When news of the Coronavirus started to spread, my mind immediately went to focusing on how to care for our church members, gather leaders for online worship and communicate a message that portrays a non-anxious presence. For a week or so, I focused on making sure our church folk are communicated with, cared for and worship continues have been high priorities. My priorities were wrong.
Governor Jay Inslee addressed the media today and his opening words reminded me to check my priorities. People are dying, every life matters. Think what you want about Governor Inslee and his politics, but he reminded me what leadership is.
I pray we are all reminded that when one part of humanity suffers, we all suffer. As I write this blog, 29 people have died in the state I love (Washington State). By the time you read this, I’m afraid that number will continue to grow.
As a church pastor for 15+ years, I was reminded by a politician that social distancing and caring for our neighbor are two different things. They can coexist in the same space.
We can care for ourselves and about things like how kids will get two square meals a day when schools shut down (free and reduced meals). How can faith communities partner with schools to help? How do we support local businesses and people who rely on hourly wages to survive?
If all we do is spend our time trying to get our online worship better (or started), then we have missed the point of church altogether. That’s the kind of conversation I expect Federal Way United Methodist Church will have and I hope others will too. Theologian John Wesley talked about the importance of "Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.”
It doesn’t matter how good our sermons are, how cool our songs sound or how neat our graphics are. Let’s do better than focus on trying to get people into our church doors virtually or when this epidemic passes. If our neighbors don’t know that we care about their basic needs, then we have missed the point and we haven’t earned a right to be heard when this season of pandemic passes.
At Federal Way United Methodist Church, we are leaning into an old school way of being church. We have community care groups that will be our point of communication, place of emotional and spiritual support and be open enough to welcome new people to find community in healthy ways (following CDC guidelines for social distancing). It’s not perfect, but it’s a good first step for our church. We will be asking our community groups to brainstorm how we can care for our neighbors in healthy ways as well.
I used to say that “God doesn’t waste a crisis”. I’ve come to learn over the years how dangerous and flip this theological statement really is. Instead, I believe in my heart that “God doesn’t run from crisis”. We as a people of faith are in the middle of a growing crisis, rather than worrying about wasting this crisis, let’s be careful not to run from it.
I have no idea what the next step is, but I know where my priorities need to begin. Online worship is an okay start, but we can do so much better.
What are you thoughts?