Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXXXI
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” (2Corinthians 5:17)
PreCovid-19 Era: Remember singing, “Take me out to the ball game; Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks. I don’t care if I never get back, so let’s root, root, root for the home team. If they don’t win, it’s a shame. For its one, two, three strikes you’re out at the old ball game”?
Covid-19 Era version: “Take me out to the ball game. Take me where’s there no crowd. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks. I don’t care if social distancing ever comes back. So we will virtually root, root, root while live streaming. Not going live is no shame. For it’s one, two, three strikes your out if you test positive again!”
Covid-19 stripped the church of its building, education of its classroom, and even baseball of its crowd! Due to isolation and self-quarantining, we have forgotten what “going out” means. My wife and I use to “go out”, have a date night! Those in their teens and twenties would go to the movies; they’re closed; go to a restaurant; sorry Take-Out Only, go for a romantic moonlit walk or a hike; people are everywhere because hiking is one of the few family activity options available. Miniature Golf allows for social distancing from tee to green, but there are always backups! Couples going “Parking” at the edge of a precipice overlooking the city or town or back a long, dark, isolated country road may become popular again, but not parentally approved.
For married adults during this Covid-19 era, “Going-Out” means ordering “Take-Out” so they can “Stay-In” and watch yet another Netflix or streamed online movie while snuggling on the sofa when the kids are in bed. Ooops, they just announced that I will become a grandparent again! What will this world look like for the high school graduates of the class of 2038 now being birthed because their parents “Took-Out” when “Going Out” when deciding to “Stay-In”? Will there even be High Schools? Will virtual sports and online gaming replace the Pre-Covid-19 Friday night High School football games? Will “cheerleaders” go the way of the dinosaurs? I am sure social life will be totally different.
We are in a historical transition period. The Pre-Computer/Pre-Internet days are gone. Board games will be found only in moldy attics or “posted” online in Wikipedia. Almost everyone has fogotten what a telephone book with white and yellow pages looks like. A “party-line” will not be remembered as a telephone term, but a social term used by college students for an upcoming drinking party. We will not be doing “virtual” weddings, funerals, family reunions, etc. forever. We are just trying to figure out how to be “virtual” today; heaven knows how all this will shake out and look like five to ten years from now.
The church is one of the slowest institutions to embrace change. Christians feel they must meet in a designated building (a church) to follow a several hundred year old “order of worship” (do church) with passive participation while financing the institution (be the church). We use to “go to church,” but virtually where are we going? We use to “do church,” but is Zooming & Social Networking doing church? We use to “be the church,” but “being” means living, so how is the church going to become a living organism again if it is stripped of its institutional structures?
I believe Church Revival can come through a metamorphic process. Pre-Covid-19 church structure is like a caterpillar, slow, cumbersome, multi-segmented, but a ravish eater, it’s consumes a lot in order to grow. In fact it can cause an infestation if not checked. Eventually it spins a cocoon. Inside, hidden from the world, it begins a total transformation of structure and purpose. When it is revealed, it is no longer a caterpillar, but a butterfly. Structurally, it has a hard shell and wings. Its purpose is now to fly, to soar towards the heavenlies. As a caterpillar it could only see at ground level; now it has a totally different perspective both in the heavens and on earth.
The Church just may be entering the cocoon phase of its earthly journey. It has defined its current identity, but senses a coming transformation that will change its appearance and purpose. As the Bride of Christ, appearance is monumental; the purpose will be preparation for the return of the Groom, Jesus Christ, for His Bride.
The future, as I see it, is all about change, whether we like it or not. Strap yourself in, for we are about to go for a ride!