It has been a joy to dive into the different topics surrounding Family Ministry in the midst of a global pandemic. In truth, it has been helpful for me as a dad who now has a lot more time at home with my children than I am used to. I really do believe that these odd days can be a time where we learn more about what we can do as families to love and support one another in our walk with God. Prayerfully, I hope that one day we’ll look back on these times as a season of growth with many happy memories.
And yet, I find myself missing the way things were.
Families have an incredible impact on the way that an individual’s faith develops and grows. I don’t know if there is a way to test what factors are most important, but I would not be surprised if one’s family has the biggest impact of all on their faith. Even with that in mind, and with all the good that we ought to do in ministering to one another within a family unit, I miss my church.
Families are essential to faith. So also is the church family.
I do not miss the building (I am still there often), but I greatly miss the being around the people for whom Jesus died. These people have always been so vital to my walk with faith, ever since I joined Pisgah ARP 15 years ago and even now as I have returned as a church employee with a family after being away for nearly a decade. Families are essential to faith. So also is the church family.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says it this way:
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
(Hebrews 10:23-25)
I have always valued the command of “not neglecting to meet together” as one of great importance to me personally. The positive spin on that would be “make sure to meet together with other believers”, or in other words, “GO TO CHURCH!” I understand that there are certainly unfortunate cases where a person may be detained by various factors from being a part of a body of believers and worshiping with them regularly. Careers can take one out of town and even overseas. Health conditions can make it difficult or impossible to attend large gatherings. But in general, it has always seemed odd to me that a Christian would not want to be in church in the same way it would seem odd if a member of a family were to have no desire to go home.
Obviously, that command means something to me because it is a part of God’s Word and should be honored and obeyed as such. But I think this might be the first time in my life since about 2005 that I have not been in regular Sunday worship for more than about a week or two.
I miss it.
Online sermons are great. Worshiping at home with my family and gathering the kids around the TV to see “Pastor Rick” has been fun. Finding creative new ways to use technology to serve people and engage the church community has been challenging in a good way. By God’s grace, our efforts will bear fruit when all this settles down. We are all doing what we can with keeping life moving forward, and that includes our efforts for being the Church. I do not want to sound ungrateful and I thank God for technology and all that it allows for us to continue doing.
But at the end of the day, I miss gathering together. I miss midweek and the meals shared together. I miss teaching Bible Studies and playing basketball in the gym. I miss the sounds of the Day School and my children sneaking into my office and interrupting my morning work with their smiles. I miss the Sanctuary being filled with God’s people on Sunday and their voices singing out the truths of those age old hymns with our choir.
Yet, even in the midst of missing my church family, I find hope.
Everyone, all over, is missing some form of community. But this missing piece of our lives is far better than what they might be missing. This is true because our community holds fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Our community stirs one another up to love and good works. Our community encourages more and more as the days go on. The church is a community that transcends age, race, class, and all else in the slow march of history. It will transcend and survive COVID-19 and whatever else follows.
Our hope is that soon things will get back to normal and we will be able to enjoy fellowship again with one another and together, in person, can direct our worship to our good and gracious God. Beyond even that, the true beauty of a church family is that our great hope is in a life that is free from the loneliness of social distancing and from the sicknesses that make it necessary.
The true beauty of a church family is that our great hope is in a life that is free from the loneliness of social distancing and from the sicknesses that make it necessary.
What we are missing now just underscores the wonderful truth of that which we will never have to miss again when Christ brings history to its close at the end of time. The hope that I hold as an individual is the hope of the Church Universal as well. The picture of what we glimpse already in our churches, miss when we are apart and will one day possess in full is painted magnificently in Revelation 21.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4