Caring for Pastors

A Letter from John McCall, serving in Taiwan

Summer 2021

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It is interesting in life how one experience prepares one for a future experience without even knowing it. When I was 30, I was called as pastor of the Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. When I arrived, that church had about 35 retired pastors and their spouses. When I left that church to come to Taiwan, there were 50 pastors and their spouses. I learned during my time there how to be a pastor to pastors.

During my time in Taiwan, in addition to teaching seminary students how to serve as pastors, I also spend a great deal of my time each week accompanying pastors. In weekly pastor spiritual formation groups, retreats, and one-on-one conversations over meals, I listen to pastors here sharing both the challenges and joys of their lives and ministries.

Last week I taught a course for about 50 pastors entitled, “The Soul of the Pastor: From Exhaustion to New Strength and Vision.” These pastors came from churches throughout Taiwan. There were women and men, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, those who had served in the church for over 30 years and those who had served for only a year or two. But they all were eager to learn and share. They came tired after seeking to be the Church during this pandemic and seemed to leave renewed and ready to continue to be Christ’s pastors in high mountain churches and in big city churches.

When I arrived at the church, two high school boys were standing at the back of the sanctuary. We began to talk, and suddenly one of the boys said, “How do you know God’s will?” I am always amazed here how easy it is to talk about God with folks I have just met. This boy is playing baseball in college and wants to become a professional baseball player. But he doesn’t know if this is God’s will for his life. I was able to ask him some questions and then prayed for him.

On Sunday, I drove with one of our seminary professors to a church on the north coast. I have known Professor Hong Chuan and Pastor Ching Hsin for 16 years. When Hong Chuan was studying for his Ph.D. in Old Testament at Union Seminary in Richmond, they would go and visit my mom, who was in a memory care center there. Ching Hsin gave birth to their first child in June at the height of the pandemic here. They have wanted to have a child for a long time, so this birth was a gift of great grace.

They had asked me to baptize their baby, to preach and to join Hong Chuan in serving communion. The Jong Shan Church is located at the entrance to an elementary school, and over the years, Ching Hsin has been a wonderful pastor to children and youth from difficult backgrounds. Many of these youth were in worship on Sunday. I thought about the beautiful ways Ching Hsin has cared for the children of others, and now her own child was being baptized.

The pastors here live right at the church and, with the ease of social media, are expected to be available for both big and small things 24 hours a day. In the midst of service, it is easy for them to be so busy serving God that their own relationship with God becomes distant. So it is a privilege for me to be their encourager and to pray with and for them. They are able to share honestly both in our small groups and in our one-on-one conversations. As they are cared for, they then go to care for so many others.

Thank you for your prayers and support, which allow me to come alongside these pastors.

Gratefully,

John McCall

Please read the following letter from Sara P. Lisherness, the interim director of World Mission:

Dear partners in God’s mission,

I don’t know about you, but daily my heart grows heavier. News about the pandemic, wars, wildfires, gun violence, racism, earthquakes and hurricanes cloud my vision. It’s hard to see hope; our world is in a fog. Yet we trust that God’s light and love transcend the brokenness of this time.

God is at work transforming the world, and you, through your prayers, partnership and encouragement, are helping us share this good news. Thank you for your faithful and gracious support of our mission personnel.

How can we see through the fog? What will the church be after the pandemic? Could it be that God is doing “a new thing” and is inviting us to perceive it? Through all the uncertainty we know that God’s steadfast love and care for all creation will prevail and that God’s Spirit is at work in each of us.

We all have an integral part to play in fulfilling God’s mission. As we seek to grow together in faithfulness there are three important steps I invite you to take in supporting our shared commitments to God’s mission:
Give – Consider making a year-end financial contribution for the sending and support of our mission personnel. Your support helps mission personnel accompany global partners as together they share the light of God’s love and justice around the world. Invite your session to include support for mission personnel in its annual budget planning.
Act – Visit The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study to delve deeper into the work God is doing through the PC(USA) and its partners in ministry around the globe: pcusa.org/missionyearbook.
Pray – Include our mission personnel, our global partners, and our common commitments to share God’s grace, love, mercy and justice in your daily prayers.

Thank you for your faithfulness to God’s mission through the Presbyterian Church. It is my prayer that you will continue to support this work with your prayers, partnership, and financial gifts in the coming year. We hope you will join us and our partners in shining a beacon of hope throughout the world.

In the light of hope,

Sara P. Lisherness, Interim Director
World Mission
Presbyterian Mission Agency
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

To give please visit https://bit.ly/PCUSAmission

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16