“God love’s you, but don’t come near me…”
In a season where getting too close to someone could be view as an insensitive and dangerous act, how should the Church, the Body of Christ, the hands of Jesus, act?
Bottom line up front: Love your neighbor, especially now.
Let us start by clarifying that you should definitely listen to, and follow the guidance and directives of, your authorities in regards to social distancing and public health orders. (Romans 13:1 All of you must obey those who rule over you. There are no authorities except the ones God has chosen. Those who now rule have been chosen by God [NASB]). Also, if you have underlying health issues or are in the higher risk categories for COVID-19, please, please, please focus on taking care of yourself and your family and listen carefully to your doctor.
Then we would like to quickly follow that up for the rest of you by stating that unless you are under a shelter in place, quarantine, or isolation public health order you should not be locking yourself into the bathroom hiding from the germs with a Lysol spray can and a bottle of sanitizer in each hand. Neither should you be running around the neighborhood hugging everyone and sharing an iced tea as they come out to check their mail.
This is a season that will require tremendous amounts of wisdom and mountains of faith, hand-in-hand. So how do we continue to demonstrate God’s love to our neighbors, while practicing social distancing?
For churches and organizations that host services and events that are still able to meet under the local guidelines:
Modify your practices to spread out seating arrangements and leave more space for movement in the room.
Add some service times and encourage people to register for a time slot to avoid crowding.
Step up the cleaning game, and wipe everything down with the appropriate cleaners more frequently.
Instead of a coffee and bagel station free for all, have a volunteer make everyone’s drinks and snacks.
If your organization is unable to host services and events due to guidelines that limit the number of people gathered together:
Get serious about empowering small group leaders. Jesus taught 12, who taught 70, who taught the masses. Start investing heavily in their spiritual discipleship and release them to minister as pastors in their spheres of influence.
What about those of under Shelter-in-Place or Quarantine Public Health Orders… How do we keep "Gathering together in fellowship”?
Welcome to 2020! Time to go digital with Sunday services.
Learn about live streaming, vlogging, and digital mediums.
Shorten your sermons and break them up for release throughout the week.
Encourage the worship team to record acoustic songs and post them for the congregation to worship too.
Great, we figured out how to modernize the traditional Sunday service… but how do we love neighbors while social distancing and the coffee shop is closed?
Keep the doors unlocked (not literally) – the most desperate who have lost all else and have no where else to go will knock on your door. These are the least of these that we MUST serve and demonstrate God’s love for them.
Create a web-page on your church website for people to ask for help for finances, groceries, and other needs (not just asking people to give donations).
Identify the the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, then speak to them, in consultation with their doctors, about providing groceries, transportation to doctor visits, and other assistance. (Or start a game of tic-tac-toe on their front window with erasable markers, with permission of course.)
Find those who have lost their income, and might need assistance with food and basic needs. Their world has just been turned up-side down and they need a shoulder to cry on (from 6 feet away) and a listening ear to hear their struggle… then take action on their behalf.
Ok, that’s great, but what if our community is under a quarantine or shelter-in-place? Now it gets challenging. Many people will not be able to work from home and some will lose their income, which can lead to homelessness, and food insecurity. Identify the most vulnerable to these problems in your community and talk to them about the best ways to help them:
If someone is about to lose their home, find them a family to take them in.
If someone is without food, bring them groceries.
If someone is limited by health concerns, take care of the rest of the family for them.
Find those single parents who are still working in essential jobs and provide them support, childcare, encouragement.
Set up a system to check on the elderly and high risk individuals.
Use digital apps that focus on your community (like nextdoor) and encourage your neighbors.
There are dozens of ways we can be compassionate, loving ambasidors for God during this crisis. We can use modern technology to overcome the limitations. If you have ideas on how to demonstrate God’s love in your community, put them in the comments below. We would love to share them.
In general the church needs to reach out to each other and form a unified effort to serve their community, help their neighbors, and demonstrate God’s love.