What Covid-19 has Taught me about the Church
It seems everyone is obligated to mention this year as “crazy”, ‘unbelievable”, “exhausting”, or some other description that we’ve all likely heard a mind-numbing amount. But how else do we describe a year that has been historic and incomparable to all others? To use another overused adjective, this year has been hard. The pandemic has brought all sorts of stress to people, whether it be from losing a job, social interaction, or the ultimate loss of losing a loved one. While we may all have endured differing levels of strife and sour notes to the year, there is no doubt that 2020 has taken its toll on each of us in some way.
Working at a church has certainly brought its own distinct challenges. A global pandemic like Covid-19 has brought a wide array of theological convictions to be applied in ways that our spontaneous context demanded. The work of church leaders is largely the responsibility of carrying out the Gospel, the truth of God’s redemption of the world and its sinners, applying theological truths to the Church to both bear fruit and to glorify God. In an imperfect analogy, it is similar to what the Supreme Court does in its work of applying judicial and legal principles to specific situations to form a decision on how to legally handle the issue. How judges understand these principles inform how our laws are applied and enforced. The same is true of church leaders, seeking to understand what Scripture teaches in order to faithfully apply it to their ministry contexts. Really, the Church is discerning the will of God for these times. But what the heck is God’s will in these times? I don’t presume to know, or even that we can know (at least fully) how God is using these events for His glory. However, I have seen God teaching me a number of things throughout this season of life.
1. A Sharpened Ecclesiology
One of the most important concepts for church leaders to grapple with is ecclesiology, or, what a biblical concept of the church looks like/functions as. Biblically, 1) believers gather together, 2) for worship, 3) of God and for his redemptive work through His Son, 4) and for edification and strengthening, 5) so that they, together, collectively mediate between God and the world, 6) spreading the Gospel to every tongue, tribe, nation. This is an overview of the broader design of the Church, but you’ll quickly notice how much detail is left out. The question of “how” to do all these things is missing, the answers applied differently because of different contexts or theological convictions.
The bizarre scenarios we find ourselves in today have especially stretched our understanding of what it means to gather. Does it still count if not everyone is there? What about “gathering” online, a concept that surely had no way of manifesting itself in the minds of the apostles? Is it okay to not physically gather together, because of a public health crisis? My goal is not to answer these questions, but merely to point out some of the challenges our churches have faced as they wrestle through their convictions, prioritizing and applying the principles as faithfully as they can in this unprecedented time.
My own church has confronted these challenges, first by closing in the early outset, then opening back up this summer. We have thought through and tried to balance our approach as faithfully as possible, our commands to gather (Hebrews 10:25; Acts 2:42) with our calling to submit to our governing authorities (1 Peter 2:13–18; Romans 13:1–7). I still feel this tension, wondering if we got it right or not, but at some point you have to make a call and then live according to your convictions. As challenging as it has been, I am grateful for the renewed understanding of the Church that came as a result.
2. The Church is a Community
Through that tension of discerning God’s will for our church in this time, I so clearly see the ideal definition of community. Currently, we have about 1/5 of our membership physically attending, while we are equipped to handle about 3/5 of our members while still in keeping of CDC guidelines. I dearly miss so many of our congregants, many that out of safety of their health, have made the difficult decision to not attend. Our church is simply not the same without them, and I long for the day we can safely gather again. On the other hand, comparing my experience of having “online church” to meeting in-person now, the benefits of simply being with one another is appreciated. Last week, we saw a family who recently had a baby. We had the opportunity to see just how much their oldest had grown in these last 10 months. ‘We have been able to encourage one another in person, physically telling people the ways in which we value them. We get to see how we as a body respond to God’s Word being preached. We were blessed in seeing our pastor’s wife in her final few weeks before passing away from cancer. We were witnesses to her steadiness to God’s missional calling on her life, an image that has forever been burned into my memory of her. I am also eternally grateful for being with one another that next Sunday morning and grieving together. Each of these things do something for the Body of Christ, some which is intangible, but all of it is felt in some way. It has led me to conclude that even the mere sight of brothers and sisters serves an edifying purpose.
3. God’s Word is Living and Active
One of the odd beliefs of the Church is that the Bible is supernaturally alive. Not quite in the same sense as the talking book from the The Pagemaster, but in the sense that the words when read or spoken, are actively at work in the person (Hebrews 4:12). This idea has been stretched a bit as well, with us having online services. Our church is located in the rural Midwest, and relies on satellite internet at blazing speeds topping out at 3 mbps and requires a mostly clear sky to get even that. Livestreaming simply isn’t an option for our church! I have preached a handful of times during the pandemic, and I’ll just say, declaring God’s Word, living and active as it is, feels different when declaring it in front of no one but a camera. There is something startling as well in knowing that what I was saying live would not be heard by the people until days later. How does my strong view of Scripture and its power from declaration by preachers fit with that!?
Of course, it is by God that preaching is made effective. But it is true that the vessel used by God is an important role. Further still, there is a relationship between shepherd and flock, between the proclaimed Word and the hearers. The first time I preached in this season, I had to start over several times, one time where I was more than 20 minutes into the sermon! I quickly learned just how much the spirit of preaching relies on the Spirit moving in the lives of the hearers. This is easily understood when explaining how when I made a humorous statement, it felt like a stand up comedian completely bombing a joke but moving on as though nothing was wrong. I think we can all understand that to some degree.
But there was also something missing in speaking truth and not seeing the visible expressions of the people. When preaching, you tend to read people’s faces (or at least, I do) and use that to dictate your next sentence. I preach directly from a manuscript (I have a terrible ability to remember my points and also stay organized and coherent without one), but even in what is essentially reading from a page, you notice how people are responding and you respond to them in a sort of dance, each party directing the other. “Did I say that clearly enough? People seem to be confused” would lead then to going off script a bit and clarifying something. “Was that too harsh? People seem to be off-put” would lead to me perhaps reminding people of the grace God gives us, even in our imperfections and failures to abide. There are many more examples, but each reaction can be used by the Spirit to guide the conversation. None of that, however, is possible in a pre-recorded sermon to be seen days later.
It was easy to wonder if I was even capable of delivering God’s Word in a way that would have meaningful impact at all (especially so for my preaching, as we’ll just kindly say ‘has room for improvement’). I have certainly come to appreciate further the ability to preach live and in front of the intended audience. My trust in God though, has also grown in just how much God can do with so little. When we reopened, I had several discussions with people about previous sermons given, and how they impacted them. They were eager to share some of the ways in which they spiritually maturing, the ways they sought to “make the Kingdom visible”. Somehow, even in what felt to me like an infelicitous mode of preaching, God was at work through His preached Word. Christ was still being proclaimed, as inefficiently as it seemed, and people were still nourishing themselves from it. This was deeply encouraging to me, as I ponder just how many hours I put into each sermon and how inadequate I still feel in delivering it, God is truly the One working in all things.
Suffering as Preparation
I suppose it should come as no surprise that even in a year like 2020, God is able to work evil for good. I won’t deny that I still eagerly anticipate the coming year, hopeful that things will start moving towards our “old normal”. However, I am grateful that in times of trial, God is refining me. I can’t seem to get out of 2020 fast enough, but the lessons that God has taught me along the way are invaluable. I know I am not the only one to have their understanding of the Church exercised and stretched, and while I sympathize, I am also excited to see the good fruit that comes from a sharper definition of what the Church is (and isn’t). I pray that the Church has a greater sense of who they are as the collective people of God, as His priests to the world, with a renewed vigor to see every person reached for the Gospel. Church Father Tertullian claimed that “the blood of martyrs is the seeds of the Church”. Similarly, I pray that our anguish this past year produces a Church so focused on Christ and committed to a communal identity in a local church, that the world is overtaken by Christ and his glory.
