1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:1-4 – NASB95)
28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. (Acts 20:28 – NASB95)
Every pastor I know has both lost people and gained people this past year over their church’s policies regarding Covid-19 restrictions. Opinions are very strong regarding the pandemic and truly godly people have disagreed as to what is the right response according to Scripture. That is why I spoke to that issue on Sunday, March 14th, in a sermon titled: “Covid-19: Principles for a Pandemic.” If you (or any friends of yours) have not watched or listened to that message, please do. You can do so on our church app or our church website: https://bridgebible.church/sermon/covid-19-principles-for-apandemic/. If you know people who left our church because they disagreed with the elders’ position, please make sure they listen to this sermon so that they have a better understanding of why we implemented the policies that we did. And remind them that I, and the rest of our elders, are always open to discussing these issues with them.
The two exhortations above, from Peter and Paul, are representative of hundreds of passages that challenge leaders to shepherd their people. This is a mandate that I and the other elders take seriously here at The Bridge. It is a task that requires diverse skills, and an intense amount of time and effort. It was made profoundly more difficult over the past 14 months for church leaders all around the world during the pandemic. Although our leadership made efforts to stay in contact with people in the church (livestream; outdoor services; emails; surveys; phone calls…), some felt that what we did wasn’t enough. Some expressed their concerns to us and offered suggestions on how we can improve, and for that I am grateful. Others chose to go find another church, and that truly breaks my heart. Every church has strengths and weaknesses, it grieves me to hear that we were weak in shepherding some members of our church family who were purchased with the precious blood of Jesus.
Our elders want to improve in our shepherding of the congregation. We have an Elder Retreat on May 21-22 to discuss several important issues, and one of them is improving as shepherds of the flock. A pastor friend of mine will speak to us on Friday night (5/21) about elders as shepherds and as disciplemakers. Then we will spend the whole day Saturday (5/22) praying about and discussing how we can better lead and serve The Bridge. Please pray for us as we seek the Lord, study His Word, and discern what the Lord wants us to do at The Bridge in the coming year. We hope to make improvements in a number of areas and launch Bridge 2.0 this fall.
Heart surgery update. Everything is scheduled now for my open-heart surgery on Thursday, June 3rd, at Kaiser Sunset. Please pray for Dr. Yun and his team as they perform the operation to repair the aneurysm in my ascending aorta, replace my aortic valve, and do an ablation to get rid of the Atrial fibrillation. Ask the Lord to work through them to bring healing to my heart. After the surgery I will be in the hospital for about 6 days and then recuperate at home for about 6 weeks. If everything goes to plan, I will be much healthier and back to work sometime in late July as Paul 2.0.
India Covid-19 update. As the disease appears to be decreasing here in the U.S., please pray for the people of India in general and for the people that our mission agency Shepherding the Nations (STN) works with specifically. In recent weeks a new variant of the disease has spread rapidly in India. More than 250,000 have died this past year and they expect that number to grow to nearly 1 million by the end of summer. Some are saying that those reported numbers may only be 1/10 of the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in the country. Several people we know personally have become very sick or have died in recent weeks. Ask the God of all comfort to use STN to minister to people in India in this time of great need.
Thank you for your genuine love, constant support, and faithful prayers. You are all in my heart and I love you dearly!