The Redeemed Rose

  Pastors are facing depression and anxiety in record numbers this year. As if the numbers pre-COVID weren’t alarming enough, the pandemic has added an unpredictable monster in the cave that could pop out or change form at any moment. Pastors are having to make decisions they have never had to face before and for which there was no training or warning. Many pastors have been let go while countless others are facing church closures, either from a decline in membership and tithing due to COVID or because the pandemic exacerbated underlying issues causing the volcano to erupt.   As a pastor’s wife, I can vouch for the anomalous stress that COVID-19 placed on my husband. Trying to lead a church during a pandemic has been the most arduous time he has ever experienced in fourteen years of ministry. All of our pastor friends have unanimously agreed that the stress and pressure on them is overwhelming and their anxiety is higher than ever.  As I see the discouragement, ...

  When was the last time you spread the good news?  What an odd time to think about spreading things!  News sources speculate that COVID-19 is about to hit its peak in the United States. “Slow the Spread” hashtags abound on social media. People are thinking about social distancing, not disciple making.  But as I read my children their Bible story about how the first century church grew, I saw these words on the page:  “As the good news of God’s kingdom spread, still more people repented and believed. The good news spread and spread and spread! The word that was preached in Jerusalem went out all across the land. It spread to people in Judea. It spread to Samaria too. Later the apostle Paul spread it as far away as Rome. Far and near, people from every nation were beginning to follow Jesus as their King.” ( The Big Picture Story Bible ) During a time when the globe is thinking about slowing the spread of a virus (and rightly so!), Christians need to be speeding t...