Pandemic division causing pastors to leave ministry, counselor says – Baptist Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – Brian Croft jokes that masks are the new “color of the carpet argument” in churches, with similarly poor outcomes. Pastors are resigning from the stress “kind of in a way I’ve never really seen.”

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“Once masks and no masks got politicized, and once masks and no masks became about what’s right and what’s wrong, instead of about what is an individual’s conscience on the matter, then that’s where these unnecessary divisions started setting in, in a really unhealthful way,” Croft said. “That’s pretty much what’s happening all over the place. … And this is global too. I work with pastors all over the world.”

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“There are pastors in Africa, there are pastors in Scotland and England, there are pastors in Brazil. I mean there are pastors everywhere who are having to wade through these waters of just disagreement around should the church gather or not,” Croft said, “because it’s not just an opinion about your mask or no mask, it’s politicized, it’s wrapped up in fear for a lot of people, or frustration over the people who are in fear. So people are not really wired and prone to just love one another where they are.

“These divisions have just kind of imploded some churches.”

Source: Pandemic division causing pastors to leave ministry, counselor says – Baptist Press