What COVID-19 is Revealing about Your Church

Have you ever noticed that one of your arms is stronger than the other?

I find that most days, this goes unnoticed—it doesn’t matter if I’m lifting a box that came from Amazon, or setting up tables and chairs for an event. It’s only when I’m lifting weights at the gym—or these days in my makeshift home gym—that I recognize just how much my right arm is stronger than my left.

It’s not immediate though. I don’t necessarily notice it when I start bench pressing. It’s only when I get to my third or fourth set of reps that I start realizing the imbalance because the bar starts dipping slightly lower on my left side.

Let’s think about this for a moment.

Why do you think this is happening? Is it that my left arm suddenly got weaker? And that the weight lifting caused my muscles to deteriorate?

Or, is it that my left arm was already weaker from the outset? And when pressed, put under pressure, and tested, the true strength and health of my arm was simply revealed?

Friends, this global pandemic has not only pressed us to our limits, pressured us beyond our point of comfort, and tested us in ways that we never thought we could handle, but it’s also done the same to the church.

The church is being pressed. The church is being put under pressure. And the church is being tested.

Global pandemic or not, the church has always been a body of believers that are both scattered and gathered. We are called to scatter and share the good news of Jesus making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18-20), but we are also called to gather regularly and be of an encouragement to one another (Hebrews 10:25). We are called to scatter and gather. Scatter and gather.

This is how it’s always been since the birth of the early church.

In the Book of Acts, you see the early church gathering together to devote “themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). And “every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house” (Acts 2:46). But then you see them scattering when Peter and John ministered to the man who was lame from birth, and also when they’re then arrested for teaching about the resurrection of Christ (Acts 3-4). This pattern is repeated over and over—not only in the Book of Acts—but also over centuries of church history. And it continues today—the church is still gathered and scattered.

This global pandemic that we’re living through didn’t cause the church to scatter. No, the church was already both scattered and gathered! This pandemic has simply revealed which “arm” was already weaker from the outset.

I wonder if God—in his sovereignty and providence—is allowing this pandemic to take place because he wants to reveal and remind us how scattering is just as important as gathering?

I wonder if God is wanting us to work on our “weaker arm” to prepare us for something that we do not yet see?

And I wonder what gospel impact your church will have in your city when your scattering becomes as strong as your gathering?

So here’s my encouragement to you and to your church: As your church begins to re-exercise its gathering muscle, may you not forsake the scattering of the church, as is the habit of some. And if you have to close the doors again because of this virus, may that serve to remind your church of its true nature, and further strengthen your church’s love for both gathering and scattering.

Let’s rise up and be the gathered and scattered church.