Conversations are ongoing, both in local congregations and at a national level, regarding what the Church will be like when all the pandemic crisis is over. What will we have learned about what changes are needed to meet the needs of the coming days?
We want to take this opportunity of paying tribute to our readers who comment on these pages, for the quality and depth of their thinking. It is great that we have readers from different church traditions, and we want to harness this diversity to make a contribution regarding what sort of changes are needed in the post-pandemic Church.
We have referred to the closure of churches several times in this magazine, which has provoked some interesting discussion among our readers. We want to extend this discussion using Disqus during the month of August, and we hope that the quality of the responses and discussion will enable us to compile a report and make it available to all church leaders.
Many of you will have been following the series Living in Babylon Today which was published on Prophecy Today UK at the same time as a 13-week interactive webinar was being held by Issachar Ministries on ‘The Relevance of the Babylonian Exile for the Ekklesia [Church] Today’. This pilot course has now come to a conclusion and you will see in the report alongside this editorial that we are encouraging its participants to engage fully, bringing some of the insights they gained in their breakout groups into the discussion. This format was so successful we are planning more in this mode in the autumn, so watch this space!
__________________________________________________________________
EDITORIAL
THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH
Despite the easing of restrictions in Britain, most churches are still closed. Even if a few people meet for prayer, they are forbidden to sing praises to the Lord and many of our great Cathedral schools as well as choirs throughout the country are no longer operating as they have done in the past, which may well become permanent. This is highly significant. In our Judeo-Christian heritage, singing praise to God is a tradition that can be traced back to the time of Moses when, under his leadership, all Israel sang to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted…” (Ex 15:1).
Singing to the Lord
Moses himself sang a song that occupies the whole of Deuteronomy 32, which he used as a means of teaching the people about the ways of God, the great things God had done and his requirements of his people. Remembering the words of a song helped the people to remember their history and taught them theology. We all remember the words of catchy melodies and even the hymns we learned in childhood. So, forbidding us to sing is a fundamental hindrance to evangelism as well as to our personal relationship with the Lord.
For Christians who believe in the sovereignty of God, even if we don’t believe that God has actually sent the pandemic as a plague and an act of judgment upon the nations, it is undeniable that God has allowed it to happen. It is, therefore, essential for us to ask the question: why has God allowed it to happen? What changes is he wanting to see in his Church at the end of all this upheaval?
Forbidding us to sing is a fundamental hindrance to evangelism as well as to our personal relationship with the Lord.
Scriptural Parallels
It is always good to turn to Scripture to see if there are any parallels that might help us to answer such a question. In Isaiah 43 and 44 we have a specific word to the people of Judah, who were nearing the end of the exile in Babylon. God first reminded them of the great things that he had done in forcing the Egyptians to release the people from slavery, which was God’s greatest act of salvation in their history. Then he said, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” In other words – “Forget it! For I am going to do something far greater than that!” (43:18-20).
God’s New Thing
The new thing God was foretelling comes in the next chapter – “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isa 44:3). This was looking forward to the Messianic Age that began with the birth of Jesus and became a public reality on the Day of Pentecost, when 3,000 people accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
The Remnant from Babylon
500 years before the birth of Jesus, God had intervened in the history of his covenant people and allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed; but he had preserved a remnant in exile in Babylon. His purpose was to raise a redeemed people who were freed from:
- idolatry,
- dependence upon an earthly king, and
- the institutional religion of the Temple.
God wanted a people whose only trust was in him. “All your sons will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace. In righteousness you will be established” (Isa 54:13). This would be the fulfilment of the promised new covenant that was foreseen in Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, I will be their God and they will be my people.”
New Relationship
This new relationship with God would be the outcome of the Spirit of God being poured out upon the people, setting them free from the kind of institutional religion of what Paul called the ‘custody of the law’. “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners under the Law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So, the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:23-24).
After Pentecost, when Jerusalem was filled with visitors from many countries, the good news of Jesus spread rapidly across the Roman Empire with little ‘ekklesia’ – gatherings of believers – sharing their faith with their friends and neighbours. That was the Church of New Testament times, that in its first 300 years survived 10 periods of cruel persecution by the Roman authorities. After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 it had no central venue – it was a loose fellowship of believers with local leaders and regional overseers who gave support and teaching to the flock. Then came the Emperor Constantine with Rome in the West and Constantinople in the east – and the rest is history!
God wanted a people whose only trust was in him – a people in new relationship with him through the outpouring of his Spirit.
Churches Today
So, what can we learn from all this history – the exile in Babylon, and the Early Church – that God may be saying to the churches today?
Most church buildings are closed, singing is banned, leaders cannot assemble and no money is coming in to pay staff or maintain property. Can the institutions survive?
If we are right in believing that things are going to get more difficult for Bible-believing Christians in Britain, when parts of the Bible may be labelled ‘hate speech’ and forbidden to be quoted in public or even read in church, it may be necessary for the formation of some kind of underground network for believers.
Will the post-pandemic Church be more like the Early Church in faith and practice? If not, why not, and how will it look?
Is God looking for a people whose only trust is in him? Is that possible and what would it look like?
What changes should we be looking for?
__________________________________________________________________
Please contribute to this enquiry by offering your thoughts on the following themes (click the links and use the Disqus comments section on each page):
2. Institutional Organisations
3. Leadership
4. Worship
5. Evangelism
7. Teaching
8. Discipleship
If you need help in using Disqus, please read our ‘how to’ guide here.