Tim Challies recently chronicled, “How the Church Worshipped on One of the Most Unusual Sundays in Church History.” People all around the world were gathered in front of laptops and television screens as preachers spoke into cameras and phones. God’s Word was being proclaimed through YouTube, Facebook, and Zoom. It was a wonderful display of the flexibility and unstoppable power of the church. It was an important start. And if COVID-19 was going to be over in a week or two, that would probably be enough. But there’s more that’s needed if we’re going to ride out this pandemic over the long haul. Let me give some suggestions for how we can be the church in the midst of this global pandemic.
1. Find ways to be healthy. Do you find yourself losing track of time these days? A wrench has been thrown into our routines and it’s easy to drop some of the essentials of our daily and weekly rhythms. It’s never been more important to take time to read and reflect on the Bible and spend time with God in prayer. I’ve been trying to memorize Scripture as a way of centring my thoughts, particularly at the beginning and end of the day. Exercise and rest are crucial to help our bodies deal with all of the stress that we’re experiencing. Your patterns may have changed, but we all need to establish new healthy rhythms to give us the spiritual and physical strength to deal with all that we’re facing.
2. Find creative ways to adapt. Right now, we can’t do church the way that we’ve been used to doing it. Taking our message online involved a big adjustment. Online giving is also something new for many of us. On Sunday evening, our life group met by videoconference for the first time. Fourteen of us joined the call and were able to share what’s been going on in our lives and walk through the discussion questions in the sermon handout. I had a videoconference this afternoon with someone I would have otherwise met in person. Anyone with a smartphone, tablet or computer with a built-in camera can download the free Google Hangouts app and make fellowship happen while we’re all social distancing. I think we need to re-imagine prayer also. While prayer meetings are more difficult, prayer partners are just a phone call away. Why not call up a friend and pray together through the prayer guide? What are some of the things about church that have been meaningful to you? What are some creative ways you could find to continue to practice them while we are keeping our distance from one another? As time goes on, we will become extremely spiritually vulnerable if we don’t adapt and instead put church on hold until things return to normal.
3. Find ways to not be invisible. In the same way that we need to rethink some of the formal aspects of church life in our current crisis, we also need to work on the more informal, relational aspects of our Christian walk. Wouldn’t you love to enjoy some of that coffee in the connection time, right now? Don’t you wish we could have one of those great hot lunches that they serve at L.A.F.F.? It would be easy to let all of our informal fellowship fall by the wayside while we wait for things to get back to normal. But when we’re alone and feel invisible, we become targets for Satan’s attacks. Find ways to not be invisible. Reach out and call someone. Share your life with someone and be ready to listen. We need to support each other as we walk through this.
4. Find ways to love your neighbour. So much has changed in the last month, but our mission as a church hasn’t. We need to find ways to love our neighbours. In the coming months, many will experience the painful symptoms of COVID-19. Some will experience loss. Others will find themselves buckling under the emotional toll. And then the reality of the economic impact will hit and the consequences for many will devastating. The world needs us to be the church right now. Is there a (sanitized) game you can share with your neighbour’s children? Is there a neighbour who’s quarantined that you could shop for? Is there someone you could call? Look for ways you can be Jesus’ hands and feet to those around you.
In awe of Him,
Paul
