I’ve spent many years in ministry working through many unique happenings. Some were a part of my personal life while others were either natural disasters or developments within the local church (my professional life). It goes without saying that corona virus is unprecedented. I’ve spent time talking with staff members, conferring with colleagues and friends, and studying anything can could give me an idea how to manage ministry in this time of quarantine and social separation.
See , that’s the issue right there . . . social separation. In all of the past occurrences, we’ve sat in the same rooms, prayed with one another, embraced, went to homes, broke bread at the same table and solved whatever was before us. We brought our ensembles together to worship, sing, pray and praise. It’s what we do!
With the CDC recommendations that we must, for safety, limit our gatherings to fewer and fewer people, suddenly things have changed. It’s clear that the old ways of standing shoulder to shoulder holding hands won’t work. In fact, it’s highly discouraged. Not gathering together is hard.
Such a time as this . . .
I’m not sure where we’re headed. I pray that we are able to limit the sickness and death caused by the corona virus. As artists and creatives who depend on the gathering of people to artfully worship God, what can we be sure of?
God is doing a new thing. No, the disease is not the new thing. Don’t even go there. Rather, I think we are being brought together to think and act in new ways. Perhaps, we are even healing some of the old wounds inflicted by our political leanings. If you look closely . . . very closely . . . one can see the beginnings of a thaw in relationships. How can we as artists of faith contribute and not hinder?
Is that the new thing? Perhaps. Let’s see
“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19 NIV)
Such a time as this . . .
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