If you are a teaching pastor of a church, or in leadership of a church, this blog is for you. Everyone else can eavesdrop. You need to do a series on race and racism. And you need to do it soon—as soon as you can. Racial division is our culture’s most pressing concern, and it is a deeply biblical and spiritual issue. To not address it would be overlooking the largest elephant in the cultural room. And, I might add, the Christian room.
“The coronavirus has been the proverbial tide going out, exposing who’s swimming naked.” That was the lead-in to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article on the forced bankruptcy of Hertz, the car rental behemoth, that was already in terrible shape before the pandemic simply finished it off. I cannot help but suspect a parallel with churches, though at this stage I can only make anecdotal observations.
Today is Memorial Day. It’s when we take time as a country to remember and honor military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. So pause a moment and let the real significance of this day be recognized, and perhaps even whisper a prayer for existing families who feel the sacrifice much more keenly than most of us ever will. It also marks the unofficial start of summer, and that means it’s time for my annual summer reading list.
There will be no going back to a pre-pandemic church. This is because those who were reached during the pandemic and those we hope to reach when it’s over will demand something different. In fact, the nature of the divide between a pre-pandemic church and a post-pandemic church will be about what people will expect from a church. Here are five expectations that people will have of your church.
The Associated Press has announced that it will no longer use the word “mistress.” In a recent tweet from their “stylebook” account – widely seen as the gold standard for journalists around the world – they called the term “archaic” and even “sexist.” Acknowledging it refers to a woman in a “long-term sexual relationship with, and financially supported by, a man who is married to someone else.” Alternatives such as “life companion” or “lover” should instead be used.
I recently read of a church in Texas that wanted to reopen so badly that it met social distancing guidelines by limiting seating capacity to 25% and then took reservations for those few seats. I’m sure that facemasks and hand sanitizer were in full play. I have no idea what, if anything, they did for children. Nor can I imagine. Other churches are forging ahead with “drive-in” services in parking lots. Most are simply staying online until this mess is over. But what then?
Did you know that the spread of the coronavirus is connected to the expanding 5G network? You can read about it online. Just google it. Actually, don’t. Yes, it’s a theory you can read about, but no, it’s not true. In this internet age, heightened by the pandemic, there is an avalanche of information and a painful absence of wisdom.
I read of a letter that a husband reportedly wrote to his wife. She had left him and their son after a fight, and two days later he wrote her this letter: My darling, Two nights ago, we had a huge argument. I was exhausted when I got home from work. It was 8 p.m. and all I wanted to do was to lie down and watch the game.
I cannot begin to express my appreciation and admiration for the “frontline” heroes serving the rest of us during this very trying time. Doctors and nurses, police officers and firefighters, grocery store workers and delivery personnel. And, of course, there are many more. They.Are.Rockstars.
Let’s face it. We’re all homeschooling now. It’s not just a group of parents who all along felt it might be best, but rather the majority of the nation who have now been forced into its rigors. But is there a risk involved? Erin O'Donnell from Harvard thinks so.
