Lets start with catechesis. Though the temptation is therapeutic care for the wounded, the more urgent and essential need is solid catechesis. Maybe we ought to start with the creed and unpack again what it was and is that we confess every week. Maybe we ought to continue with the Catechism itself and what it is that we claimed to know when we were taught the faith as a youth or taught the faith as an adult entering the Church's life. Maybe we ought to check the theology of the hymns we sing and teach our people to understand what our hymns confess and why that matters. Maybe we ought to review the Divine Service and remind people why we have the liturgy we do and why it matters. Number one our to do list ought to be making sure our people are well catechized. If not now, when?
We could continue this by remembering again what the Church is and what the Church is not. Perhaps this would help us understand why online preaching and the Eucharist cannot replace in person participation in the Word and Table of the Lord. Could it be that our people have either forgotten why or were never taught why a sacramental Church requires us to be present in person and why we need what only an in person experience can offer. Frankly, I am sick and tired of those who think that the pandemic taught us how to get beyond in person and to capitalize upon technology. Technology will be our undoing and the undoing of the people of God if they cannot distinguish why we must be present and what is offered to us when we are present that cannot be supplanted by digital, virtual, or online versions.
It is time to end live streaming anything. While it might have seemed a good idea when we thought we had no choice, live streaming early on into the pandemic outlived its usefulness. Live streaming gives the impression that listening in and watching on a screen is like being there. It is not. It cannot be. The whole idea of video needs to be reviewed and some solid discussion on how it can serve the Church and how it cannot. Certainly, it has value for showing people who we are (when they thought Lutherans were simply Baptists or Evangelicals with a different order of worship). It may be a way for those who cannot be present to feel a deeper connection to the Church (military deployed apart from any local option to attend or shut-ins whose sacramental participation comes with a pastoral visit but who want to see and hear what is going on in their church).
Zoom was not and is not a replacement for in person meetings. Even conference calls are difficult. So lets leave the Zoom for the occasional time when someone cannot be present due to illness, weather and travel issues, etc., and lets meet in person if it is important enough for us to meet at all. Consider this an extension of the above bullet point.
For a long time we have presumed that the people knew where to park, where the restrooms are, and the like. Perhaps now is the time to look at our buildings from the vantage point of those who are not intimately familiar with our facilities. We need to pay attention to where people enter and how they leave and do a more deliberative job of both welcoming them and giving them a clear pathway to where the action takes place. And, by the way, make sure the building is clean and well kept. Cleanliness may be next to Godliness when it comes to telling people that they are not only welcome but we have prepared the place for them.
Expect visitors. Yes, you heard me right. After a time like the pandemic, there are people who have awakened to the need for assurance more than science can provide and for a hope that does not have an expiration date. This is your time to shine. Proclaim the wisdom and mercy of God and let the strangers in your midst know that they are not only welcome but God has been expecting them. Make sure they know that the Church is not simply an echo of culture, civil religion, and what people think but rooted and planted by God on the soil of His grace and favor. This will certainly coordinate with the need to catechize the folks already there. Teach them well.
The post-covid agenda will require us to give up somethings, relearn what we thought we knew, and prepare to welcome our familiar folks and the new faces into God's House again. But then that is what we need to do all the time, is it not?
4 comments:
Pastor Peters,
You've been beating your Covid drum since this pandemic first began and yet you continue to demonstrate your ignorance (or is it arrogance?). As a physician, I must point out that the issue has never been that Walmart is more essential than worship! The issue was the gathering together in close proximity and for an extended period of time! When is the last time you've seen a group of people gathering together in Walmart? Or any other grocery store for that matter? Stores deemed essential (and I think we can all agree that grocery stores fall into that category) kept patrons at a minimum and separated them with direction arrows on the floor and in each aisle and distanced at check out. In fact, in the past year (whenever I had to enter a grocery store), I almost always finished my grocery run without actually coming face-to-face with anyone! (it should be noted that many grocery stores were offering curbside pick up as well which I made use of frequently! Thus, another method preventing people from being in close proximity and possibly spreading the virus, even unknowingly). Did you ever see a group of 25 or 50 shoppers all congregating in the dairy section and hanging out there together for an hour, chatting it up? No, you did not! And yet in worship, that's exactly what we do! We are not "in and out" like grocery shoppers. We are there to stay for more than an hour, in close proximity, and with lack of clean air ventilation (especially in winter when you can't have the windows open). This is the reason concert halls were also closed, along with movie theatres, sports arenas and the like. It had to do with large numbers of people gathering together in close proximity for an extended period of time and nothing more. Please stop trying to turn it into something it really wasn't! We Lutherans have been well catechized (at least this one has!) and know, without a doubt, the importance of our weekly gathering together and our receiving Word and Sacrament together. We also know that love of our neighbour requires self sacrifice. We think of others before ourselves. And if we must, for a time, go without the Sacrament, then we cling to Christ as He comes to us in His other means of grace.
Unless you live somewhere different, have you ever seen a church where all the pews are full on Sundays? Half full? Under ordinary circumstances? So why would you presume that in the pandemic any church would be filled with congregating crowds? We had many multiple services with people spread out in a building that seats 400. We have seven entrances and wide hallways. We did not need to tell our people to distance— they knew to do it and did it. Yes, they were in the same room (with 40’ ceilings and multiple HVAC units) but they were further apart than they would be in supermarket aisles or in line at the register. Where were the large numbers gathering? Perhaps in a very few places but not in Lutheran churches. We did not have to shut down to love our neighbor but could have made accommodations and shown there is a life more real than this mortal life and it comes to us through Word and Sacrament.
Please keep "beating your covid drum"......there are MANY who agree with your opinion.
Yes, and there are just as many other Christian scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, virologists, infection specialists (including many Lutherans) who have first hand knowledge and experience in fighting this virus (experts in their own fields of study) who disagree.
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