Another Appearance

I made an unexpected appearance in the night meeting of our Pastors' Conference last night. It was open to all church members and I thought I might attend the second and final night (which is tonight) but yesterday by 6pm I received several texts from my former students who are all pastors now and they asked me whether I would be attending the Conference. Let everything be established by two or three witnesses, says Scripture and if there was only one person I would have ignored the invite.

But three persons messaged me within 30 mins and I took it as a sign that the Lord wanted me to go. My wife and I duly attended the night revival meeting with 265 pastors in attendance and about 50 more visitors and non-pastors. The capacity with social distancing at ground level is 400 and another 60 or 70 on the first floor level. But it was good that I attended. A pastor had wanted my commentary on John's Gospel and he not only bought one for himself but took another 9 copies to sell in his church. Another pastor from Keningau sold 10 copies and gave me the money after the service. But the highlight was several of the young pastors invited me for coffee and before I made my way to the store I had a chance to meet a senior pastor and one of the speakers of the Conference. I think almost everyone knew I was out of a "formal" ministry because of the vaccination requirements and I am pleased that I had about 10 mins to tell him my side of the story. He is very much a family friend since we were together when I started in Kota Belud in 1994 and we chatted also about our families. When I got to the coffee store I sat another 2 young pastors and with the two who invited me, all five of us sat down and we chatted over many things. But the last half an hour another senior pastor came to our table and he asked me a number of theological questions and we went through the theology of vaccination, freedom of choice, body autonomy, church entry and ministry, and how to minister to those who have been hurt and felt cast aside. We know of many churches that are split as some 20 to 25 percent of leaders would not or could not be vaccinated for various reasons. Just imagine that the pandemic has ravaged the church with half the congregation not coming back to church and when you put extra requirements for entry you lose another 10 to 15 percent of those who would love to come but are hindered and rejected. So in all the Church of Jesus Christ suffers loss and I think many churches would have trouble drawing back half their members even with the relaxation of SOPs across board. My wife and I left the church compound at 11.15pm having spent about 90 minutes talking and fellowshipping with 10 or more pastors.