Early in the pandemic, I thought I was taking a long-term approach to all that was happening. I knew that we couldn’t just hold our breath for a few weeks or months and hope that it would all blow over. I knew that we had to settle in for the long haul and develop long-term strategies to cope in the midst of an extended battle with COVID-19. We’re now well past what I had anticipated, and all reports are that we still have a long way to go. I want to share what I learned about how Christians are faring in the pandemic from The Fellowship’s recent national conference and suggest some areas where we need to pray and give attention.
There’s a tendency to oversimplify people’s reasons for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Some people are late adopters with everything. They don’t rush into any decisions let alone ones with such big consequences. Others fear the reliability of a vaccine development process that feels rushed. For others, the decision has been influenced by political division and mistrust. Unfortunately, a huge amount of misinformation has also clouded people’s thinking.
I have deliberately avoided speaking about vaccines because I feel it’s a medical decision and therefore best made in consultation with your doctor, not your pastor. There are some Christians however who have avoided getting the COVID-19 vaccine for spiritual reasons. While believers may disagree on the application of biblical principles, I don’t feel that I’m doing my job as your pastor if I don’t try to make clear some of the related teachings of the Bible, as best I understand them.
As we deal with another lockdown, the effects of the past year are mounting up. There are struggles with isolation and anxiety. Plans that we put our hopes in for relief and escape keep getting pushed out farther into the future. We can feel helpless and wonder how much gas is left in the tank. Even the language can add to our stress. When we hear that the premier’s pulling “the emergency brake,” it sounds like we’re in a car that’s skidding out of control and we’re about to do some risky maneuver. When they say that we’re in a “lockdown” or under “stay-at-home orders,” you can’t help but picture bars on the doors or at least a monitoring anklet to ensure that we don’t escape.
The apostle Paul was actually under stay-at-home orders when he wrote the book of Philippians. He was chained to rotating shifts of Roman guards who ensured that he stayed put. He wasn’t waiting for a vaccine to bring his lockdown to an end. He was waiting on a trial that would likely end in his death. Despite his circumstances, he exuded joy, hope, and confidence. What can we learn from him to better cope with the lockdown that we’re facing?
As the pandemic wears on, there’s a part of us that will begin to call ‘normal’ things that used to feel strange. ‘Doing church’ in pajamas on the sofa may start to feel like the ultimate in Sunday morning spirituality. People who have replaced evening ministry with Netflix may find it hard to go back. Even the isolation that we all struggle with may begin to feel attractive. Meeting people can be awkward, and relationships are often messy, we’ll tell ourselves. As you feel any of those thoughts, remember why fellowship is so essential and what we miss when we don’t invest in it. Let me give four specifics.
I believe that God is in control of all things and that includes the pandemic that we’re in right now. That makes me hopeful of His good purposes for all that we’re experiencing. But there is genuine cause for concern as well. When COVID-19 first caused churches to close their doors, there was a lot of optimism and even celebration. Early on in the pandemic, Carey Nieuwhof, announced that church growth had spiked 300% in the month following the shutdown and cited research that showed that 49% of all churches were growing. Church growth soon showed itself to be little more than online church curiosity. Christians were popping around to various churches to see what everyone else was doing.
Dealing with the closure of our church ministries has been a difficult process for everyone. For some of you, it’s probably been the longest period that you’ve gone without attending a church service since you were born. For others without such established patterns of church attendance, the separation is different. As we try to navigate through the unchartered pandemic waters that we’re facing, it’s important that we continue to listen to each other and seek God’s will for our next steps. To help in that, I wanted to share the results of our latest survey about returning to in-person worship services along with some of my own thoughts.
COVID-19 is on everyone’s minds right now, and it forces us to ask some tough questions. Does God exist? Does He care? Can He see what’s happening right now? Is He powerless to do anything about it? I’ve seen people ask these questions in recent weeks. I’ve seen people ask them after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. And I’ve seen people ask them after personal tragedies like the death of a loved one or a painful divorce. The place where I always bring those questions when they come is the opening chapters of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve. Let me explain how I feel their account answers the hard questions of COVID-19.
Last time, we looked at some of the resources that are available to help busy parents encourage the faith of their children while they’re home from school with too much time on their hands. Pouring Scripture into your children gives them a foundation to begin thinking biblically about life and the world around them. But we also need to talk to them about the crisis itself. Chances are that some of your children may feel that COVID-19 is more of an annoyance than a crisis right now. Until you’re actually faced with the physical or economic pain of the pandemic, it may just feel like an inconvenience. Now is the time to prepare for when your family may feel that pain a little more personally. I was reflecting on how we talked with our own children about the earthquake and resulting nuclear meltdown in Japan when I came across an excellent article by Sandy Galea giving 7 Tips When Talking To Kids About Coronavirus. Let me share some of the things I learned from her article and illustrate how we saw them play out in what we experienced.
These are not easy days to be a parent of young children. Having kids home for summer holidays can be difficult enough to plan for, but the COVID-19 school closures were too sudden to allow for planning and there are no camps to send them to or programs to enrol them in. Educators are doing what they can to provide online learning options and, as a church, we’re working to launch an online children’s ministry for our families. But still, many parents see this time as an opportunity to invest in their children’s faith and discipleship and are looking for tools and resources to help. The best place to start is the Bible itself. There’s nothing that can replace reading the Bible to your children and helping them to read it for themselves. You want to make sure that your children’s Bibles are well worn. But as you do that, you may want to supplement the Bible reading. Let me share what I feel are some of the best free materials available right now to encourage your child’s spiritual growth.
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.
