I miss ...
I miss ...
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us. Amen
(known as Holden Prayer)
I really miss going to church. I miss the Body of Christ - both in sacraments and being with the people of God … the worship, the music, the songs, the prayers.
The Zoom Church meetings have been okay. The Facebook broadcasts of actual worships to empty churches are good and I do appreciate that. I am pleased to see that the Church is using social media, emails, mailings, and other means to keep in contact. I appreciate the parish coffee hours via Zoom, the daily worship service broadcasted. I’m thankful for church leaders giving daily or weekly devotions, prayers, and study from their offices, back yards, decks, and lanais around the world.
But I do miss the people of God in flesh and blood gathering - worshipping God, experiencing the Sacraments, and being inspired together to further serve to humanity in the name of the Eternal One. I do miss the love of God as expressed by Jesus in his followers.
My wife, Katheryn, was fortunate to join a local book club about a year ago. Since then she has been reading about a book a week and calls me to read certain books. Lately, she asked me to read “INSPIRED” by the late Rachel Held Evans (ISBN 978-0-7180-2231-0). Using the Bible in a rediscovered context, Evans tells the journey of the Bible in new and common ways.
“The good news is as epic as it gets, with universal theological implications, and yet the Bible tells it from the perspective of fishermen and farmers, pregnant ladies and squirmy kids. This story about the nature of God and God’s relationship to humanity smells like mud and manger hay and tastes like salt and wine. It is not simply with questions of eternity, but with paying taxes and filling bellies and addressing a woman’s chronic menstrual complications. (p. 150)
“So when someone asks, ‘What is the gospel?’ the best response is, ‘Let me tell you a story.’ “ (p. 151) Evans concludes that all storytellers from the Bible or gatherings around our dining room table or Zoom meeting will get us to Jesus and Jesus will change everything.
I miss the “old, old stories” and the new ones from people as they tell me about the love of God in Christ Jesus.
I know this time in my house is not going to last forever. Our scientists and health care workers on the front line in this war will in time conquer this deadly disease and with hard work, it will happen. Our eternal thanks should be broadly proclaimed everywhere for the sacrifice they as individuals and their families have made to me and my family’s health, our communities’ health, even to all parts of our planet.
I am concerned that faith communities are not thinking about the next steps in a neo world post-COVID-19. Some bishops and church bloggers are, but I wonder about individual faith communities. We are in a new age and parish/congregational/faith community. Leaders need to be thinking, praying and being led by God into the next steps forward. How do we enable people to talk about the love of God and invite people back to faith communities?
We have an ideal gift given to the Church to invite people back into worship, prayer, and service to the world led by God. There are so many stories to tell!
Some of the things I think we, as faith community leaders, should be thinking and praying about:
What we are doing now, during the COVID -19 pandemic for outreach and ministry? Going back to the old ways of doing the life and work of our faith communities will not cut it anymore in this new era. Should our daily/weekly outreach continue on the web? What have we learned about God and our faith community during this time of isolation?
How do we acknowledge and thank people who have made ministry happen during this COVID-19 time?
What are the pastoral care needs for our people now and how are we reaching out to everyone? Is there going to be additional PTSD and social isolation that needs to be taken care by the faith community and how are we going to address that need? How are we going to help people get back to work and education in this new time? How do we include our “shut-ins” and those living in other communities and medical facilities?
How after months of non-attendance of members and others to our faith community -- how are we going to invite them back? We have gotten out of the habit of going to worship at a place. What will be the hospitality strategy to reach everyone in our mission location (our neighborhood our faith community is located) to invite them back to or into our faith community? What is the plan for people, getting them integrated into service and mission, and reaching all the non-Church in our neighborhood? A lot of people do not realize that they are loved and need to hear that from us.
What is the constant and consistent communication we are going to do with our former attendees (since now everyone is a former attendee) and our mission location to renew the faith community back to attendance and action in the work of God? What communication channels are we going to expand to meet this need? Every Member Visitations? Mailing invitations to worship? Phone calls? Emails? Texts? Knocking on neighbors' doors? In these approaches how are we training our people to share their stories of Jesus’ love in their lives?
How are we going to work with other faith communities in our neighborhood/mission location to make this renewal happen for the sake of everyone?
What are we going to abandon or highlight as we move forward into this new time? A total ministry and outreach review needs to be done in order to be able to tell others who we are, and what we do, or going to do to serve the world. What are we currently doing right in ministry and what do we need to change?
How is every attendee going to reach out to others in the invitation of faith and service to our God? How will the faith community teach them how to talk about this ministry to all of their social networks?
As we prayed, God is with us in this new age. The path and journey will be a new way of doing love. With God, we will move forward.
Dave Eitland
Dave attended Luther Seminary (MN) and worked for over 30 years advancing and implementing the vision of people and charities throughout America through philanthropy. He has taught spirituality and biblical insights to Christian adults for over 25 years. Dave and his wife Katheryn and Loki the Dog live in Washington County, OR.
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