3 E's of COVID-19

Dear Pastors

I love my home, my office, my expresso machine….oh how I love my expresso machine. I love Zoom, facetime, my dog and my wife BUT this lockdown sure is a test on day 21……….like…….”get me out of here”. If I was a song writer I would have written a song called ‘Lockdown Blues’ by now……yep and it would be amazing. But alas I better stick to writing and save you the agony. That said I am absolutely loving some of these virtual song renditions circulating on Social Media at present. So clever!

How are you doing Pastor? How is life in your bubble?

I get up quite early most mornings and often start my day in prayer and reflection. I still find this whole thing quite surreal. The concept of living in a bubble is almost other-worldly. It’s un-natural, anti-social, not normal but crucial……absolutely crucial. And what’s more its distinctly possible that some aspects of bubble life might be with us for a long time to come in NZ. We’ll know more about this next week this time.

When I think of the future and Future Church I think of three categories, or three waves each starting with E.

1. Epidemic (and Pandemic). An epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. This is a health concern. Scientists and Public Health Experts are saying that highly infectious bacteria and viruses are something we may have to live with, globally, as we return to everyday life. I think of it like living with the fear of malaria that millions of people have to live with day in and day out in many countries of the world. It may be something we will need to manage rather than eradicate forever. I am quite certain that International travel for example will never ever be the same again.
   • What new opportunities for the Church will this provide?
2. Economic. The second E is to do with our Economy. This is an employment and financial concern. We are already in a Recession and it sure didn’t take long for that to happen. The only question now is, how deep and how wide and how long? And just to be clear. This latest crisis has been caused by a ‘once in a century public health shock’ whereas the GFC of 2008/2009 had its origins in shonky finance sector activities, which in New Zealand included the failed finance companies and other flawed domestic investment products. I think this Recession will be quite different than anything I’ve experienced in my lifetime. And if you are my age you too have lived through a few of them. Please brace yourselves.
   The next 6-24 months are going to be very challenging on the employment front for somewhere between 10-20% of NZ’s current labour force (prior to COVID19) and therefore impacting on tens of thousands of households, and the flow on effect will impact on potentially thousands of churches and charities – the NFP sector. But it’s not all bad news because we have already seen some amazing smart thinking and incredible innovation, by individuals, by families, by companies and yes by churches. Necessity is still the mother of invention.
   • What new opportunities for the Church will the Economic dimension of COVID19 provide?
3. Emotional. The third E is an Emotional and Mental Health concern. We mustn’t under rate this dimension either. We here in beautiful NZ already had very poor Mental Health Statistics before COVID19. I don’t want to over dramatize this but if I’m honest I shudder to think how this will play out. I have heard pastors talk about evidences of emotional frailty amongst their people this past week. Just a cursory reading/listening of the news and you observe that our Public Health experts and Psychologists are very worried that this might be a second health crisis. I for one am not dismissing that as a distinct possibility. My goodness there are going to be some incredible opportunities for the local church to provide new ministry into this arena, that I’m certain of.
   • What new opportunities for your Church will this provide and indeed will it have any impact on how you do ministry as the Pastor of your church?

As you have heard said many times these past few weeks – ‘Never waste a crisis’. Right! King Jesus is still on The Throne and He is at work and wanting to see His Kingdom come in greater measure on earth as it is in Heaven.

Blessings

Alan