Dear NOBA Pastor,

In his LPB roundtable discussion last night, Governor John Bel Edwards commended you, the pastors and faith leaders of Louisiana, for your compliance with his executive orders aimed at “flattening the curve” and stemming the surge of Coronavirus cases in our state. Your response was immediate and unambiguous, pastoral and neighborly. Indeed, you are a splendid example of Christian citizenship.

Your response also cost you. The executive orders intended to protect public health have scattered your congregation and dislocated you. God called, shaped, and equipped you to be among his people, leading, feeding, and serving them. The pandemic and stay-at-home order have isolated your congregation. The separation is sadness.

To the pastors of the scattered and suffering churches of Asia Minor, Peter appealed:

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be” (1 Peter 5:2).

It is your desire and God’s intention for you to be among his people watching over them, caring for them, and feeding them with knowledge and understanding. The fact that you mourn this interruption underscores both your calling and our need for Christian community.

During his days among us, the great Shepherd protected the flock not losing even one of God’s sheep. As Jesus entered the shadow of the cross, his heart grew heavy with concern for us. Having experienced both the cruelty of a fallen world and the protection of his loving Father, Jesus knew that we would encounter the difficulties that he endured and that we would need the grace that had sustained him. So he prayed for us. Interceding for us, Jesus asked God to protect us. He prayed for our unity, even as he and the Father are one. And He asked that we would be filled with the full measure of his joy.

Having spoken these desires from his heart into God’s will, Jesus sent us out into the world, just as the Father had sent him. He concluded this commissioning by asking God to sanctify us by the truth; “your word is truth.” As if he were reinsuring this promise, Jesus says, “For them, I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17: 19).

May this season of separation and sadness afford us opportunities to refocus on Christ our salvation, safe shelter, and joy, and to recommit ourselves to follow his call to feed and take care of his sheep.

I wait, prayerfully and purposefully, on the day when you, good shepherd, rejoin in full communion the flock that God has entrusted to your care.

Your constant servant and friend,
Jack Hunter
Executive Director, NOBA