The Covid-19 pandemic has wrecked havoc to many a human system and ways of life that humanity will emerge beyond it with new behaviours and an altered civilisation. The greatest of human socialisation institutions where norms, values, and mores are transmitted to each other and modelled for the next generation and posterity, are undergoing several redefinitions. One of the most affected is the institution of worshipping together; the Church, as we know it.
Generally humanity has seen church as a physical place or space of worship, in fact it has traditionally been associated with a building where people of a particular religion, and mostly Christian, go to worship. In Biblical terms, the departure point of this rendition, the church is more than just a building or a physical space, but all about people and the spiritual well being anchored on their relationship with God.
Being about people might also be a misnomer in that the church might, and strictly speaking, be reduced into a social space where people who agree that they are a slight notch above the set lifestyle bar in society come together and meet. If it is only about people, it risks being an institution that meets social needs. This might explain why the church after being persecuted by emperors and kings for its pronouncements of a King above all kings, a King that allows earthly kings to be, has for a while been captured by the very earthly kings to exert their own influence.
Notwithstanding, the church survived humanity and prevailed as an institution within which God as the Bible explains Him is worshipped, and His children are curated for an after life and eternal relationship with Him. In this curation of the human souls for the ultimate re-uniting with the creator, the church, guided and instructed by the Holy Spirit, has grown to become the single most visible custodial space and physical building out of which humanity does church. The organisation of the church goes beyond the proverbial physical walls, but rather scalable through to "where one or two have gathered in my name there am I in their midst".
A church is therefore a 'gathering of those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, who are committed to meet regularly for worship, teaching, fellowship, and prayer, and who help make disciples of all people'. In Charity and Faith parlance, church is where the lost are brought to Christ and membership, and discipled into Christ-like maturity, and helped to find their ministry and discover their mission thereby magnifying Jesus Christ. It is indeed a place to "equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Eph 4:12). Being "a community of all true believers at all time", it must consist of all that are under the headship of Jesus Christ as the Gift of God to humanity, and having been "baptised by the Holy Spirit into a body of Christ".
The church therefore has "characteristics that cannot rightly be applied to the Old Testament assembly and which therefore set it off as something new. The church (1) is founded on the Lord Jesus Christ, (2) is called into being by the Holy Spirit, and (3) is to contain all people who thereby become one new people in the sight of God". It is in fact, "the God-ordained local assembly of believers who have committed themselves to each other. They gather regularly, they teach the Word, celebrate communion and baptism, discipline their members, establish a biblical structure of leadership, they pray and give together. Certainly the church may do more, but it is not less than this".
From the foregoing answers on what is the Church it is clear that it is also a place where people "are no longer strangers and aliens, but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him, (you) members are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Eph. 2:19-22).
The church is a place where we fellowship, love, greet and hug and another. We visit each other through our cell meetings, comfort each other in times of bereavement and similar, create fraternities to serve God as we build each other, and create an environment within which we can testify the goodness of God and lay to bear the persecution of the devil for brethren to rout all demons out of our lives.
At its best the church is a physical sanctuary for the poor in material needs, the sick in flesh, the orphaned, those living with disabilities, those in need of frail care, and those affected or impacted by natural disasters and pandemics. It must also be a sanctuary for those that are emotionally unstable, those whose marriages are challenged and in a storm, those whose God given talents and fortunes are in disarray, and those that are physically lost into a world of sin. The doors of the church can therefore not be closed at a time society is at its greatest need of the as an institution of love and selfless service delivery.
In church we also learn etiquette and manners. We learn how to socialise and interact. We greet and do handshakes as well as intimate hugs. Young women and girls do the traditional face kissing and many other rituals an extended family like a church does every Sunday.
However, in these days of COVID-19, handshakes, firm or otherwise, are extinct, as are friendly shoulder squeezes, pats on the back or hugs. Doing church has now become an endeavour that calls for maintaining social distance in a socialisation intensive space. The pandemic has redefined how we who are "no longer strangers and aliens", we "who have gathered in his name" meet, greet, and fellowship. COVID-19 has confined us to our private spaces, we see our prophets and apostles in the same mediums we see other celebrities. Addictions to television and gadgets is now facilitated by the thirst for God and His word.
I am leaving it to the General Overseer to propose prayer items for us to intervene to this situation. AMEN
Comments
Post a Comment