The Mission Was Never To Gather
And just like that, your weekly gathering has been canceled by the government. People in your church and community are practicing “social distancing” and some are in self-isolation, no longer to connect with anyone. And no matter what your church size or if you’re located in a rural or urban setting, you’re weekly physical gathering is no more.
For most churches, the weekly gathering is our primary point for teaching, for prayer, for discipleship, for communication, for relationship building, and for mission. Most of our budget and building are dedicated and focused on this main weekly gathering. Sure, we do some visitation/counseling and a bible study and prayer meeting …. But most of a pastors' week is spent preparing and executing the primary gathering. And when we want a boost in the spiritual lives of our congregation, what do we do? We hold a bigger gathering!! A conference or a prayer summit where we get more teaching, prayer, discipleship, communication, and relationship building. This method of a “come to us and get a spiritual shot in the arm” has been employed by much of the church for centuries.
Of course, this isn’t the case for persecuted churches or disciple-making communities. They look and function a lot differently than the church you and I attended last week. They don’t always meet at designated times. They don’t always all meet together. They don’t depend on one person or one gathering for their weekly dose of spiritual guidance and connection with God. If you look hard enough, you'll see a different methodology employed then the “weekly one-shot” we use here in Canada.
Here’s the thing, the gatherings that we've come to know as “Church” (meet on Sundays at 10:30 AM in a building with 4 songs, 10-minute announcements and 40-minute sermon) were never meant to be the mission. Jesus never said, “come and sing to me” or “come and learn about me”, he said, “come and follow me.” This means we have to go where He goes and do what He did. The Great Commission was not for us to “come and gather” it was to “go and make disciples”.
So now, we’ve been given a gift. To come back to the mission of “why does your church exist”? If it’s to “make disciples who make disciples” then the methodology you employ will be whatever you think will achieve that end. If you can’t gather in a large group physically, then you’ll need to “make disciples who make disciples” a different way. In everything that you “do” as a church, you should be asking yourself “how does this help us introduce people to Jesus and help them to follow Him?” If what you’re doing does not achieve that goal, then change it so that it does or find something else to do. The goal for every church should be to make the Great Commission the singular value that drives everything the congregation does.
I’m pretty sure none of us were trained for this and I’m guessing this is uncharted waters for most of us. But God knew this was going to happen and He placed you as the pastor for this exact time in History. So I encourage you to wrestle with this. Create. Innovate. Try something new. Risk. Fail. Then try again. Don’t just replace your “weekly gathering’ with a “digital weekly gathering”. Get back to the mission of making disciples who make disciples and see what comes of it. It won’t be easy, following Jesus never was. But I’m certain that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide you.
These are different days. These are ordained days.
Jeremiah works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a passionate and creative leader who believes that the church is the hope of the world. He uses collaboration, innovation, and inspiration to challenge churches and their leadership to engage in the only mission Jesus ever sent his church on: making disciples.