This week I was invited to join a group for artists, by a really great artist and friend. Unfortunately I had to decline, because their meetings are on Sunday, and as a pastor, my Sundays are pretty full, but one of the things I really do long for is community. I have found a really wonderful one online, and I started a virtual mastermind group that I really need to get back to, but there is still something about getting together in the same room and creating together. Maybe I’m just old fashioned. I love the possibilities for long distance collaboration presented by online community, but I still long for a closer connection. I feel the same way about Sunday Worship. Online is great, and I love the opportunities I have to reach beyond the walls but I still really crave in person worship.
I remember our first Zoom Bible Study after the lockdown. I had almost no idea what I was doin g and I’m sure if I looked back own it now, I would find it amazingly clunky, but back then just to see the faces of my congregation on one screen brought tears and maybe that’s the big thing. I was a person who took going to church for granted. I don’t mean that in a negative, unappreciative way. I mean since I’ve been a believer, if it was Sunday morning I just always took for granted that I would be in a church building somewhere worshipping God with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Most of the time that would be in the church that I pastor, but even if something prevented that, I would be worshipping with someone somewhere, and then all of the sudden, the church buildings were closed. Now I know some will rush in and say the church is the people not the building. Yes I heard that diatribe all through the pandemic, and while it is to some degree true, I also think we were created for community. I think we were created to be, not independent, but interdependent on others and totally dependent on God.
I am grateful that the pandemic forced us to find other ways to be in community as believers, but I still pray there is never another lockdown that will prevent me from worshipping in person with my fellow believers. We were created for community, and I will never take church for granted again.
AMOKArts 