5 Years Ago... Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic

This week marked the five year mark from the global pandemic of Covid-19. All that we endured in that 2020 year and all that has transpired since then has me pondering. 2020 will certainly be a year that is remembered as a pivotal marker of our lives. We had a number of folks over this week in our home for a few gatherings (which we couldn’t do 5 years ago!) and we reflected on this milestone marker of five years and the impact on our lives and the church of that pandemic. I asked a few questions of our guests as we talked about the affects of Covid-19 on us and our society as a whole. I wondered what they thought had changed because of the pandemic. And I wondered if they thought our society would accept another shutdown if that came our way (which was a resounding no! by the way). I also wondered with them the effects on the church during that time. Here's a consensus of the conversations: Our kids will have long term effects both academically and socially A distrust of institutions, government as well as “experts” and “science” More individualism, me-first thinking  Divisions of identities and ideas and the growth of the cancel-culture Online church became a real option (and thankfully has not remained as a viable option)  Shortly after the lock-downs we had George Floyd and all the turmoil that came from that. Boiling over of anger and frustrations and injustices. The church was deeply affected as well. I believe we still feel the effects of that time period today. The divisions over masks or no masks. It seemed as though politics were on our faces now. We had people leave on both end of the spectrum. I believe that it exposed thoughts and feelings we had under the surface already and just exposed our hearts and sped up the process of those underlying frustrations and beliefs. I still semi-regularly talk with pastors who feel tired and exhausted from the effects of Covid upon their church. How did you spend your days in those lock-down months? Personally, I remember feeling like it was some of the memes that were quite funny and captured the moments: (Here’s a few I saved)

                                                                               

Then, during our lock downs, we offered online services (of which I am still deeply grateful to Scott Rider for his making this all happen so well for us). For about three months, we went “online” and then as we began to enter back into “in person” services we had to register to come and create “bubbles” for people to be able to meet… with masks. Here’s some of the pics I saved from that as well:

                                                                                       

Finally, I want to encourage you to watch the Easter worship video that Scott and Heather created with our team of folks to remind us of our body of Christ worshiping together:  I walk away with a deep gratitude for the Lord’s Church, for the gathering together and need for one another and physical touch and in-person conversations, and preaching to real people who are interacting as we go through God’s Word together. We need the church, we need one another. It’s easy today to take our gathering together for granted. This reflection has been a helpful reminder for me. How about you? I look forward to worshiping in person tomorrow. To God be the glory!                             Held By His Abundant Grace, Pastor John