A Pastor's Plea

It's tough becoming pastors nowadays. Although I am free from frontline service, I am constantly receiving messages and texts from pastors and church members. One concerned church member texted me late at night and asked me about the state of the Church. It is clear his soul was in turmoil. Often, those who communicated with me would say that they wanted to hear what I thought of the current situation of the present pandemic and also issues in the church at large. One pastor came visiting barely two weeks after Chinese New Year when three pastors visited with their spouses. But this time this pastor came along and we conversed for about 3 hours over lunch.

He told me outright that he had the jab under some compulsion for fear of losing his job. On his second dose, he had side-effects after a few weeks and until now from time to time he felt chest pains. He told me several of his family members had other side-effects and they are no longer as healthy as they were before vaccination. He feared taking the booster shot. I realised that not many pastors could opt to resign or withdraw from ministry due to their precarious financial state. I don't know of any Malay-speaking pastor who owns a house in Kota Kinabalu unless their wives have a stable job elsewhere. One pastor of a fairly large church in KK has a house 30kms away and even that he is helped by a spouse who works full-time in her profession. How can one survive if the spouse does not have gainful employment? And I have chosen such a course that I will not find myself relying on my wife's income (she has none since day one) for the sake of the Gospel in the sense that I could move freely from one place to another. I understand that if wives work in Kota Kinabalu, it is likely the husband pastor must also serve in Kota Kinabalu. So we shared about many things and he lamented that the fact that most church members including leaders are not theologically mature which means there is hardly any discernment and whatever the world or government says, it becomes law in church. In his words, there is no asking about what Scripture says and no one talks about the Word of God and how it should apply in our present context. It is tragic if we only perform religious ceremonies and churning out sermons on a Sunday without seriously wanting to listen to God and doing His will. We need to ask ourselves once more - Do we submit to Caesar or Christ? Is Christ King and Lord over His church? Does not His Word rule in church?