The Lord is revealing through the pandemic the new normal for the church. It is obvious to some, but others may need a little help to see what the Lord is up to. Here is what the Lord has been showing me and others. Let me walk you through a bit of my own experience.
Around the time I wrote Neighborhood Initiative and the Love of God, I asked a class I was teaching at the Valley Vineyard, “If you were a farmer and you were given the responsibility of planting and gathering a harvest out of every area of our Valley, how you would go about it?” The answer was pretty simple. The participants said they would break the Valley up into smaller sections and assign farmers to each section. Each farmer would plant seeds in his field and before long a harvest could be gathered from every field across the Valley.
Consider the spiritual implications of this response and what Jesus had in mind when he said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field” (Matthew 9:38 NIV).
The Lord of the harvest has answered the prayers of many and has sent us out to work in each of our sections in His harvest field. The Lord has situated us in homes and apartments/condos so we can work in the field He has assigned to us. I remember in the early days of Neighborhood Initiative saying, “I dream of a day when we meet a Christian we don’t know that we will ask, not what church do you go to, but what harvest field are you working in?” The Lord is certainly bringing this dream to pass in our day.
Our pastor, Jimmy Reyes, made a comment that has stuck with me and I have pondered it over and over again. He said, “What will be the new normal for the Valley Vineyard when we come out of the pandemic? We can’t go back to the way it was.” What a profound thought. If we are merely looking to get back to normal, then we are missing a very important lesson the Lord is teaching each of us through the lockdown in our own neighborhoods. Those who live next door to us are very important to Him—He commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. This unique opportunity is a lesson of a lifetime for us who are in His Church. He is orchestrating a new normal for the Church.
Change is Happening
We all don’t like change, pastors included, but when God introduces new wine to His Church, because of things that our happening on the world scene it is time for us to adapt to what He is initiating. One of the things, I believe, He has been introducing, for some time now, is the neighboring movement. What I see with this movement, which is not so with the church model we are more familiar with today, is that it is pliable like a new wineskin and can adapt to the drastic changes in our present culture. We see how a home-centered church can acclimate and stand strong in such places as China and Iran. The question we must ask ourselves, how has the American church stood up to the pandemic?
Before the shelter in place order, I was asked in so many words, “Why should Christian leaders rethink how we do church? Here was my answer for pastors at the time. “We must not be naïve about the future of our country. We may not be prepared for something that may strike at the heart of where the church is vulnerable here in the U.S. and that is we depend and rely entirely too much on our buildings and our pastors, which could very well be our Achilles heel. All you have to do is contrast how the church in China held up under persecution versus the church in Russia. Like the Early Church, the Chinese church is thriving under persecution, because the home is central and they are multiplying leadership. Whereas, the church in Russia was devastated by persecution, because there was too much dependence on the pastor/minister and the building. Leaders in the church today must prepare for persecution, which may very well be eminent. We must emphasize the centrality of the home for ministry and multiplying disciples who will carry on the Lord’s work. I don’t mean to say that pastors aren’t important, because they are. However, they need to encourage their people to take their eyes off them and make discipleship to Jesus central. If you as a pastor are not doing this, your people will not hold up as the winds of change are sweeping through our land.”
Making Disciples of Jesus
When I first got involved with neighboring at the Valley Vineyard, I put together a little neighboring handbook entitled Developing a Neighborhood Ministry. The subtitle was The Church’s New Frontier. A pastor friend of mine said to me, after looking at the booklet cover, “This is not the Church’s new frontier.” We responded to one another with a smile, because we both new that neighboring is what the Lord instructed His 12 disciples to do in Matthew 10 and the 70 to do in Luke 10 when He sent them out. He told them to go from house to house and search for a worthy person or a person of peace. Once they found one, they were to stay with that person and invest in their lives. The home was central to the advance of the Lord’s kingdom. The Church needs to move back to what Jesus instructed His early disciples to do. Because our church buildings are the center for ministry rather than our homes, we have lost sight of our mission in the world. Michael Green in his book Evangelism and the Early Church said, “Christians missionaries made a deliberate point of gaining whatever households they could as lighthouses, so to speak, from which the gospel could illuminate the surrounding darkness.” With this home-centered focus, the Early Church grew exponentially. The church today has moved away from this and the growth of the Lord’s kingdom has suffered. When those in your congregation begin to realize that their homes are the center for ministry and the pastor’s role is to equip them so they will love their neighbors as themselves, then you will find that they will begin to live their lives like Jesus did by becoming incarnational.
What the Lord is doing in our day is radical, which means getting back to the root. He is taking His Church back to its roots…what we read about in the book of Acts. Won’t you join Him where He has planted you?
I experienced something similar this past February in Waspam, northeast Nicaragua. The local Moravian church had very few people coming to their building, so they took their worship out into the neighbourhood. In someone’s front yard, they shared the faith together and with any passersby. It was nighttime, there was a bonfire (to keep the bugs at bay), a gathering of the faithful with songs and prayers and Scripture and the spoken word. The church in the neighbourhood.
Colin, it was so good to hear from you. I shared with other pastors the content of your post here. Thank you so much for taking the time to write your encouraging comment.
I believe this time is erasing the silos in our lives, especially when it comes to church. Before, we went to church and then left it there is the building. Now, most of us attend in our homes and bring Jesus into our homes. Even living in a small southern town, there has been little interface with neighbors, as everyone rushes off in the morning to work, and then on weekends are busy running the kids to activities. Now, for perhaps the first time in their lives, many young couples are seeing their neighborhood and you see families out walking, with or riding bikes together. Some churches are able to hold services outside, in a bring your own lawn chair environment, and that has also introduced a new dimension,. My prayer is that we wouldn’t miss out on what Daddy God has for us at this time, and we would embrace it.
As a personal note, I miss you and Jo and pray you are doing well. Blessings
Hi Karen, loved reading your post and hearing what is going on in your community and neighborhood. The covid has certainly created more warmth with neighbors and has opened doors. Jo and I miss you. I have so many fond memories with you. Especially, our trip to Israel. Love you! ~Lynn
Hi Pastor Lynn,! It is so good to learn about what you have been doing! It has been a long time since doing ministry together at VV in the 90’s/early 2000’s.
I’ve been following the work of Frank Viola a bit in regards to house churches, and I agree with you that the way we Americans “do church” is not really biblical, and that a “new” relational wineskin (without dependence on buildings and eloquent pastors) is exactly what is needed to be prepared for whatever is coming to our world in the future.
The internet is also providing some new wineskins. The churches I am involved in have had wonderful fruit online during COVID19 sheltering…. however, I don’t believe that can be sustained without person-to-person neighborhood missional love.
I am finishing my MAGL degree at Fuller this month, and I am ready for change. Thank you for your labor of love!
Together Loving Christ,
Lisa