Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXVIII
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Church buildings have been central to a church’s faith, but we have been poor steward of them. Heavily used only on Sundays, most sit idle during the week. They treat their real estate with great care, but churches can better use their facilities.
Old wineskin ways of conducting Sunday services are no longer effective when new wine demands social distancing, smaller group size, and preventing physical contact. Let’s brainstorm creative way to process the new wine, new ideas, of this Covid-19 era. Why are we looking at the back of heads when sitting in pews or row of chairs? People desire relationships over religious exercises. Facing each other, they can build relationships. Developing relationships should supersede the Protestant sermon or the Catholic Mass, which have been the center of “church” experience in the past. Birthing, nurturing, worshiping with, empowering, and releasing other believers in your group is the “new normal”. New wineskins cannot hold the old wine of past centuries; new wine needs new wineskins or you will have disastrous results. Huge mega-church sanctuaries are useless wineskins to this kind of new wine.
Church revival has always been tied to the use of new technology, Guttenberg’ printing press taught the laity how to read the Bible for themselves and ushered in the Great Reformation. Radio, discovered in the 1st half of the 20th century, broadcasted the Good New to the world. Television, invented in the 2nd half of the same century launched Billy Graham Crusades around the world. The result: World Evangelism. The 21st century is the age of the Internet, the era of the smart phone, personal computers, artificial intelligence, IPads, etc. How will the Church use it to go global, yet remain personal Time will tell.
If churches are to utilize their buildings, they will have to embrace this new technology. Virtual means going beyond your walls. Some mega-churches are reacting to Covid-19 by expanding their Wi-Fi and online services like video teaching, podcasts, virtual small groups, and utilizing social networking, emailing, texting, tweeting, blogging, etc.
Church buildings could be converted into virtual broadcasting centers. Person-to-person small group may yet meet within their walls, but virtual communication is the future. The “old school” method of “going to church” to hear a sermon may be a thing of the past when you can watch the virtual video of the sermon anytime you choose via one’s personal smart phone. Evangelism has broadcasted the “good news” through whatever communication was possible: mail, leaflets, tracts, radio, television, personally, or through social networking. Going to a building to hear the “good news” is an old wineskin; hearing the “good news” virtually is the new wineskin. The “good news” can be broadcast through social networking from your existing building.
Another use: Convert your Sunday school rooms into a physical daycare center for toddlers and/or a virtual daycare for school age students. There is a need for childcare so parents can return to Pre-Covid-19 conditions to work. If they don’t work, they could lose their job. The church could rise to meet this need by using their vacated facilities and retraining or hiring staff to become mentors, tutors, and facilitators of virtual instruction for when students are not attending public education. This way the church could “serve” their members and reach out to their communities. It will also give the church the opportunity to have a spiritual influence in a child’s life. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
Caution: We dare not make these virtual daycare centers “Christian Schools”, like current old school wineskins. By being virtual educational tutoring centers we can reach out and serve the public. Here is an effect avenue to serve the public if we don’t make it a religious experience. It must be a relational experience between the church and the none-church public. Loving children, feeding children, meeting their psychological needs, nurturing and encouraging them is more important than indoctrinating them. Love and service is the key.
Buildings are only as good as their use. When manufacturing gets old; the factory decays and dies unless it is gets retooled. When a church building ages and decays from lack of use and maintenance, it dies unless it is retooled, revived, regeneration. Now is the time to revive our buildings and bring back life, but that can only be done through new wineskins, new structures accepting new wine, new ideas. Bring it on!