Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era – Part I
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (I Peter 2:9-10)
It took a pandemic to turn our world upside down. We were enjoying our complacency and prosperity until Covid-19 rocked our world and caused us to reexamine the meaning of sacrifice. This pandemic has forced us to change how we do work, school and church. The next several blogs will be about how the Covid-19 has affected our lives and changed our world.
Resisting change, institutions fight to retain control. The Christian church has maintained control through established traditions for over two thousand years. America has maintained being a democracy for only 250 years. Could anything other than the Lord’s return impact and change the current Church mindsets? The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged that control by shutting down economies and self-quarantining entire cities, sates, and nations. Without a pharmaceutical solution, it has caused communities to bow to isolation, create social distancing, stretch hospital and healthcare systems to the brink, and pose death threats to the masses and healthcare workers world-wide.
American churches have had to reexamine how to do church through this Covid-19 pandemic. It has rediscovered that the Church is its people, not its buildings. “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (I Peter 2:9-10) Christian facilities dot the American landscape and park on the cities’ street corners. According to scripture, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name I am there in their midst,” (Matthew 18:20) when those facilities are vacant, God’s Presence no longer resides in them. This was true in Jesus’ time and is still true today. Take the people out of a church building, and all you have left is an empty building!
Mandated isolation forced people out of their church buildings. To compensate, the institutional church continued to perform their Sunday rituals, sermons or mass, via streaming on the Internet. Pew sitters became comfortable sofa sitters. An appeal for financial support to support their institution continued to be part of the program. The size of the audience was no longer important, having a Sunday morning performance was. Covid-19 revealed that an isolated, quarantined church can still technologically stream its programs to meet their traditional institutional goals.
The Church needs to reexamine how it functions, what tools are available, how to equip isolated members, then how to release them to advance the kingdom of God in the 21st century. With an Internet generation, the church must learn how to communicate with one another locally and world-wide through a new heart, a new vision, and new strategies.
I hope the following blogs will challenge us believers to examine our hearts and vision for a Church that is willing to embrace change during this Covid-19 era