By Bert L. Jones, FAS Speaker and pastor of Woodburn Missionary Church
I recently said to one on my pastoral team, “I must have slept through the ministry class when they covered How to Lead through a Pandemic.” I got a lot of excellent training, but I don’t remember something like that ever being covered in my preparation for ministry. The reality is that regardless of how much education you have received, you were likely unprepared for leading in these unprecedented times.
The leaders today who will have the greatest impact and influence will be those like Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do (see 1 Chron 12:32). The stakes are high and it is unlikely that the mistakes will be low as we progress through this pandemic. As a student of leadership, I’m always asking myself, “What are you learning through this?” In just the first few weeks, here are some of the lessons that I have learned as I’m walking through these challenging times as a pastor, a leader.
Lesson 1: Leaders Set the Tone
The first lesson is that leaders set the tone set the tone in times of crisis. Remember what John Maxwell said: “Everything rises or falls on leadership.” Leaders set the tone for their tribes. They either portray a spirit of panic or a spirit of peace in these times of difficulty. It is essential for a captain to stay calm when he/she is at the helm. Be positive and find a way to bloom through the gloom.
Someone once said that the greatest gift that a leader can give a group is a “non-anxious presence.” Don’t allow pandemonium to describe your level of leadership during this pandemic.
One of the choices that I have made each day during this pandemic is to post a positive verse of Scripture on my Facebook page to encourage and lift the spirits of the people I lead. Every day, I ask the Lord to give me a verse that can keep my people focused on hope and how to find help in this time of need.
Lesson 2: Leaders Need to Communicate
The second lesson is that leaders need to communicate, communicate, communicate throughout the entire crisis. Your number one responsibility through these days is to be the primary communicator for your organization. We must communicate information and inspiration through every possible media outlet at our disposal. We need to develop mechanisms to push out information as quickly as possible and as frequently as possible. It’s important for us to “unpack the impact” for our people.
Several years ago, I developed a weekly email to my congregation called “This Week from Pastor Bert.” Now, I have turned it into a weekly email and often even a video to communicate to our congregation what they need to know as we walk together through these difficult times.
You cannot over-communicate to your constituency or congregation in these days. Stay before them, and let them know what is going on and how we are going to get through this.
While you are communicating, avoid extreme predictions, and keep people alert without causing them to be alarmed. As you prepare to communicate, stay current with the news, but limit your coverage so that you aren’t sucked into its tendency toward emotional extremes. Instead, turn off the news feed and get some inspirational coverage from God’s Word as you communicate a message of hope to your people. People need hope as much as they need help.
One more thing about communication: be visible and transparent. Your people not only need to see you and hear from you often, they need you to be transparent and empathetic with them in their struggles. You don’t need to be a motivator, just a messenger of truth and hope.
Lesson 3: Surround Yourself with a Great Team
The third lesson I learned is to surround yourself with a great team that you can lean on while you lead. I have a fantastic staff and leadership team at the church I pastor, and I can lean on them for wisdom, insight, and advice. I realized early in this crisis that I needed to form an executive task force to help make smart decisions. I looking to my team to give me advice to help us advance through good leadership and not leave changes up to chance. This group is helping me to see what I couldn’t otherwise see and helping us to seize the opportunities that are not always obvious to only one of us.
I set up a Whatsapp group and enlisted five other key leaders that I can text in a moment to get information, insight, or approval for a decision. We are trying to meet weekly through Zoom to connect the dots of the dilemma and create innovative solutions.
Lesson 4: Reemphasize the Fundamentals
The fourth lesson I’ve discovered is to reemphasize the fundamentals. No matter how experienced your followers are, some good reminders about the basics are often essential in times like these. It seems so simple, but it’s true. As I prayed about this pandemic, the Lord gave me multiple passages of Scripture that I have provided for my congregation. It’s a list of biblical truths that help keep me grounded when I’m facing a storm in my life. I’ve called it “A Biblical Survival Guide.”
In these days, it is difficult to make probable predictions about the future with any level of certainty. However, we do have access to a Book whose prophecies have been proven true over and over again. As a leader, stand on His promise and point people to the solid truth of the Scriptures that can be a light unto our path (Ps 119:105).
Lesson 5: Lean into the Power of Prayer
The last lesson that I’ve learned is to lean into the power of prayer. It was a tremendous tool that Jesus used as He walked into the most difficult days of His leadership here on Earth. He invites us into His inner circle of prayer to watch and pray. It is out of these sessions and seasons of prayer that we will begin to understand the Father’s will and be able to discover our next steps forward.
Prayer has always been an important aspect of our ministry at Woodburn Missionary Church, but we are looking for ways to increase the impact of prayer in these days. I have launched a prayer initiative where I’ve asked my congregation to join me in prayer each day for the COVID-19 crisis. I invite you to join us as well. During this crisis, we will pray at 12:19 p.m. every day for 19 minutes, focusing on the prayers listed in my COVID-19 prayer list.
We have created prayer emails for people to communicate their needs to our leaders, and we are establishing prayer teams to pray our way through this crisis. It is true that leaders are planners, but spiritual leaders are pray-ers, too. We cannot lead without the power of prayer.
Conclusion
I hope you will spend more and more time learning through this incredible, unpredictable moment in history. I believe the Lord is going to do some amazing things in our day that we would not have believed, even if we had been told what and how He was going to do it (Hb 1:5).
Keep learning and keep leading through these days.
For more information about resources Pastor Jones and Woodburn Missionary Church are developing, visit http://woodburnmc.org/resources.