" Thank You, Pastors MAY 18, 2020 | JEN POLLOCK MICHEL In my Toronto neighborhood every evening, people stand on their front porches, banging pots and pans in celebration of frontline health-care workers. Sidewalks are chalked with rainbows and chirpy messages of gratitude: “Thank you, essential workers!” These gestures, in a global pandemic, feel absolutely right. And yet, there is another group I want to thank. Besides the bus drivers and grocery-store employees, besides the doctors and nurses, besides the daycare workers and teachers, I want to thank the pastors. Now that pastoring and preaching have gone digital, I worry for pastors. I worry for them as they stand in their houses, preaching the Scriptures to empty rooms. I worry for their weariness, for their own discouragement and isolation. Even as certain parts of the economy have begun opening, it’s unclear how long the church will remain scattered, and I worry pastors will forget how much their work matt...
