Joe Williams has encountered plenty of discouragement lately while counseling pastors around the Gulf Coast region, but he has also seen rays of hope.
Joe Williams has encountered plenty of
discouragement lately while counseling pastors around the Gulf Coast
region, but he has also seen rays of hope.
One that shone recently involved a young pastor who
talked of working 10 to 12 hours a day with area residents, displaced
church members and visitors to his church’s feeding site.
After this grueling regimen, the pastor described
not feeling like much of a husband or father when he got home. He then
broke into tears.
“Then I asked, ‘What was your best experience?’”
said Williams, an FBI chaplain temporarily stationed in New Orleans
with the North American Mission Board. “He said, ‘(NAMB President) Bob
Reccord called me and asked, ‘How can I pray for you?’ That helps me.’”
Well known among Southern Baptists for his efforts
after the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City and the 2001 terrorist attacks
in New York, Williams hopes to have other, similar encounters in the
near future in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The North American Mission Board (NAMB) sent
Williams and SBC chaplain Naomi Paget to the Gulf in October to help
comfort pastors, church staff members, and SBC-endorsed chaplains.
Paget, who is from Livermore, Calif., and has
completed her assignment in the Gulf, agrees that pastors and chaplains
have been taxed by the demands of daily survival.
“Some of the pastors I talked to have said, ‘I’m so
busy taking care of everyone else I don’t have time to take care of my
own family,’” Paget said.
“That speaks volumes,” added Paget, who said pastors
in the region are under stress as they constantly deal with urgent
demands.
Many of the pastors, Paget said, have lost material goods.
“We know we can’t do anything to relieve the pain of the loss or replace the loss,” Paget said.
Williams said pastors are often the hardest people to console.
“The mentality of pastors is, ‘I’m strong. I have to
be strong for everyone else; I don’t need help,’” Williams said.
“Pastors are hard to help because we think if we express weakness it’s
a sign of a lack of faith. I’ve been there.
“But I remember a book that said, ‘Every pastor
needs a pastor.’ We will encourage pastors to make sure they’re
connecting with other pastors to discuss their worst and best
experiences and what happened to them this week.”
Many of the pastors, Williams said, may still be in
shock, although he says he has “not seen a lot of people who have
seemed to be completely overwhelmed.
“One staff person told the pastor, ‘I can’t take it
any more, I’m leaving.’ I think we’ll see some more of that.”
Southern Baptists can help the effort even if they can’t travel to the Gulf, Williams said, by praying.
“Pray that we will be able to frame this in a way
pastors will relate to it,” Williams said. “Pray for me, that I have
the wisdom and insight to take the experience God has given me and get
enough value out of that.”
Paget suggested that SBC churches identify a
specific congregation and intercede for its needs, and then let the
church’s pastor know that they’re praying.
“I think it’s important that pastors in those
associations know that people are praying for them and what they’re
praying for,” Paget said. “Being specific is so encouraging for local
pastors.”(BP)