Ministering in Times of Crisis

  Walter Brueggeman wrote, “The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you by the grace of God.’ Many grieve today because our world has been taken away. We have sensed together a wave of change that we did not invite or expect. Some of us prepared to serve others in ministry. Our congregations have vanished, or at least diminished. We wonder what to say.

  Sergeant Chad Mercer enlisted in the National Guard in 1998. He worked at a hardware store, but excelled as a soldier. He was his brigade’s Soldier of the Year in 2004. I was his battalion’s Chaplain that year. His father had fought in Vietnam, and was proud of his son. Chad deployed to Iraq early in 2005, and a few months later, two of us informed his wife and parents that Chad had died in Iraq. His father was angry. He insisted that we could not understand his grief. What were we to say? Nine years later, when my own son died, I would better understand his grief.

  My biblical foundations for ministry include Isaiah chapter 40, which instructs to comfort God’s people, to remind them who God is – “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength” (40:29,31a). Earlier, Isaiah says, “You who bring good news to Zion,… lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say…, “Here is your God!” So as our world changes so rapidly, and the familiar sermons fail, we remember who God is, we comfort his people, and we speak good news of renewal without fear. Our crutches have been torn away, and we still are saved, by the grace of God.