THE NEW NORMAL
Now we are entering the debate as to when we can return to how life used to be before the virus disrupted our lives. We debate how long the shut down should last. and when we can get back to our old way of life. Yet, when we stop and think about it, life will never return to the way it was in the past. Even if we try to live in denial, you can’t have that many people die without experiencing a cloud of grief around us. And, if because we want to rush back to work and play, we suffer a new wave of deaths, we will compound that grief with a measure of guilt at not being careful enough.
In addition, the economic impact on the whole world is going to have a profound effect on our lives. The economy will have to pass through some major adjustments. People’s lives, what they can afford, what is available, how we relate to those whose financial lives were devastated, and many more features we’ve come to expect will be challenged.
THE CHURCH AND THE NEW NORMAL
Perhaps now, during our slowed down, shelter in place lifestyle would be a good time to stop and reflect on how the church should respond as people pass through these changes. In the past, when churches tried to make major changes, we often heard people complain, “We’ve never done it that way before.” From the pastors I’ve talked to during this crisis, they report that they don’t hear that response now. It may be an opportunity for the Spirit to breathe in a new way through our churches.
As we respond both to the present situation and the new situation that will emerge out of this, what do you think should be the shape of the church as they respond to God, their own spiritual lives, and their neighbor? Speculate briefly on some of the likely changes that are going to occur in our society, and then ask yourself how we as a church should respond. What should our witness be?
GOD BLESSED THE SABBATH
In the creation story in Genesis, the statement of God blessing something that was created was reserved for living creatures with the exception of the Sabbath. For God to bless something was to give it the power to impregnate or generate new life. If the Sabbath was blessed, how does it impregnate or enable new birth to emerge? Is it not in the stepping back, breathing and gaining a new perspective that creativity is born.
When the children of Israel moved out into the wilderness, they were confronted with an entirely new situation in which to live. In that case, God, through Moses, offered them the Ten Commandments to structure their new life in the wilderness. The Ten Commandments focus on our relationship with God, neighbor, and our personal self.
How about making use of your communication tools in the church and this forced extra time in your people’s lives and invite them to join in composing a new set of commandments for your church in this new normal that is emerging. You can use the original Ten Commandments to affect your thinking, but try to write out a set of instructions in short pithy contemporary statements to describe how, in our new situation we as a church should practice our relationship with God, neighbor, and self.
Have individuals submit “commandments” in any one of the three primary areas of life–how we act towards God, neighbor, and self. Collect them as a group and feed the collection back to the congregation for discussion and an effort to reach a consensus for your church.
PART OF THE LARGER CHURCH
If you really want to have some fun and grow spiritually during this time, invite several churches around you to participate in the same process and share the picture of our churches that emerge. At an appropriate time, you could also have a video conference among the churches and both celebrate your church pictures and have prayer and perhaps communion together
Who knows, then maybe you could invite churches in other parts of the country and world to also reflect on your faith together and even decide how you can witness together to heal our fractured world. That’s sort of how it began a long time ago, and maybe God will birth our new church again in our current crisis.
May it be so.