Some thoughts and ramblings.
Over the last few weeks I have been really praying into the current situation that we find ourselves in and would like to share my thoughts, for what they are worth, with you.
Churches in our large cities and towns are finding it tough. The number of unemployed people in their congregations has risen. The food banks are being overwhelmed with requests for help. Children are missing out on school due to positive Covid cases in their classrooms. Tithes and offerings are on the decrease because of what is happening in the economy. Pastors and Church Leaders are feeling the stress and strain of trying to keep ahead of all the health guidelines, keep their staff and family safe and stay connected with their congregations. Pastors and congregations are fast becoming Covid fatigued.
During the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, that killed 50 million people world wide, the churches did very much what churches have done today. Pastors had their sermons printed in the local newspaper or had copies sent to every parishioner. Their sermons, for the most part, were not about fear and judgement, but about faith and hope and trust in God, they were about helping their fellow man.
Pastors turned their chapels and churches over to the community, for food banks, hospital beds to look after the sick. They looked after the old and the young, though the young were particularly prone to the Spanish Flu.
They did, in 1918, pretty much what we in our churches are doing today in 2020. Leading in the Pandemic was the easy bit. It was getting through it and beyond that was hard.
At this point let me share my thoughts: The bible says that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love joy and a sound mind"
Secondly in St Paul's letter to the Philippians, Paul makes reference to straining or pressing on towards the prize. Perhaps he was alluding to the marathon race of ancient Greece. Whatever the case we need to understand that in a marathon runners "hit the wall" at some point during the race. I believe that in regards to this pandemic many of us have "hit the wall" we may feel that we have gone as far as we can go. But the race isn't over we still have a way to go. We need to press on, we need to strain as St Paul puts it towards the prize, the end is still a way off.
In 1918 there was a second wave of Spanish Flue and also a third wave in 1919. we are seeing the second wave, here in Europe now.
What we have to believe is that God is in control. He didn't send this Pandemic, but he can use it for good. We need to keep preaching hope and faith and trust and know he has given us a sound mind to deal with it. Keep pressing forward, this thing isn't over yet.
If I am being honest the pandemic has caught the Church asleep and it has woke up fighting for it survival. The western church rarely see miracles because it is in too much control to let God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit into their services. Even the most popular large church are mostly faithless. And lead by people that are in leadership for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteWhen it came to the Pandemic everyone was caught on the hop. But right at the beginning of this plague God reminded me of the scripture " For he has not given me a spirit of fear but of Love Joy and a sound mind (common sense)," I have lived by it over this last 18 months.
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