Flourishing and Fragmentation. Ministry in all seasons – including Covid

Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun, in their book For the Life of the World. Theology that makes a difference, articulate a vision for a relevant Gospel-centred theology in this century. Written before Coronavirus, it nevertheless contains much that is applicable to our situation. For them, theology must be measured by its ability to promote “human flourishing”, in a holistic sense, in all areas of life.

However, realistic about our fallen world, and the as-yet unconsummated nature of God’s kingdom, Volf and Croasmun recognise that every empirical realisation of the gospel is also “fragmented”. In this half-time, this overlap, of the ages, our attempts at living out the new creation will be flawed, inadequate, and partial (1 Co.13.9-12) - although no less significant for all that.

It was a point I first read about in Paul Tillich’s magisterial Systematic Theology. Christ’s “New Being” is always realised amidst the “Ambiguities of Life”. For me, involved in urban mission, this ambiguity made sense of the repeated failures that resulted from lack of resources and skills. Nothing worked, or at least not as we’d planned. People, under pressure of their own poverty and stress, could not always be relied upon to fit neatly into our programmes. We had to get used to the idea that everything was ambiguous.

After years of learning this lesson, it was a shock, when I began teaching at Spurgeon’s College, where I realised quickly that academia deplores ambiguity. Eventually, I gave up the struggle, and returned to the urban, and its perennial uncertainty. But ambiguity actually describes all ministry, wherever they are located. It the essence of this eschatological timescale, between the Kingdom’s inauguration and its consummation; where advances are real, but also incomplete, always leaving more to be achieved. This can either make us disappointed and cynical, or provoke us to keep reaching out for the ‘more’ of God’s kingdom.

This is also true of our responses to Covid. None of us have been this way before. It is wholly new. So we are all making it up as we go along. Therefore, all our initiatives, whether social outreach or online services, are less than we’d hoped. However, we must beware of bitterness and resentment seeping in. One pastor, on his Facebook page, launched into a criticism of other churches, who’d closed their buildings during the epidemic, while he’d used his for a major feeding programme among vulnerable people in the locality. He was clearly exhausted. But that way lies burnout and collapse. I know, because it happened to me last week, as I succumbed to extreme fatigue, blew up angrily at someone, and had to take a week off.

We are told not to compare ourselves with others (Gal. 6.4), but to do the work we’re called to (Romans 14.4). Additionally, we must not compare our work with either the past or the future, even the new heavens and earth. Our “day of small things” is but a stepping stone to God’s own future (Hagg.2.1-9; Zech. 4.1-14).