To serve the people well and be faithful to what the Lord has given us, we must look with vision at our new jobs. Grieve, yes. But to only bemoan the loss of what was will cause us to miss opportunities to serve people now.

Unless your industry has somehow remained stable and unphased through the pandemic, your job has likely changed. This is not because you did anything wrong. This is not because your boss randomly decided to reposition your job or dramatically alter your job description. This is not because your organization broke a promise to you. This is simply because we are in the midst of a global pandemic and much of what your job was built around has changed.

My job has changed. I am in the same role with the same people I love, but specifics of how I execute responsibilities within my role has changed dramatically.

Let’s just take one bullet point on my job description as an example: “Teach 60-65% of the weekends at Mariners Church.” While the fundamental responsibility of teaching remains, how the teaching is delivered has changed. In the good old days, I would prepare all week, wake up early Saturday mornings and review my message, teach it for the first time on Saturday night, receive feedback from a team I trust, make tweaks Saturday night, and deliver it three times on Sunday morning. Not anymore. This week my message must be done by Wednesday when I teach it for the first time to a camera to capture for those hosting church in their homes and for our online services. I live with days of thinking I should have said something differently. And then I will preach the message five times this weekend to smaller outdoor gatherings. The current context requires being prepared earlier, preaching for multiple contexts, and delivering the message over a longer period of time. It is very different.

No one baited and switched me. No one wronged me. I am not a victim. The context just changed suddenly and dramatically. How we do navigate the sudden and dramatic change to our roles? How do we lead change management on our own souls? Though I don’t believe I am doing this perfectly, I am by God’s grace excited about the new state of my job. Here is what I suggest:

1. Grieve the loss of the old job.

As we know, it is important and healthy to acknowledge what has been lost – even if we hold on to hope that things will be restored (which I do with faith and optimism). But if this pandemic and the implications of it are a year or more, it is important to not try and hold on to old ways of doing things because by doing so we would not be leading well in the current reality.

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