By Waylon Bailey
Soon churches in America will regather for public worship.
We can all be thankful that we have done our best to be good citizens who cooperated with those in authority to “flatten the curve” and not overwhelm our healthcare professionals. We can be very proud to have been a part of that.
But now we have the monumental task of doing things that go against our nature and all that we have learned. Not only do we have to refrain from a “holy kiss,” we also have to refrain from what we have taught our sons about a firm handshake.
Churches and schools have been greatly affected and will require creative ways to fulfill their mission. Thankfully, I can let other professionals deal with how to open schools safely and to do a high quality job of education. Think with me about the church.
What will we need to do this?
I can’t say it more simply. We will need God.
More than anything, we will need to be completely open to God to see how He will lead. I almost want to write “reimagine,” but we don’t have to reimagine church. God will lead His people. We must be open to God’s Spirit as He shows us how to regather and how to effectively serve our communities.
We must adapt, and we must be adaptable. Things around us have changed, and we must change. Many things in church life were going to be different in the next ten years. Now, all of those changes have been forced upon us in a matter of seven weeks.
We can’t focus on the way things were done (such as passing offering plates). We must focus on doing right and Godly things in new ways. The churches that focus on the old processes will miss God’s new thing.
We must focus on the God who has always been. The God who has been “O God, our help in ages past” will be the God who is “Our hope for years to come.” He will be our “very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
The Lord is the great “Keeper.”
“The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. He will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore” (Psalm 121:7-8).
Waylon Bailey is pastor at First Baptist Church in Covington. This editorial first appeared on his blogsite.
