It is the Sunday after Easter, and many in church leadership will anticipate today, asking, "How many of our Easter visitors will show up again this Sunday?" When I was in the located ministry, my approach was to see Easter attendance as the benchmark for the following year. If our average attendance was 75 and Easter was 95 for year 'A,' then my goal was to see the average attendance for year 'B' be 95. We were not always successful, but it was a helpful target. While attendance was never a perfect measure of the life of a church, it has its uses. But COVID and online church have changed the way we see being with other believers.
On a related subject, a story from a friend serving faithfully in his congregation. His wife is a public school teacher teaching early elementary children. The week before Easter she asked her students, "What is Easter about?" Of the 32 students in her care, only two knew anything about the resurrection of Jesus. For all the other students, the only message of Easter was candy, bunnies, and eggs. These are the kids born on the onset of the COVID scare. I believe there is a relationship here. The rhythm and rituals of life teach our children more than the lessons. Our disconnect from being with believers can't help but dumb down everyone. Watching service online reduces the engagement in faith to the level of sports highlights or funny cat videos.
So what do we do? The gathering of God's people will not happen because of a "Get back to church" campaign. We will grow disciples the way we make disciples. We will do that by the relationship connection that happens face-to-face. The Sunday after Easter, the lesson is in the recapitulation of the event: Jesus telling Mary. Each one of us is telling one believer, "We need this friendship."
In the Cause of Christ
Charlie
Please share these post as you are able
No comments:
Post a Comment