What COVID - 19 Has Taught Us About Church
The "success" of the western world church has long been measured by size. How many people came? How large was the event ? What were the numbers? Dhati Lewis says that most of us have reduced Christianity to conferences, concerts, and church services. I think this has been revealed and strongly challenged in the year 2020 through the pandemic of COVID-19. Because of this virus, we have been forced to limit the size of crowds. We have been forced to consider the question, "How can we gather with far less people?" For many of us, this has felt foreign. It has felt as though church has been stripped from us. For some, because we cannot do service and normal community group, we have drifted into apathy and wandering. For some, we have even felt as though we are being persecuted by the government because we can't gather (in large crowds) like we always have. But I would argue we are simply being forced to consider church the way it was meant to be experienced. I would argue that we are forced to learn that ministry success isn't always how big, but how deep. I would argue that we are being forced to realize that the church is not a building, but a people, with an every day mission to make disciples in every day life.
Jesus changed the world by walking life with just a few people. In fact he had massive crowds that tried to gather around him and make him their king, and he often ran away from them to be with the few. (John 6:15, Mark 3:7-19) In Matthew 9, as large crowds were near Jesus' ministry when most of us would have felt excited over the numbers, Jesus actually felt sad.
"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.""
Matthew 9:36-38 ESV
Why this sadness? Because Jesus understood that all of those people would be leaving with nobody to be close to them with intentional discipleship to help them live a kingdom life daily. I think Jesus would see limiting church crowd size as an opportunity rather than persecution.
What is that opportunity? It's the opportunity to really zero in and be in the lives of people. It's the opportunity to impact people up close to show them evangelism, life change, serving, family life, and deep intimacy with God. It's an opportunity to equip new leaders who, because of focused attention, will give them the vision and tools they need to go any place in the world and start a movement for Christ. It's an opportunity to be the church. I said often at the start of this pandemic when church services were being canceled, that one cannot cancel church. Church can never be canceled because church is a living organism. Church can't be canceled because Jesus said he will build his church and not even the gates of hell could prevail against her movement forward. Church is a blood-purchased family that has existed in homes, basements, woods, schools, around camp fires, in deserts, in all sorts of places and in different forms. In fact church, throughout history and in the majority of the world has to be small by necessity because it is the target of malicious attack.
I've been burdened by the amount of people who have found themselves "stuck" in this time and waiting to be allowed to get back to church. What if we used this time to shift our paradigm to say, "Since I can only be with a few, I'm going to go really deep with that few." What if we said, "I'm not waiting for normal to start engaging lost people and offering the hope of the gospel." This mindset would infuse us an exciting sense of purpose. This mindset would launch us into the great adventure of mission and faith. This mindset just might be the "re-start" that we need in these trying times.
We have been limited in size, but we have not been prohibited from walking with a few people. We have not been prohibited from sharing Jesus with our neighbors and friends while inviting them to follow him with us. We have not been prohibited from teaching people to read and apply their Bibles. We haven't been prohibited from serving the broken and under privileged. COVID-19 has helped us redefine church, and I think it's going to be the spark we need to follow Jesus as his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Grace & Peace, Scott Long