Though his own and his family’s “normal” life has been as affected as most by the coronavirus epidemic, Dr. Nicholas Pearce doesn’t view the situation as a disruption. Instead, he chooses to see it as a defining moment—an opportunity for believers to succeed as a modern ministry or business leader.
A professor at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management—one of the top business schools in the world—and an assistant pastor at Chicago’s historic Apostolic Church of God, Pearce looks at the pandemic as an opportunity for Christ-followers to press in and embrace the challenges the resulting pandemonium has brought. Like everyone else, he hasn’t seen a classroom or a church service in three weeks to a month, but he is teaching online, and he says his expertise is needed now more than ever.
“Right now, I’m being pulled in both directions. The coronavirus has literally rocked the world economically from a public health perspective, and it was literally overnight for many of us,” Pearce told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “Here in the United States, it seems as though we fell off a cliff in mid-March, and I’m not sure we’re going to be returning to the way things used to be.
“This has disrupted families, communities, and it has disrupted the church and disrupted higher education. I don’t think we’re ever going to see the normal we thought we had back in January. This is certainly a moment that’s going to be here for a while, both on the academic side and in the faith space.
“This coronavirus is causing every leader to be more nimble, and for every organization to act like a startup. But what I’m starting to see is that this ‘disruption’ is going to cause some organizations to grow and thrive. …
“Whether you are a pastor in a pulpit, a CEO in a boardroom, a teacher in a classroom or a police chief in a city, you have people who are looking for guidance, who are looking to you for guidance, who are looking to you for leadership—who are within a structure where there are certain tasks to be completed. You’ve got to now find ways to motivate, enable and integrate these individuals together to realize a common goal or aspiration, whether you measure success in spiritual terms, financial terms or both. There’s no opportunity to go back to normal. There is no normal anymore; it’s going to be redefined.”
For more of Pearce’s thoughts on the new normal for leaders, listen to the entire podcast.
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