I’m Surprised
Over the last few weeks of Covid-19 in-home isolation I have been in various conversations with pastors in our region about the corporate gathering of their people…and I am puzzled and surprised by the lack of urgency in most of my colleagues for returning to the gathered community of faith.
And I’m wondering why!
I realize there is always the genuine concern that when we do start to gather again, we be able to provide a safe environment for as many of our people as possible, but besides those concerns, the urgency to be together us not there like I would have expected.
I am afraid the reason why has the capacity to offend many Christians, and even some of my Pacific Northwest pastoral colleagues.
But I feel that the situation is urgent enough that I have to accept the risk of offending. I’m not saying I’m Jeremiah, but he is an example of a prophetic voice that God told up front he would not be heard…and, if he was heard, like Elijah, would be tagged as the “troubler of Israel.”
So here goes…
I think the greatest reason most pastors have no urgency to return to a gathered community of faith is that they do not have a well-developed theology for the gathered local church. Gathering is seen as optional and streamed online services are a perfectly reasonable alternative to them.
I just had a conversation with Dr. Steven Land, former president of the Church of God Theological Seminary, on this very subject. Please allow me to insert a summary of that conversation here.
– The gathered church cannot be optional. It is the very visible witness to the Kingdom of God present in the world…a corporate body, not an online audience, which is a false church in every way. Expedient for a short season, but if prolonged, will and possibly is, doing irreparable damage to the true church of Jesus, visible in a fixed location.
– Online has been a blessing and part of a short-term strategy to proclaim the Gospel far and wide, but true Scriptural formation can only happen in person-to-person engagement that happens in gathered and home group settings.
– Proclamation from any platform, but especially electronic, cannot be a substitute for formation. The church is, by definition, a body and it’s message has to be embodied, not just proclaimed.
– The gathered church is not just a place we attend. It is the very essence of who we are. Without gathering we are just an audience being fed spiritual goods and services.
– Online church dare not become the norm, or the Gospel will be lost to an entire generation.
– Our corporate worship is an actual anticipation of the coming Kingdom of God and a public witness of the mission of God in the world. Corporate worship is witness and is God on mission.
– When we gather we are not just having a meeting. We are participating in the mission of God.
– The current restrictions on the church are now way beyond the issue of public safety and have become a cultural rejection of the Gospel and of Christ. Authorities have seized an opportunity to resist God’s purpose and mission in His Church.
– By continuing to not gather we are undermining the very nature of the church. The fact that it is illegal is not anything new to the experience of the historical church that has always resisted authorities on this matter because of the very theology of who we are.
– At some point, and soon, the church is going to have to consider civil disobedience if the current environment persists, in order for us to be what God has called us to be…and, like the church through history in many countries, meet in spite of the rule of law…because obeying God is more important to us than the laws of man.
– The times we are in right now are going to require courage from church leaders.
I pray that the Lord uses this time during which we are not allowed to meet to restore in us all a Biblical understanding of why the Word of God urges the public gathering of believers not to be neglected, especially as we see the Day of the Lord getting closer. And when we do regather, may it be with such a sense of God’s supernatural presence and power, that, like Paul, we are able to say of our meetings, that they are not held with the wisdom and trappings of human wisdom and ingenuity, but with the demonstration of God’s power SO THAT the faith of the people is based on God’s power and not our lifeless creativity.