Today's church is experiencing a very unique obstacle-- quarantine. No one was ever preparing for something like this, and no one had a plan of action or a handbook on how to deal with it. Right now across most of the developed world, congregations are not holding regular church meetings, and with Trump recently extending the quarantine for another 30 days, it raises the question-- what kind of impact will this have on the church? When this situation initially started to unfold and places around the country were starting to close down, it became evident that this was going to be unlike anything we've ever faced before and a phenomenon of Biblical proportions. To me, the shock was a bit more sudden as we were in Nicaragua for two weeks prior (until March 14th) and had no phone or internet for an extended period of time. As I got caught up with events as they unfolded, I began to think of the impact it would have on the Christian community. I automatically assumed this situation would put the church on its knees, and people were going to reevaluate their life and relationship with God. Two weeks into quarantine and looking ahead to at least another month, I am starting to consider the negative implications.
The concern
By design, Jesus created the church and named it His body. A body has many parts and all organs are interdependent. I know many churches are hosting online services, but "attendance" is questionable and reciprocity even more so. For example, if a preacher is calling for a fervent prayer, how many people are actually getting down on their knees and having a fervent prayer with their family following the online stream? I hate to sound cynical, but if I were to guess, I'd say not many. There is a reason why the Bible gives church pastors and elders a responsibility to teach, oversee, reprove, rebuke, exhort, council, and so forth, which is mostly impossible to do online. So, I come to a thesis-- it is very difficult for a Christian to live a healthy, spiritual life without a physical church that he can consistently attend. Consider even this; I used to imagine that missionaries who lived on their own, planting a new church with no other Christians nearby, were spiritual giants lacking nothing. But, after having a chance to meet these people and having them open up to me, I learned that it is very difficult to keep up your spiritual condition in those circumstances. These missionaries crave fellowship, a sermon they can listen to, someone's encouragement, and someone to hold them accountable; they lack the need to be in a church themselves. The issue of quarantine becomes even more serious when you consider that there is a portion of church goers who are spoon-fed Christians. What I mean by this is that there are people who get most of their spiritual food, prayer, scripture, etc, only when they are at church. Outside of church they don't do a ton (if any) of praying, Bible reading, and fellowship with God in general. That brings me to the core of the problem and why quarantine can have a negative impact on the church. Depending on how many of the church goers are spoon-fed Christians, you could have people starve by the time this pandemic is over.
Stocking up
For the past half year, there have been a lot of prophesies in our church that we need to "stock up" or "prepare" spiritually. I never quite understood this, and even in February, during a men's prayer there was another word that really stressed stocking up spiritually, and I kind of got frustrated and asked the brothers, "What exactly does this mean, and why is it necessary?" My rationale was this: if difficult times come, does that not lead people closer to God? Secondly, what would you need to be preparing that you couldn't do during that time of need? To answer my questions, I think God showed us both physically and spiritually why we need to be stocked up. Store shelves were cleaned out in a matter of days; now I still consider this a mini crisis because truckers were still doing their jobs, and shelves eventually got restocked, but imagine if something impacted the ability to restock store shelves? In that case, the only way you'd be fine is if you had a good stash. But, even then, that stash is only temporary, and eventually that would be gone as well, and you'd still have a need for a store. Now apply that concept to the church. Going back to my thesis, a person cannot live a healthy, spiritual life without a physical church, and now adding on to that-- for a long time. A person who is not a spoon-fed Christian can SURVIVE without a physical church for a period of time without much negative consequences if he was prepared. "Stocking up spiritually" meant having a strong, personal relationship with God. Stocking up meant having your own prayer room before God. Stocking up meant reading the scripture on your own and receiving revelation and life from it. Stocking up meant having self-control and discipline to live a life of sanctification when no one is around to see you or check on how you spend your time.
Sorry to go a little long on this post, but I really wanted to get these thoughts across. My worry is for everyone, and especially youth, that might have much more free and isolated time on their hands. Combine free time with a lack of spiritual food and you have a very good recipe for many issues to arise. What is the solution? Not sure yet; maybe churches will have a quarantine handbook after we survive this one.
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