Ministry in this Viral Spring

In January we held a Week of Prayer and Fasting for 2020. Little did we know what this year held in store for us. During our daily prayer meetings, people shared several words of prophecy. One was that spiritual gifts would be released, like seeds, which would grow and flower in our church. What do we make of these words now, in April, after Covid? Was it all just naïve spiritual optimism?

Another word, which my wife received recently, is that this is a ‘strange spring’. Certainly so. But in that spring, I can already see signs of spiritual gifts growing. Before the crisis, we struggled to get people into small groups. Now, we have gone from four to fourteen small groups, all online – some large (12), some small (4).

This is a phenomenon I’ve heard about in many churches, as people reach out, in their need, to each other, and to God. In addition, church email newsletters now serve an important communication function, and have also increased in their circulation. Perhaps not everything will continue throughout the whole length of the emergency. Maybe it does not harbinger a general revival in faith, and much may not last after we return to so-called ‘normal’. 

But that does not diminish the blessing in the present, for which I give thanks. I count it a privilege, I am proud, to be pastor of KCBC. I witness his people, my sisters and brothers, responding to his call, to serve, to reach out. I see it as a fulfilment of the Messianic Psalm 110.3: “Your troops will be willing on your day of battle.”

The closure of church buildings has unleashed a flood of creativity and innovation. For much of this, contemporary media technology has been a significant enabler. Services shared ‘live’ on social media; others recorded and broadcast at set times. Prayer meetings with participation via conference calling software. Small groups likewise are drawing in elderly people who have never engaged before, on their mobile phones.

It’s interesting to observe, however, the different ways pastors respond to the situation. Some utilise the internet to share services, preaching the Word, where others are social activists.

A friend of mine runs a night shelter, and then had the guys stay on, feeding them for a week, after the lockdown, until proper accommodation was found. Others are organising food banks and distribution of supplies. We each react from our own spiritual gifts, and those of our particular congregations. Walter Wink writes that the Angels of the Churches in Revelation, represent the vocation of each church, its calling in its context. All are unique.

The problem, nevertheless, may be that we find our merit through our actions, a kind of ministerial justification through work(s), instead of realising that our worth comes, as for all believers, through God’s grace expressed in Christ. The other way produces exhaustion and burn-out. So we need to pace ourselves, taking time for our bodies, souls and spirits to rest (1 Thess. 5.23)