I know I’m disobeying a meme I saw shared hundreds of times the past two weeks, I’m willing to pay the price of whatever curse was promised to follow. The well-traveled meme said to show pastors grace and not judge them during this pandemic because as it said, “Your pastor has never pastored a church through a pandemic before.” And that’s true, we haven’t pastored during a COVID-19 pandemic, BUT all of us, pastors and Christian leaders should’ve been prepared for a pandemic and had you more prepared to experience this life-changing and faith-challenging time.
Listen, I’m by no means saying it’s easy and I am pointing the finger at myself, too. I’m a pastor that has had to wrestle with whether our congregation should meet in person or online these last two weeks. I posted a disaster of a Facebook Live service this past Sunday, it probably won’t be much better this coming Sunday. I’m deeply wrestling with how to keep my congregation connected, how to provide what they need in their lives, and reach out to some degree in my community—all of which I haven’t figured out. Like the rest of the meme said—I’m not going to get things right in this time, BUT I can not blame it on not being warned in Scripture, spirit, and from observing the times. There’s no reason I shouldn’t have been better prepared and had my people better prepared—other than I wasn’t bold enough to implement and say what Scripture stated, the Holy Spirit stirred within me, and a Biblical assessment of current events demanded.
No Excuses for Me
For in 2014, while serving as senior pastor I became overwhelmed by Matthew 24:10 which warns that many will turn away from the faith and began to ask myself if I had prepared my people enough to stand firm. Regardless of where we were prophetically professed followers of Christ—people in my congregation and yours, were walking away from the faith—and we hadn’t seen nothing yet. As I dove further into the subject through writing Spiritual Prepper, then launching Stand Firm and Prophecy Simplified, I came to find that Christians in the west especially the United States had been lulled asleep in regard to suffering and difficulty applying to them. This unique bubble the United States had been in had made us feel that following Christ meant life would be a bed of roses. We looked at the world through rose-colored sunglasses and us, pastors, were handing them out each Sunday.
We needed to wake up. For one persecution was rising in the world and prophetically there will be a time when the people of God universally will face it. Not only that but prophetic times also spelled out a rise in natural disasters and other calamities that will challenge our faith. And to further reinforce those warnings, other reliable signs from the Word showed that one could legitimately say that the last days could be on the horizon. The two signs that speak the loudest to me is the fulfillment of the timeline provided in Daniel 2 and the return of the Jews, which fulfills the many prophecies of an ultimate scattering and gathering in Israel.
I believe that if us—pastors and Christian leaders—had paid more attention to Biblical prophecy then this COVID-19 pandemic and the likely economical fall-out that will come on its heels wouldn’t be surprising to us. I’m not saying that this event is an end time event, as I wrote in previous article and will right in an upcoming article, but as leaders we should have ingrained in us from the Word that these type events will happen and can impact us. Again, let me make clear I’m not saying that if we studied end-time prophecy we’d know exactly about this particular virus, but we’d know that these types of things happen.
Great Advice, but Rudderless
Likely, you’ve caught the many statements and messages from pastors and Christian leaders addressing the pandemic and meeting restrictions. I had my own videos and statements posted as well. Yet, as I scrolled through post after post after post from pastors, denominational leaders, and church “experts,” I felt the conclusions, advice, and strategies were like a ship adrift on the wide-open sea. The views were all over the place. Something was missing in them.
For the most part ALL the advice and direction was Biblical, and from my friends—extremely Biblical. But with post after post though the advice was Scripturally true, a linked thread was absent. The encouragement and strategies across the board were like a string of precious pearls except without the string. Something was missing.
The encouragement and strategies across the board were like a string of precious pearls except without the string. Something was missing.
Though the proverbial church and pastor boat was well-meaning, Biblical, and Christ-like there was no rudder and I believe it’s because they were void of influence from at least a third of the Bible—prophecy. Yes, a third to even a half of the Bible involves prophecy, yet, it is often neglected in the teaching of the church and certainly not considered in the structuring and philosophy in ministry.
Think about it, as Christians and especially as Christian leaders, we’ve been given the details of the future. We don’t have to plan and strategize towards a mysterious void nor do we only have to rely on the past to find future trajectory—we’re told what is going to occur. Shouldn’t this shape the planning within our individual Christian lives, our churches, our denominations, and so on?
Not only should Bible prophecy be taught, but it should shape our ministries and our churches—it should shape how we lead. Here’s an article in which I wrote about this a few years ago, Does the WHOLE Bible Story Guide Your Church Leadership?
Not only should Bible prophecy be taught, but it should shape our ministries and our churches—it should shape how we lead.
To go even a bit further, I’m afraid that our neglect to teach and be influenced by prophecy in Christian leadership causes us to simply lead our people in a circle in the wilderness much like Israel in the Exodus, but we’ve been told about the Promised Land—to that is which we should lead.
We Must Do Better
Pastors and church leaders we should’ve been prepared for a pandemic and had our people more prepared for I believe it’s part of our responsibility, as I wrote about a few years ago, A Forgotten Responsibility of the Pastor. I believe one of the major reasons that we didn’t do better in preparing is that because we don’t realize the role that tribulation and suffering has in the lives of believers and one of the reasons for that is that we’re not reading the end of the story.
Even more than not teaching suffering, I believe our neglect to study, teach, and consider Bible prophecy has left us extremely unprepared, frankly, it’s made us sheep headed to slaughter.
I believe our neglect to study, teach, and consider Bible prophecy has left us extremely UNPREPARED, frankly, it’s made us sheep headed to slaughter.
Unfortunately, there’s more challenges ahead. As my friend, author Chadwick Harvey, has told me multiple times, “This COVID-19 pandemic is a warning shot across the bow.” We will have many more challenges ahead; we have to prepare ourselves and our people.
Because I had spent nearly six years in the subject, I can only use the excuse I didn’t want to be the guy wearing the tin foil hat, but I don’t want to have another great challenge come upon the people I’ve been called to shepherd and not have done all I could to prepare them. You may have a better excuse, but I hope you’ll know that you must take up the third of the Bible that’s been neglected—so you’re prepared for the next challenge that comes.
Executive Director of Stand Firm and lead pastor of Epic Church NWA in Springdale, AR and multiple award-winning author, Jake has a B.A. in Bible and Pastoral Studies from Central Baptist College, and an Advanced Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Former regular contributor to the Baptist Press and WND News with popular conservative voices such as Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Ben Carson, Chuck Norris, Greg Laurie, Ben Schapiro, Joel Richardson, and others. He now is a weekly contributor for Israel, Islam, and the End Times and Armageddon News. He has authored books such as the, award-winning Spiritual Prepper from WND Books. Award-winning devotional books, Invincibleand For Uncertain Times, he authored the ground-breaking children’s book, Jesus and His White Horse from CrossLink Publishing. He is also a regular guest on national and international radio and streaming web shows, along with hosting his weekly live streaming program Talking Stand Firm and weekly podcast Stand Firm Parents.
