We are fearfully and wonderfully made, survivors and conquerors through Christ.

As well as being a participant in the present ongoing COVID crisis, I have been a student.  What have I observed through this season? What are we learning together about ourselves?  I have noted five distinct, consecutive responses in the lives of leaders since March 2020. Although the dates I use here are not arbitrary and are approximate, the process seems universal.

Phase One 

Panic: (March – May 2020) – None of us alive in leadership had ever faced a pandemic. There was unprecedented fear generated by the fact that the population of the World was in peril.  There was significant apprehension that our own lives and livelihoods were threatened. Overnight we had to engage in new communication methods for which we were unequipped. Fear produces an initial rush of adrenalin and we lived on that elixir for a period-of-time. We anchored ourselves in the promise that God has not given us a ‘spirit of fear.’  

Phase Two 

Passivity: (June – July 2020) – The purpose of adrenalin is to provide a short term ‘fight or flight’ escape from danger. Its supply is limited. When we have deployed the available adrenalin resource, we are left weary and passive.  Because the COVID crisis demanded a high initial expenditure of adrenalin, we were left depleted physically and emotionally when the crisis continued unabated. The almost universal response I had from leaders during that time was ‘weariness.’  Physical and emotional fatigue led us to question our own ability to continue.  Again, we latched on to promises beyond ourselves, assurances that we can ‘do all things through Christ who gives us strength.’

Phase Three

Ponderance: (August 2020) – Ponderance means ‘assigning a heavy weight of importance to something.’  During the summer season, my conversations with leaders changed.  Increasingly, we were asking the questions: “Is there eternal significance to what is happening right now in our world?”  “Is this a strategic time for reset and re-calibration both personally and corporately?”  The pursuit of leaders was to hear what the ‘Spirit is currently saying to the Church’.  Personal priorities were being evaluated and realigned, perspectives on the purpose of ministry were being shifted.

Phase Four

Persistence: (September – October 2020) – Within the psyche of those called to serve the Lord in leadership is the seed of a ‘Caleb’ spirit.  Without full disclosure of the future, knowledge of precise direction forward, and an abundance of loose ends, leaders have been re-energized by the Caleb war-cry – “Give me this mountain!”  This has been amazing to watch.  I have repeatedly heard the words: “This is difficult but we can do it, we will do it, God helping us!.”  An irrevocable understanding has gripped our leaders. We are living and leading in the middle of an eternal story, an exciting story with the inevitability of a victorious ending. We are overcomers, the hupernikao of Romans 8:37. We will never give up!

Phase Five

Pliability: (November 2020 – Present) – To be pliable means to be able to bend and change quickly. As leaders we can become entrenched in our ‘mind-sets’ and ‘methods.’  Sometimes the older we are, the more rigid we become.  There is merit in being unmoveable in the correct things.  We will not move from the absolute authority of God’s Word, we will not be moved from our Great Commission task to win souls and make disciples. We will not yield to the intensifying pressure to ‘deconstruct’ the Gospel of repentance to make it convenient and popular.  Increasingly, I am hearing from our leaders that they are willing to be pliable in all other things.  They will concede those things that are unessential: those things that can actually serve as obstacles in presenting Jesus to our communities. They will keep learning new ways to communicate, new methods to connect, new and creative ways to be salt and light. 

I find myself grateful to be among this group of ‘resilient’ and ‘determined’ leaders. Onwards and upwards in 2021.

About the Pandemic – “this too shall pass!”

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