After Covid let's reset to making disciples

One of the unexpected challenges that have risen from the covid-19 epidemic is the role of mass gatherings of Christians for worship.  With the danger of spreading the illness being the apparent primary motivation a number of legal authorities have ordered the suspension of worship gatherings or at least gatherings of more than 50 people.  Some Christians have seen this as specific oppression and a violation of their Constitutional rights of the free expression of religion.  There have been churches that have meet in defiance of bans on group meetings.  There has even been talk of group worship gatherings in protest to bans, not unlike or even copied from the “re-open” protest. 

It is somewhat ironic that the push for mass public worship gatherings is neither a mandate of Scripture nor the practice of much of the church outside of the west.  In fact, among persecuted Christians mass gatherings of worship are both dangerous and uncommon.  Here in America we have developed the habit of measuring the meaningfulness of our ministry by the numbers that we can post, specifically weekly worship attendance.  This has become especially true in the wake of the church growth movement and the seeker-friendly services.  Without the matrix of numbers we have lost the ability to validate our churches, our ministries or even ourselves.  Hence there are some who passionately argue that the church must begin meeting publicly as soon as possible. 

Rather than see the Covid-19 shut down as an occasion to draw battle lines in the ever-evolving, church-state relationship, there is a better use for this time.  We need to hit the reset and focus on dying to self and stop trying to grow the crowds.  The church in the New Testament is never told to gather in mass crowds for worship.  The gathering of the church in large groups seems to be the exception rather than the rule of the earliest church.  What the church focused on was the fulfilling of the great commission to go and make disciples.  The terms of discipleship are pretty simple they are also pretty stark.  When Jesus invites us to come and follow Him, He is inviting us to come and die. If you want to be a disciple you have to take up the cross and follow Jesus.  In Roman processions the one carrying the cross was generally about to die. Taking of the cross, being a disciple, following Jesus are all terms for dying to self.  That was Jesus’ message but that message has not typically been the message of our churches.  

We have focused on church growth having mistaken Sunday attendance with making disciples.  We started with a mistaken assumption and ended in some very wrong places.  We started by mistaking a good ancillary byproduct (Sunday worship attendance) for the Gospel and then spiraled down to insipid banality.   In other words, we have marketed the church by leaving behind the cost of following Christ and by trying to make it cool, hip and desirable. 

For example, we acted as if we were embarrassed by the ideal of sacrificial living and giving, while at the same time we offered entertainment that was in some vague way Christian.  We have stroked egos and coddled sin in order not to “lose people” from our church attendances.  We have become highly focused on our rights (legal and social) while forgetting our responsibilities.  Which have you seen or heard more recently?  A complaint or protest about American churches being persecuted or protests about the gluttony of church members while their brothers or sisters in the third world church haven’t enough to eat? 

I am not opposed to the public mass gathering of Christians for worship.  But for disciples who daily die to self in order to live for Christ the weekly public gathering is not the main thing.  When meeting bans are lifted let’s do what Jesus said and go make disciples rather than try to build our weekly attendance.