The Crashing Twin-Engine Plane.

Once upon a time there was an airplane that was designed to make very, very long flights.  She was a marvelous aircraft and the crew had gone to great effort to make her the most comfortable aircraft they possibly could.  She was equipped with every kind of device for comfort, ease and entertainment.  When she was inflight she was a marvel of transportation. 

She was a twin-engine plane and each engine was a marvel to behold.  In fact, if one engine failed the other engine could keep her airborne and provide sufficient thrust to carry her to her destination and accomplish a safe landing.  Naturally, she was at her best if both engines were fully functional and operating at maximum output.  She might even take off with only one engine, but if she did it was always dangerous and the flight might not make it to its destination. 

On one occasion, this aircraft was making one of her long flights across mountainous terrain.  This was not the kind of place where she could perform an emergency landing.  As the flight progressed one of the engines began to lose power.  Slowly, engine #2 experienced diminished thrust and responsiveness.  The crew was not too worried because they were sure the plane was safe with a single engine.  Besides, engine #2 was not completely dead.  At some point engine #2 would be replaced by something else. 

Suddenly and with almost no warning, something completely unexpected happened and engine #1 was shut down.  There was little time to prepare for the total loss of power in engine #1.  It was clipping along fine and boom, almost nothing.  With both engines almost completely without power the only question was, “Will there be a successful restart of one or the other of these engines before the plane falls into a mountain, canyon, or river?”  There was only so much altitude and speed and momentum for the plane to use before the end.  With a glide ratio closer to that of a rock than an eagle, everyone on board wondered what would happen.

The church has/had two engines that give lift to her life and ministry.  The first was the large gathering or worship; the second was some sort of small groups’ ministry.  On the small group side of the church there was Sunday Schools, Bible studies, affinity groups, discipleship groups, to name a few.  While some churches have kept these groups active and growing, they have for a couple of generations been in decline as a whole.  To be sure, some churches have/had excellent small group ministries, but that is not universally true.  The emphasis has been on the other side of the plane.  The most focused-on measurable of church life has been large worship gatherings.  We may not want to hear it, but the truth remains, that size is what we count most and measure most.

Covid-19 has killed the worship-gathering engine of the church.  It remains to be seen how long the shut down will continue.  Sunday, from the Rose Garden at the White House, the President extended the shut down until April 30-well past Easter. Some have suggested that to be effective there needs to be a nationwide shut down for 5 months, perhaps longer.  When a church that has built itself around the “thrust” provided by the large weekly gathering and suddenly is not able to have that gathering, that church may be ditching on a mountainside.

What can we do?  I doubt that it is wise for churches to simply close and wait for the meeting ban to be lifted and hope that they will still have a congregation.  There may be several good solutions; here are few that come to mind.

Clearly, in the short term “virtual church” via the Internet is an option.   But we cannot hope to maintain real cohesiveness via virtual relationship. I have already had a conversation with a lady who told me that online was just not enough; that there was something profoundly missing.

One possibility is a hybrid between virtual church and small groups.  Many groups (all less than 10) gather, simultaneous to other small groups, to watch the online service and share together discussion, communion, or a meal.  This will greatly depend on the nature of regulations for social distancing and group gatherings.

Perhaps the answer is what we see from Samaritan’s Purse, which dispatched a team to New York this week.  Maybe the local church can organize itself around ministry to those who are in need.  This will keep the body connected, provide contact for disciple making, and allow them to be considered “vital” for the nation.

I would dearly love to hear what options come to your mind and heart as we consider how to be the Church in the age of Covid-19.

In the Cause

Charlie

The Word of God and Covid-19

This past weekend hundreds of houses of worship sat virtually empty at the hours when they were typically most full.  Many states in an attempt to limit the spread of Covid-19 have requested or ordered meetings of more than 10 people be suspended.  That means that thousands of church buildings did not fill with worshipers.  Many churches offered online services.  For some offering online services was already a part of their ministry; they simply had more viewers than usual.  Other churches scrambled to make something available.  Many smaller and less tech savvy churches simply directed their members to other resources.  How this plays out for the future of the American church is huge.  We may be witnessing one of the pivotal moments in American church history.

One thing that this will bring into sharp clarity is that as we have taught our people to love, study and assimilate the Word of God the church will do well.  But as we have relegated sound Biblical study to a second of third tier priority the church will be in trouble.  Online teaching is of great value, but it cannot and will never replace a genuine love for the Word of God as the source of individual and collective spiritual health. 

A few months ago I saw a posting from a minister that I found shocking.  He said that he was going to read the Bible in the coming year.  He went on to say he had never actually read the Bible, at least not all the way through, and was going to read it and invited his congregation to join him.  While that action is praise worthy I had to ask myself, “Dude, what took you so long?”  This preacher is much closer to 60 than 40 years old.  How is it possible that he ministered for over three decades and is just now getting around to reading the Bible?

One possible answer is that we have treated the Bible as a textbook not a life book. We have used the Bible to proof text our favorite doctrines, defend our denominations or fellowship, support our political ideology, and provide us material for stirring talks or entertaining orations.  But we have not lived or presented the Word of God as the essential food for souls.  In point of fact, many times it is not personal research and study of Scripture that fuels our teaching, but lesser resources.  I read of one nationally known minister who admitted proof texting what he read in self-help books to write his sermons.  With the rise of the Internet it has become possible for ministers to download sermons complete with text and manuscript and become little more than a mouthpiece for someone else’s research.  This is nothing new; ministers have always used “stolen” sermons.  But as we pursue creativity and cleverness we have often done so at the loss of careful Biblical teaching. 

Let’s face the facts; it is easier to tell a heart-warming story than to dig up the nuanced difference between de and alla.   Our congregations having grown accustomed to a diet of “Faith Lite” in the comfort of religious entertainment centers have never developed a great appetite for the Word of God.  Now that the buildings are closed we may find that our flocks will gravitate toward the virtual church that does the best job reducing the worship experience to a 13.5-inch screen.   That may mean when the buildings are reopened a number of churches may have lost members to their new “stay at home” church.

What we should have been doing all along and what we must do now more than ever is foster a love for the Word of God.  Depth of Biblical study is not dull and dry.  In fact, done well, deep Biblical study is powerful, attractive, heart awakening and energizing.  It is much harder than downloading a sermon from catchysermons.com for $3.95, but it has a much more powerful effect.  Now is a great time to change our course. 

We must love the Word of God and the way you love anything or anyone is to get to know them. The poet/disciple who wrote the magnificent poem we call Psalm 119 loved the Word of God.  Under difficult and trying circumstances he finds his life, his very being, in the Word.  It wasn’t a textbook for making speeches; it was a glimmer of hope that made life livable. 

This poem is a study into the beauty, power and delight of the Word.  This Psalm is intimidating; it is rarely read and less often memorized.  It is less smooth in flow and more difficult than some of the other Psalms because of its structure, which is built around the Hebrew alphabet.  But it is a marvelous meditation on the wonder of God’s Word.  It serves as a Bible study on why to study the Bible.

In the weeks and months ahead the church will face great challenges.  While technology can be a great help we must not rely on it as a way to deliver the expertise of the preacher to the congregation.  The technology that we need is not new and fabulous cameras, computers, and bandwidth.  The technology of paper and ink is sufficient if we love the Word of God and that is what we should have and now must emphasize in our churches.

In the Cause of Christ

Charlie

P.S. I just completed a series of devotions on Psalm 119.  As with all my material you can use them at no charge providing you are not making a profit from them. If you would like to use them you can access them at https://devotions4disciples.blogspot.com/

  

Could Coronavirus be Good for the Church?

In case you missed it the whole nation is having a general panic about coronavirus.  Regardless of how serious this disease is we are seeing radical steps taken in every sector of life.  Sporting events are cancelled and we are moving toward becoming a nation of hermits.  Whether this will last for a few weeks, months or longer no one knows yet, but there is no doubt that for a while this will have a profound impact on the church and the way we do ministry.

The model we use is that, for the most part, we have built our ministry around the singular, large gathering once a week.  While most churches have some sort of small groups gathering during the week they represent only a fraction of our membership.   We primarily connect with people in the large service format.  What if the state strongly encourages or requires that meetings of more than 200, as California has done, be postponed?  What if the critical mass number was lowered to 25?  Since seniors are more susceptible to the Covid-19 we might see efforts to limit their being in public gatherings at all.  Not to mention the bearing this would have on “greet your neighbor” moment in church.  Attendance yesterday, at churches that actually met for worship, was down significantly.

The impact on the church could be profound.  There could likely be a decline in giving if there are limitations on meetings.  There could also be a drifting away from church attendance once the restrictions are lifted.  If this carries into the summer months we will see a change in summer, short-term, mission trips, summer youth camp, and youth group gatherings.  Think about the way we do and measure ministry and you will find that in almost all our proceedings the “bigger the crowd the better the event” is the matrix we use to measure ministry.  

If this outbreak follows the more dreaded path that some have predicted, we may not ever see a return to the way we have done church for the last thirty years.  But that may not be all bad.  In fact, it might be good for the church.  It would certainly require the life of discipleship to center around the natural focal points of life, home, work, and community rather than an artificial focal point of a weekly mass gathering.  It would also likely see those whose faith is shallow either get serious about being disciples or stop being a hanger-on.  It might even cause disciples to read, study and share Scripture on their own rather than having a professional do it for them once a week. 

There is no way to predict the course of this illness and it is even more unlikely we can predict the impact on the church with any certainty.  What is clear is that this has the potential to affect the church as nothing has for the last 102 years.  We need to imagine how we can adapt and overcome the challenge that this illness brings and watch to see how the Lord can be glorified.

I would love to hear how your church is going to respond to the coronavirus outbreak and where you see potential for ministry.