LEADERSHIP IN THE TIME OF
CRISIS BY RICARDO GRAHAM
W
hen Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin discussed her book Leadership: In Turbulent Times on a series of broadcasts on PBS, she said, “Leadership is the ability to mobilize and inspire people to a common cause for the greater good of the people.” For the Christian, the common cause is the cause of Jesus, and leadership is always Christ-centered and people-focused. Without godly leadership, the church is bound to wither and lose its ability to be light and salt to the world. Leadership in the church is always an essential, but it becomes absolutely indispensable in a time of crisis such as now, when COVID-19 is indiscriminately killing people daily. In order to preserve life and stop the communal spread of the virus, many municipalities have ordered that there is to be no assembling of 4
PA C I F I C U N I O N R E CO R D E R
people beyond 10 persons. This has temporarily halted activity in most church buildings, including Seventh-day Adventist churches. However, we must note that the church building is not the church itself. The church is the community of believers called to God and committed to living out, corporately and individually, His principles. The temporary closing of our worship buildings does not close the church, the Body of Christ. Remember what Jesus said: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, NKJV). We may be at the gates, but hell will not prevail against the church. Just remember how the book of Revelation ends: Jesus wins! God has a plan for His church. To that end, visioning—receiving God’s vision and articulating
