The physical distancing and isolation occasioned by COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on churches. They must name their grief, mourn their losses and strive to find hope.
It’s almost time to go back to school, to campus, to a new normal. What can leaders of youth and collegiate ministries do to prepare for success in the midst of COVID-19?
When author and artist P. Lynn Miller proposed the theme of “lament” to the national Bible Study Committee of Presbyterian Women four years ago, no one had any idea how timely the topic would be now.
As she pondered how to lead worship while keeping the safety of congregants who may be affected by COVID-19 uppermost in her mind, the Rev. Lynn Rubier-Capron remembered her childhood, when she used to see movies at the drive-in.
Living in Honduras this past spring and summer felt especially difficult and intense. What started as a labor dispute between teachers’ and doctors’ unions and the government became agitation against government corruption and economic desperation. Classrooms from elementary to university closed at various times, and taxi and bus drivers sometimes blocked streets and shut down cities. The U.S. Embassy was vandalized and partially closed.
Think about the first and last words of Scripture. The book of Genesis opens with “In the beginning …” (Gen. 1:1). And the book of Revelation closes with “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20), followed only by a postscript extending Christ’s grace to all the saints. The season of Advent brings together both ends of the Bible.
When I was a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, I was in a meeting with several community leaders and civil rights advocates talking about justice issues in the city and the state. We were gathered in one of the Sunday school rooms of a small Baptist church. Early in the meeting, I looked up and noticed a small poster on the wall that read: “What if God released his tapes on you?”
The closest the Rev. Bethany Peerbolte has come to heartache associated with Mother’s Day was a couple years ago, when her parents moved from Michigan to North Carolina. “I’m like, ‘If that was hard for me, I can’t imagine what the people in my church are going through when they’ve lost a mother or haven’t had a mother figure who’s really been kind and loving to them, like a mother should be.’”
