By Ron Smith
As churches try to ramp up after a year of being closed, one easily observes that American culture itself no longer exists as before the pandemic. That is not entirely unexpected, because our country is in such throes of transition. Hence, one is not wholly surprised when a country in crisis (that was closed to the public in many ways) is susceptible to those who want to re-define the public—maybe even the Republic. Welcome to the world of the deconstructionists! As FAS speakers travel to many of these churches, we find pastors who wonder if they will ever recover their pre-COVID budgets, prior attendance norms, or the collective conscience of a community that believes the Christian faith is “essential.”
Christians are not alone in their groaning towards a new normal. The very heart of American commerce is groaning. It seems the political use of enforced distancing, while perhaps helpful in fighting one disease, has somewhat created the challenge of managing people in their new realities concerning the workplace. Many now seek to overthrow the old establishment traditional places of work in favor of the new reality of remaining at home to work. Moreover, something definitively broke in American life when schools closed and the typical learning processes for children were ruptured.
I write these things to say, “Pastors, don’t succumb to a mind of isolation as you seek to problem solve and meet these new challenges. You are not alone. The whole spectrum of American society is groaning!” I believe Jesus Christ is calling a new generation in a new day of opportunity. Maybe this time we will not be “revivalists” in a traditional sense. Maybe we will be “thrive-a-lists!” Connecting, serving one another, and forming relationships that build one another up in times of need can be the source of new community relationships. The very word community (co munio) means to “mutually fortify.” Thriving in connecting, serving one another, and fortifying each other has some exciting dimensions of dynamic relational experience!
Simon Peter faced a culture that was groaning. He never enjoyed the popularity of his day. In fact, Rome wanted him dead. Jesus spoke into his life, that if he would use his “God think” instead of personal thoughts, Christ would use him as a rock in the church—so built into Christ’s church that the “gates of hell could not prevail against it.” Nero devised a plan to sack the Christian movement. Burn Rome and blame it on Christian insurrection! Of course, his real reason for burning the old environs was he believed they were below his desired persona. Hedonism! If the most powerful government in the world can deconstruct the old, build the new around its own immoral hedonism, and kill the Christian movement to boot, why not go for it? So, they did!
In Peter’s first epistle he writes to Christians scattered everywhere who are trying to survive. His basic message is that Christ has promised by His power to help Christians who serve others (he says they were to be as “priests”). Christ promised to help them to live in the shared character of holiness with His Spirit of transforming love. Through the holy, self-giving love of God He will help us prevail. While Peter also attests that Christians suffer persecution from within and without, the suffering produced by living counter culturally (meaning by the mind of Christ rather than the vogue of the day) produces in us the ability to meet Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of His resurrection. When His church lives out of His very lifeforce, Peter would then point believers to the mandate of both feeding Christ’s sheep and assaulting the gates of hell to do so!
As leaders in a world seeking new definitions, there is a new openness to devotion that leads to holy living. That is the report I am hearing frequently from the ranks in the fields of harvest. Secondly, there is a cognizance that Christian leaders must “up the ante” on relational, sometimes called incarnational, living. Finally, serving one another in love to bear the burdens of the challenges we face keeps us both relevant and interactive in our communities. May the Holy One adorn our lives while we serve with gladness!