Bøger af Pastor R D Bernard

In Deacon Sandles's absence, I looked over the church's financial records very carefully. I had a long conversation with Sister Coleman, who is worried that Deacon Sandles may die. She saw him Sunday. She said he looked so dark and was very weak. I encouraged her about his condition without giving any false hope (journal entry, Wednesday, June 23). The second wave of COVID-19 began with the extended sickness and downward spiral of the chairman of the deacons, one of the chief voices in favor of continuing to meet despite public opposition. How would a church and pastor, already pushed to the brink of mental and spiritual exhaustion, deal with his sickness, then the eventual sicknesses and deaths of others within its ranks? The church would meet the true enemy, the virus itself, up close and personal.

"We all prayed at the altar at about 2:00 p.m. We had to pray because we were bitter. I know my people, and several of us were hurt at the sheriff being called-on a church. A couple of members were even bitter with me for cancelling service this Sunday. It was a mess, and all we could do was pray" (pastoral journal entry, Thursday, April 2, 2020). Pastoring through a Pandemic captures, in detail, the first ninety days of the historic, once-in-a-generation, worldwide pandemic of 2020 as experienced by the pastor and people of the historic King Solomon Baptist Church of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Pastor and people defied state and local ordinances to have in-person worship services at the height of the pandemic. Read of the harrowing tales of members, old and young, who sought answers for their own personal crises as they "sneaked to meet" while discovering a newfound strength and spirituality in the midst of their quiet defiance. See the four pillars of leadership in action from the pastor, who in the very midst of his personal battles with fatigue, fear, and nascent faith, kept a day-to-day journal of the church's struggles and triumphs.Pastoring through a Pandemic will be studied for years as an example of how one faith community responded to the early days of the pandemic while also navigating its way through a historic time of political and social unrest.