Sunday, May 02, 2021
Sunday Reflection: The loss of church
The move from in-person church to virtual church was jarring. The move back-- from virtual to in-person-- may be even tougher.
I fear that the lesson many people got from worship in the pandemic is that they do not need to go to church. I feel that pull myself; my faith was sustained in other ways (mostly by the re-formation online of my Sunday School class in Waco) over the past year. We aren't quite comfortable sitting inside yet, we are used to not driving anyplace on Sunday morning, our church didn't really do much for the last year-- there are a ton of reasons people might not go back, and that could be a real disaster for a lot of churches.
This probably seems like a lead-in to a harangue to go back to church. But it's not, in large part because I'm not going back to church yet myself. I feel unsure of my role there, and am still assessing how I have changed in the last year. It has been a spiritual tumult, along with everything else. And much of the hit has been on the things that are social, that bring us together in person. Many of us are probably working out how that will be going forwards. I know that I am.
But, it is both in human nature and in the scriptures that people are called into congregation; we are social animals who thrive among social structures. The question, compounding pre-existing crises within churches, is whether that will be a spiritual call as well. If it isn't.... our religious landscape is going to change a lot.
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Church appears to be alive and well here in NC I was heading out around Noon today the church parking lots were emptying out. We drove past a mega church about 4 weeks ago and the parking lot was packed full. As we passed it again 30 minutes later they were letting out. Not a mask in site. I guess they all qualified for early vaccination.
We led a hike for our church on Saturday -- I liked that. But I'm also going to jettison some of the 2018 activities where I felt like I was just spinning my wheels and wasting energy. I think we'll find a new balance.
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