Just prior to Easter most of our churches closed their doors as it was seen more prudent to do so than to open for the required number of 10 persons to congregate in light of COVID-19. A few churches never closed their doors but found creative and sometimes risky ways to keep them open, sometimes encountering the wrath of the law in doing so.
During this time about 96 percent of churches were streaming their services according to studies done by Barna. This was the same with a significant number of our churches here in Jamaica. The buzz phrase on the lips of everyone was when is your service coming on? Our service is on YouTube or Facebook. Persons were frantically finding new and technologically savvy ways to get their voices heard and keep their congregations together.
As churches and the communities begin to reopen again, what lessons have we learnt that we need to bear in mind going forward.
We have to admit that our culture and faith have been challenged. The practice of greeting one another with a hug and a hand shake is no longer healthy. Physical touch, which is an important love language has to be reset or recalibrated. People will still make social connection as we are social beings. We will still need to talk to each other albeit through the electronic means available and when face to face be on our guard as we have no way of predicting or determining the prior exposure of the person with whom we speak. Everyone is a COVID-19 suspect. That’s hard, but that’s the way our lives have been changed. People will find creative ways to make contact as I have seen where grandparents greet their grandchildren through a screen. But hugging and handshakes are taboo for a long time to come. We need to limit our physical touching to family members and people we can trust, and find more intentional ways of connecting or ‘touching’ in other ways.
We have to be content with trusting the voice and eyes of a neighbour when that is all we can see and hear. Everyone or most persons have now become ‘ninja turtles’ as a good friend of mine puts it. I have had the experience of missing a friend in the supermarket by sight initially, because of the mask.
Our faith cannot remain the same. Never before have I seen more people so seemingly helpless, yet unwilling to accept their helplessness and dependence on God. People look for vaccines, blame others, call the pandemic a hoax, to the point of outright blasphemy. Rather than acknowledge that God the creator is in charge. Others believe God is judging us while others still can’t believe a loving God would cause thousands of people to die so mercilessly. What is your take? How has your faith been affected? Has the pandemic drawn you closer to God, away from God, or given you a
new understanding of God?
Reach vs Depth
Whereas livestreaming worship and Bible studies have been very good and will continue long after COVID-19 even when churches resume live worship. The statistics and anecdotal stories indicate that listenership has expanded. There are more persons signing on than would normally attend physical worship. Members invite their friends and there are members living overseas who are too happy to listen to their Jamaican flavour of worship. But what is happening behind the scenes? Is the momentum being maintained? Are people engaged in worship or multitasking? Do
they listen to the programme then or are they listening later? Do they listen to the whole service or do they do church hop on line? These possibilities have to be interrogated.
But even more, are we building disciples or making people feel good? What is it that God desires? How can we channel this overwhelming response into focused discipleship building? This is what God wants us to do, go and make disciples. So, whether livestream or direct we must not lose sight of this mandate.
Finally, what kind of persons are we becoming during this pandemic? How is God changing and shaping us? Are we being more open to change? Are we able to withstand the varying demands and pressure of this period? Are we benefitting from the testing and trials, becoming more resilient and stronger in character and temperament? If we are not learning the lessons God want us to learn then who knows we may have to stay in the ‘fire’ a little longer.
I pray that we continue to see how our way of behaving culturally has to change. How we can move beyond the wider reach of our worship services to deeper discipleship making and how we can be truly evolving as “pure gold” from this period of trail and testing.
Blessings
Pastor
June 2020