JACKSON, Tenn. — April 3, 2020 — With churches unable to meet together because of the COVID-19 pandemic, pastors across the world are finding different and creative ways to continue shepherding their congregations in a time of social distancing.
Union University graduates serving in pastoral leadership roles are no different.
“Obviously the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we look at and do ministry right now,” said Clay Hallmark, a 1989 Union graduate who is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Lexington, Tennessee. “We are having to abide by the governor's guidelines and the president's guidelines like everyone else, and that means ministry looks different.”
Hallmark said the church is using its deacon family ministry for much of its outreach, with deacons contacting all the church members each week – especially senior adults – to make sure no needs are going unmet. Small group Sunday school leaders are keeping in touch with their classes, with many of them continuing to meet online through Zoom. And the church is doing online services and posting online Sunday school lessons.
“We live by faith, and we walk by faith, and we trust in the Lord,” Hallmark said. “While we're walking and living by faith, we still have a responsibility to minister to others, even if it's from a social distance.”
Justin Wainscott, a 2002 Union graduate who is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson, Tennessee, said the church has tried to remain in contact with the congregation by sending out regular email updates and posting everything on social media, in addition to online services with Scripture readings, a few songs, a sermon and prayer.
“It’s not the same by any means, but it’s better than nothing,” Wainscott said. The pandemic has made things challenging for him, Wainscott said, because so many aspects of pastoral ministry are incarnational. He’s not been able to make hospital visits or spend time with people when they are feeling vulnerable and need to be reminded of God’s love and presence.
“You want to be with people face to face, especially in times of grief and pain,” he said. “I’ve done a couple of funerals now. Those have been strange, just because you want to comfort a grieving widow, but you also don’t want to put her at any risk. So, there’s no means of really showing any comfort except just through words. Those have been hard experiences.”
Still, through the challenges, Wainscott has seen blessings from God’s hand. He’s immensely encouraged by seeing and hearing about the ways his members are caring for one another without any prompting from the pastors – such as kids writing notes to senior adults or families taking meals to other families or helping pick up groceries.
Wainscott has continued to point his people to the truth of Scripture and remind them of the character of God.
“God’s given us the church to love and care for one another and bear one another’s burdens,” he said. “This is an opportunity for that.”
At Cornerstone Community Church in Jackson, Tennessee, pastor Lee Tankersley (Union class of 2000) said he finds himself just as busy as usual, but with meetings being conducted via telephone or video instead of in-person. Though he’s thankful for that continued interaction, he admits that the lack of a corporate gathering has been a challenge.
“There is something to seeing and rubbing shoulders with people on Sunday morning that gives me a sense that they’re doing well,” Tankersley said. “The fact that I’m not able to see them makes me feel a bit more unease or lack of confidence that, ‘All right, I know the church is doing well.’ If you take the shepherd imagery, it feels like you’re distant from your people.”
One tool that Tankersley said has been useful for his church is an app called Communion. Developed by 2014 Union graduate and Cornerstone member Nathan Webb, who majored in computer science, Communion allows church members to post prayer requests, encouragements and other messages that are only viewable by other church members. The church has used it for years, but Tankersley said it has become especially valuable over the past month.
“Communion has been probably the best tool we have at closing the gap between no contact and regularly seeing one another,” he said.
Justin Perry, a 2000 Union graduate and lead pastor of Covenant Life Church in Tampa, Florida, said the pandemic has served to strengthen the “shepherding muscle” of the church’s pastors. The pastors have divided the church directory among themselves and reached out via telephone to every member to have personal conversations.
Perry has also been especially reminded during this time of the value of prayer.
“God's just been really gracious by His Spirit, I think, to remind me that some of my most effective work as a pastor will happen in prayer for people, that they may never see,” Perry said. “Another thread of grace during this time is just the Lord refining me as a pastor to hopefully remove some distractions that were more prominent than they should have been, and then making the ministry of prayer a more focal point of my ministry as a pastor going forward.”
Josh Simmons, a 2005 graduate who serves as Union’s director for eLearning success and media services and is the bivocational pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Bells, Tennessee, has been using Facebook Live to stream live services each Sunday for his congregation. From his office at the house, Simmons leads the church in singing a couple of songs and a time of prayer before delivering a sermon.
He’s been pleased by the response, both from the members of his church and from people the church has been trying to reach.
“There have been families that have maybe visited or come for special events to our church over the past few years that we'd love to have with us all the time, and they've been joining us for services online the last couple of weeks,” Simmons said. “We're hopeful that will help them want to come more often when we're able to meet again.”