QUARANTINE LIFE: CHURCH TO THE RESCUE

No matter what the outcome of the election, there is much in society that will require repair. Many, who have equated the church with the buildings in which people gather, are yelling for an emergence from lockdown to save the day. Is this variation of the church in any position to do so? The pandemic has been adept at separating the wheat from the tares; the ministries from the side gigs; the religious from the righteous. Many are anxious to get back inside those buildings to commence doing, perhaps, what God neither loved, intended, nor appreciated--and what won't help in any meaningful way.

No "church" or its leadership can’t claim moral high ground and lead to rectify anything externally, what it has failed to address or condemn internally. How can so much error be so easily and repeatedly identified in governmental leadership, yet be excused, overlooked, and justified in the "church"? The last 4 years have been a mirror; a pot/kettle situation if there ever was one. Are government leaders any different in tone, belief, and behavior than many pastors? The quiet and complicity throughout the pandemic has been telling.

How many churches are run and function EXACTLY like the government— fraught with abuse, hypocrisy, nepotism, lying, cronyism, negligence, waste, and delusion? How many churches are rendered spiritually useless by flawed, dishonest, arrogant, incompetent, narcissistic, morally corrupt grifters in leadership, and their enablers?

The nation is still in the midst of a pandemic, and just like many state and local governments, many churches are still trying to appease and gain the favor of fools. They are determined to keep the sideshow going; ignoring directives, flaunting guidelines, and putting gullible people in danger. The comparison of how much greed, performance, and personality prevails, and how little people and their well-being actually matter, is pitiful. The number of leaders who have died is staggering.

Thank God for leaders and congregations, however, who have adjusted; who are BEING the church, and recognizing the futility, superficiality, and emptiness of DOING church particularly in this season; who have embraced and mastered technology so that fellowship can be safely maintained; who have increased benevolence, and are able to serve their communities because they were prepared and fiscally responsible; who recognize the necessity and value of employing wisdom and sound, honest, coherent, sober teaching, prayer, and meditation during this time; who've proven they don’t have to rely on noise, fearmongering, gimmicks, slogans, empty promises, tricks, or guilt trips. 

The church can’t be the answer or anecdote to the hurt and harm of an ineffective, corrupt, dysfunctional government if its own leadership is all of those things as well--or more.