Pastors and churches in Nagaland leading the fight against pandemic

By Dr. Panger Kichu

Today, we are compelled towards an unprecedented COVID context and the demands for the service of pastors and clergies have exponentially increased. We deeply appreciate those of you who have stepped up to provide indispensable leadership in your communities, risking your own safety and that of your families. On many occasions, you are the unsung heroes, unrecognized and unprotected frontline workers.

Be that as it may, what a privilege it is to serve our living God and the community placed within our care during a time such as this. Now is the time for showing and living out what we have been teaching and preaching. As we understand, our struggle against COVID virus is more than physical, it encompasses mental and spiritual battle, and because of this, our members are looking up to the leadership of the church. What the pastor say and what the church does have a direct impact on the spiritual and mental health of the community.

May we lead the church and guide the people with extraordinary courage and scriptural clarity, and without being swayed by any forces of fear and misinformation. May the church stand tall as a beacon of hope and comfort for those who are deeply perplexed, and may we root ourselves in a biblical faith that will never fail us.

Our God is good and trustworthy. He tells us as we go through this dark time: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you… For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear; I will help you” (Is. 41:10 & 13). Being deeply rooted in the biblical faith may we lead the people with a unified pastoral voice among the clergies to well up hope for a new life and a healed community under the power of God.

As we go through the second wave of the COVID pandemic, may we engage our experiences and new learnings to prepare our congregation for what may come! On a concluding note, we pray that may in the sharing of wise counsel and listening and learning from one another empower us towards new possibilities and shared vision.

The present situation, the church can attend to three important concerns: opportunity for the church, threat for church members, and future ministry of the church.

First, more so than other times, believers today are yearning for spiritual feeding. This presents a tremendous opportunity for church ministry. The preaching of pastors on themes of love, healing and hope, is making big spiritual and mental impact in the lives of the church members. At the same time, continue to address and give importance to topics such as anxiety, depression, fear, suffering, and stigma. Yes, for Christians, fear can imply a lack of faith in God. However, human fear of COVID is REAL and it is not just a spiritual problem. Depression caused by unresolved grief of family members’ deaths, fear of life, anxiety about economic survival, stigma from the community – these are all real human problems in the context of COVID.

In addition, when matters of human anxiety is addressed in the right way, it makes believers more ready and receptive to the word of God. Therefore, as many pastors are already doing, and where ever it is possible, we urge the churches to make use of resources and experts from different fields who can educate the congregation in understanding the medical, psychological and social conditions resulting from the present COVID crisis.

Second, what kind of threats do we see in the present situation? One of the biggest threats is the social media information on COVID. Definitely, social media information on COVID is so quick and they come to us without any cost. Any many of the information are priceless and so useful. However, equally, many information on COVID are also being carelessly circulated and they become a dangerous virus, going around infecting fear and confusion among church members. When we think carefully, many social media messages are neither reliable as they come from various unauthorised/unverified sources nor directly relevant to our local context. Prophet Hosea laments about how the people of Israel “are destroyed for lack of information.” (Hosea 4:6). Hence, as part of ministry in the present situation, we should continue to fight the virus of fear that is circulated on the social media.

So, what should we do? The pastors are already doing it. Continue to educate your congregation through different ways and ideas on the responsible use of social media information related to the COVID. In addition, we encourage clergies to remind themselves that it is very crucial for them to stay updated, well-informed, and engage in careful personal study about the medical condition of the Virus. This discipline would keep the clergy above confusion. And, it will also continue to provide you the foundation for guiding the congregation with right information and knowledge.

Third, what can churches learn from the current situation for future COVID-related ministries? Our ongoing experience of COVID poses both a challenge as well as an opportunity for re-examination of the mission and ministry of the church and her place in a post COVID world.

In practical terms, for example, local churches and associations can allot a bigger annual budget for conducting relief, physical and mental health-related ministries. In fact, many clergy and Christians have felt and expressed the need for presence of professionally trained counsellors and social workers during thispandemic. Based on this collective learning, we urge abled churches to send their clergy and church members for short-term trainings in order to strengthen these ministries. In addition, abled churches can generate resources for employing and co-partnering with professional counsellors and social workers who can strengthen the ministry of the church.

Self-care is something we talk about but difficult to practice in ministry. Self-care means the ability to maintain healthy boundaries. Then, what are boundaries? Boundaries are invisible lines we draw around ourselves to identify acceptable actions concerning our level of comfort and discomfort around others. Without healthy boundaries, it will be challenging to practice self-care in a communal society like ours where social obligations are never-ending. We empathize with the pastors that none of the theological institutions have trained the pastors to do pastoral ministry during a pandemic crisis like this one. Seeing the sufferings and pain of the people, pastors may easily but unknowingly slide into the trap of spiritual pride of thinking that it is “better to burn out than to rust out.” But neither burn-out nor rust-out is a healthy way of serving God. We can agree with one of the famous Baptist preachers that, “To burn out handicaps us from fulfilling the will of God for our lives.” Therefore, self-care is not selfish (1 Corinthians 3:16). How do we do self-care? Here are some practical suggestions:

• Continue to recharge spiritually from the Bible, meditate, and pray for God’s strength no matter how busy you are. Jesus often disengaged himself from the crowd to recover from the fatigues of carrying out preaching and healing activities (Luke 5:16). 

• Nurture good habits of self-discipline. Eating well, physical exercise, and sleeping right will help us keep calm and grounded emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to care for others.

• Cultivate the habit of proper study before disseminating information. The Bible mandates us not to spread false reports (Exodus 23:1). Reviewing and filtering older information and updating new ones will enable you to effectively and confidently guide the members.

• The Scripture affirms the importance of collaboration (1 Corinthians 12: 20-28; Ephesians 4:11-12). Delegating and facilitating teamwork overcomes the tendency of the super-hero approach. Create or join a team where you can gather reliable skills and fall back or lean into the pastoral company for support to extent compassionate listening to each other. Expressing shared experiences of struggles, joys, and challenges in a trusted circle, not only unburdens our heavy load but acts as a self-mentoring space through mutual peer edification. Consider partnership with neighboring pastors for creative worship and common ministry interests.

• Acknowledge the spiritual journey of wilderness, emptiness, and feeling disconnected from your beloved congregation. In those moments of feeling helpless and inadequate, may you find comfort in the knowledge that God is at work in people’s lives through your ministries because God’s creativity has no bounds though you and I are limited (Isaiah 55:9; 2 Kings 4:1-7).

• Nobody is perfect (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Learning to accept criticisms with grace is godly, for you cannot please or fulfill everybody’s expectations (Colossians 3:12-14). Such mindfulness creates an opportunity to forgive others and yourself. Do what you can to the best of your abilities and leave the rest in God’s hands. Also, learn to let others fill in in areas you cannot. It is a humble acceptance of our human limitedness and our testament to trusting in God. For the Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Amen.

The writer is a senior faculty member at Oriental Theological Seminary, Bade, Dimapur, Nagaland