Buildings and Babylon - Hope for the Church Facing an Uncertain Future in Search of a New Normal
Churches have navigated through a “new normal” for the past few months.
Everyone has shifted from in-person realities to a now full-blown online church experience.
While this pivot has been accomplished by many churches, every leader knows that plans must be laid out for the coming future.
There’s just one problem: It’s difficult to predict the future.
Is it safe to gather? How do we do it right? What’s the timeline? What should be the ministry strategy? When will a vaccine be created? We can’t say. There are are unknowns at the moment.
As a leader I find this to be tiring and a little deflating. And yet, I also find myself hopeful for the church in the here and now and the coming future. Why? Because while Covid-19 provides unique challenges, I’m reminded that this is not the first crisis God’s people have faced.
In the U.S alone, churches have walked through 9/11, World War II, the Spanish Flu, and World War I. When we rewind the clock further, God’s people experienced invasion in The Sack of Rome in the 400s and The Great Fire in Rome in AD 64 (in addition to a myriad of other examples through history).
History can come in handy.
And what we find in crises is that God has a track record of leveraging challenging circumstances to engineer and cultivate surprising moments, movements, and modes.
A poignant example of this is a crisis that began for Israel in 586 B.C in what’s known as the Babylonian Captivity.
Israel, who revolved life around the Temple (built by Solomon) found themselves displaced in a foreign land for 70 years as an oppressed people unable to participate in their spiritual rhythms and practices.
Obviously, Israel’s exile doesn't perfectly correlate with today’s pandemic: Israel’s exile was God’s judgement on account of their idolatry. It was also a nation’s aggression towards another nation, not the aggression of highly infection diseases. Israel grieved the loss of their traditions in Solomon’s Temple while Christians believe we are temples of the Holy Spirit because Jesus “the Greater Temple” was destroyed and rebuilt in 3 days.
But we can say there is some correlation: Christians, much like the exiled Jews, feel displaced from our normative gatherings. While the church isn’t a building, we gather in buildings like how the Jews centralized around the Temple.
Christians, like the exiled Jews, find ourselves embracing new normals wondering what the next “new normal” will become. We, like the exiled Jews, look to an unknown future wondering when we can gather again.
Based off of this correlation and God’s track record in history, I share my hopefulness through my anticipation of 3 things I believe can and will come about from our current moment:
1. Spiritual Innovation Will Birth
Do I believe God is doing a work in the hearts of his people? I do. But I also believe there will be spiritual innovations that arise.
Some historians believe that the synagogue system, a localized community gathering for worship, was established sometime during Israel’s 70-year exile.
If that’s the case, let that sit for a moment.
Synagogues still stand today.
Think about the critical role the synagogue format would’ve had for God’s people during their crisis. It was a place for hearing God’s Word and experiencing community (You don’t think they longed to re-gather in a Temple?).
But fast forward a few hundred years and think about the critical role of the synagogue system for a young boy in Nazareth who would hear Scripture read to him during his adolescence, only to later teach in one as he read from Isaiah. Think about how Paul strategically entered synagogues to engage the Jews for the gospel post-resurrection. In other words, God built into the fabric of the future through the innovation of a non-ideal mode of worship.
While I hesitate to predict, I believe someone is working to launch something new - whether it’s something virtual that will stay post-covid, or a system of planting multiple churches across a region at once, or a new training mechanism or evangelism tool, I can’t help but think something will be created.
2. Unlikely Leaders Will Rise to Prominence
My children love the story of Daniel and the Lion’s den, but have you ever considered the context and how he became so loved by the king in the first place?
Daniel rose to prominence because of the exile. In other words, the crisis of God’s people created and accelerated his ascension. (It’s a little weird to think that if there had been no crisis, Daniel may have never been mentioned in the Bible.)
It’s also not hard to imagine that he would’ve been offensive to the Jews. He was of Israel nobility only to be trained in the language and literature of the Babylonians. He also lived in the king’s palace (Gentile and therefore unclean territory). He would’ve been accused of enculturation with the very people who exiled God’s people. And yet he was the person God used.
In a similar vein, I wonder if there will be out-of-the-box individuals who will rise to serve this generation in a unique way. I don’t think these individuals will be pastors. I think it will be marketplace leaders or someone we wouldn’t have expected for spiritual leadership.
Haven’t we already seen this happen inside the church? There have been many non-seminary trained leaders who have stepped up in surprising ways. Think about the pivot from just two months ago. How many pastors relied on the non-paid tech guy to figure out virtual set-up for their online services? Who were the real heroes of the church pivot? Wasn’t it unpaid volunteers on the worship and tech team? Small group leaders?
3. The Gospel Will Penetrate Unexpected Places
The startling irony of the exile is that Israel was sent there in the first place because of their idolatry and sin. The kings of Israel could not get it right. And yet, through the courage and faithfulness of Daniel and the powerful hand of God, the pagan king of Babylon - Nebuchadnezzar celebrates the God of Israel.
Babylon by the way? Not depicted well in the Bible.
In fact, Babylon becomes a theme in the Bible representing human rebellion and sin (Revelation 18). God doesn’t use Egypt (who enslaved Israel) or the Romans (who participated in the death of Jesus), but Babylon. And yet, the message of the Kingdom is taken to the heart of the royal palace in Babylon!
In ways, this has already happened hasn’t it? God has used this pandemic to bring people’s hearts to the right posture for greater receptivity to the gospel. Since covid hit, over 700 people have confessed faith in Jesus through my church’s online services. Could you imagine what God is doing in other parts of the world right now? What is God doing in China and Africa? What is God doing in North Korea?
I love this about God. He is big enough to meet our laments and pains in time, but he’s also big enough to leverage those very circumstances for eternity.
Conclusion
I don’t want to be the guy that’s only waving the positive flag during a pandemic where pastors and churches are tired and worried.
But I also don’t want to be the guy that’s only waving the flag of doom and gloom either.
The Israelites eventually returned to their land and rebuilt the Temple. There was life on the other side of what appeared to be death. In the same way there will be life on the other side of Covid-19. And I don’t want to wait until we get there to hope in what God will do because isn’t that what separates a Christian from everyone else?
Isn’t faith the assurance of things unseen? Hasn’t this been the practice of those who have gone before us as they hoped for unfulfilled things with good reason?
And that’s why though I’m tired today, I wait with eager expectation. I have good enough reasons to know that God has a way of bringing resurrection on the other side of death.
Let’s believe that together.
