His body, and we are the expression of the presence of the living God in the earth today. 1st Corinthians 12 states:
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
God is inviting people to come into a relationship with Christ and become part of the glorious Church, the earthly representation of our Savior. How we proclaim His message and demonstrate His love are powerful factors that can draw people into that relationship. We can show the world that even in trial, in unstable times, that Christ is a firm foundation, that He loves us, and that we can totally trust Him with our lives.
There is a section of Scripture in Ephesians 4 that deals with the equipping of the body of Christ, and
what follows is an outline of some of God's purposes for His people. We can read that His desire for us is that we...
(15) ...speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
We are called to encourage one another in the body of Christ, and the functionality of the body has certainly been altered over the past few weeks. The Barna Group has a rolling survey, of sorts, called the State of the Church, and recently it has been doing sort of a "spiritual temperature check" on the condition of the Church. The most recent survey published covered a period from March 20-April 20.
A recent article on the Barna website highlighted three areas relative to the pandemic: serving the community, online attendance, and giving.
Current statistics show that about a third of church leaders say they are "helping distribute food and supplies or reaching out to elderly, isolated and at-risk community members." About a third say they have partnered with another organization to reach out in their local communities and 25% say they have partnered with another church.
Certainly, we don't want to get so caught up in numbers to the extent that we fail to see those numbers as representing actual people with real needs. But, as the Church, called to "go into all the world," we can certainly implement strategies that will boost response to the gospel. So, we can make our message available and make sure that we are living out that message every day so that people who see us see the presence of Christ. We can boast in the Lord, effectively proclaiming His truth.
But, as Jahng points out, we have to be sure that we are acting to build community. Interpersonal relationships can be challenging in a time of isolation, and even when we're not in a pandemic, we have seen the virtual world flourish; there is concern that online friendships supersede personal interaction. The body of Christ is a community that has Jesus at the head, and He calls us into fellowship with Himself and with one another.
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There is a section of Scripture in Ephesians 4 that deals with the equipping of the body of Christ, and
what follows is an outline of some of God's purposes for His people. We can read that His desire for us is that we...
(15) ...speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
We are called to encourage one another in the body of Christ, and the functionality of the body has certainly been altered over the past few weeks. The Barna Group has a rolling survey, of sorts, called the State of the Church, and recently it has been doing sort of a "spiritual temperature check" on the condition of the Church. The most recent survey published covered a period from March 20-April 20.
A recent article on the Barna website highlighted three areas relative to the pandemic: serving the community, online attendance, and giving.
Current statistics show that about a third of church leaders say they are "helping distribute food and supplies or reaching out to elderly, isolated and at-risk community members." About a third say they have partnered with another organization to reach out in their local communities and 25% say they have partnered with another church.
As of April 21, 60% of pastors were reporting that online attendance had increased, up about 10 percent from the previous week. And, fewer pastors were reporting that their online attendance was less than typical, in-person Sunday services - in the most recent survey, only about 20% of pastors said their online attendance was less than the in-person services. The summary also said, "Fifty-six percent of pastors say their church will 'definitely' continue to provide digital worship services once social distancing is over."
Plus, giving seems to be on the rise, according to this Barna weekly survey, released last week. Now, 43% of pastors report giving to be down; that is versus 50% the previous week. The percentage of pastors saying that giving was increasing was also going up - approaching the 25% mark.
In the article, Kenny Jahng of Big Click Syndicate is quoted; he says that rather than just looking at stats regarding digital engagement, "I think we need to shift and say, ‘Are we doing things successfully to convert [views] into actual connections or actual relationships?’ This then forces you to say that this is not a one-day thing that we’re looking at. It’s a seven-day dimensional thing that we need to look at. How are you moving the content consumption into something beyond that, such as contribution to community involvement?”
Certainly, we don't want to get so caught up in numbers to the extent that we fail to see those numbers as representing actual people with real needs. But, as the Church, called to "go into all the world," we can certainly implement strategies that will boost response to the gospel. So, we can make our message available and make sure that we are living out that message every day so that people who see us see the presence of Christ. We can boast in the Lord, effectively proclaiming His truth.
But, as Jahng points out, we have to be sure that we are acting to build community. Interpersonal relationships can be challenging in a time of isolation, and even when we're not in a pandemic, we have seen the virtual world flourish; there is concern that online friendships supersede personal interaction. The body of Christ is a community that has Jesus at the head, and He calls us into fellowship with Himself and with one another.
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