Is 2020 turning out to be the year you thought it would? When I think of 2020, I think of 20/20 or what optometrists would label clear vision. I wrote about this in my booklet The Student Ministry Time Machine. I wrote how I thought 2020 would be the year that next generation ministry would begin to catch on. I was envisioning 2020 as the year where churches would begin gaining clear sight on the value of instilling the model of next generation ministry in their locales over and above traditional children and youth ministry programming.
While, certainly, this could still be the case and the pandemic may now urge this new mindset on, I would have to admit this was not what I had in mind. I could not have predicted a global pandemic, a global black lives matter global network, or utter lawlessness occurring in major U.S. cities in 2020. Next generation ministry is all about doing more with less and thus a global recession could indeed force churches around the world to change their model of student ministry. However, and if this phenomenon happens, this would not have been the way I would chosen.
What is God doing? Is he still in control? It is easy in this time to question God. Bigger national and societal issues are at stake than whether our favorite team is going to be able to play ball this fall. I certainly don’t understand it all, but God has never asked me to. God wants us to trust him, especially in these very uncertain times. Many things have been brought to the surface since the pandemic hit our country. However, the most important thing, I think, is that people are forced to evaluate their relationship with God. Pre-Covid 19, was God your family’s number one priority?
Covid-19 forced a lot of moms and dads to become children and youth pastors overnight. Parents were instantly forced to take charge of leading devotions in their home because they could not go to church. At the same time, churches instantly became the supporting role to parents that they were always supposed to be. Ministry leaders began equipping parents with the resources that parents needed so that parents could be the primary disciple-makers of their children. Again, this is the way it was always supposed to be; from the very beginning of time. But somewhere along the way, ministry leaders began to take over the parent’s primary role and churches began allowing it. Before long, this trend was not only accepted; it became commonplace and nearly every other model was frowned upon.
Thus, I am thankful for what God is doing. But, I am not always as thankful for the means for which some needed changes have happened. I don’t want to see people become sick and die. I don’t want to see families forced to stay at home and not allowed to come to church. I don’t want to have to wear a mask when I go out. I don’t want to see people lose their jobs. I don’t want to see my nation go down the tubes as its most prominent cities become homeless shelters and places of extreme violence. I want black lives to matter but not at the expense of promoting everything else that the black lives matter movement has come to represent.
If you watch the news 24/7, its easy to become cynical and to complain. But God has called us to give thanks in, not for, all circumstances and also to pray for our leaders. God desires that we turn to him like never before. We must open His Word and seek Him. We must not merely talk about all of the above items. God desires that we pray about them . . . God, help us to find a vaccine for Covid-19, to restore law and order on our streets, and to show the world that all humans are worthy of dignity because they were first made in your image. That’s a simple start, but we must begin fleshing these things out and praying in greater detail.
Don’t give in, give up, or give out. Now is not the time. The battle for our nation’s soul is at stake, but even more, so is the battle for our nation’s souls.