tell us that 20-30% of pre-COVID attenders are probably not coming back, it still hurts to not see them. Some of us, too, take it personally—wondering why we’re not able to draw them back.
- “Man, did the weekend seem lonely!” Ministry’s just that way sometimes, but too many of these weekends can be exhausting. Our energy and spirits drain much more rapidly when it feels like we have few friends.
You’ll see that I’ve listed five joys and four woes – and that’s intentional. My prayer is that you will find at least one more joy than woe as you reflect on this past weekend. Sometimes, just one more joy is all it takes to press on.