When the Old Church Reopens: How will Churches Look Like After the Pandemic? A Personal Reflection

WHEN THE OLD CHURCH REOPENS:

HOW WILL CHURCHES LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANDEMIC?

By Sindiso Jele, Council for World Mission

The concept of the ‘Old Church’ is an attempt to locate the missiological mandate of the church before the pandemic and as it continues in the context of the pandemic. The idea of the church re-opening is premised on how it responds and or responded to the pandemic. Measuring the impact of COVID-19 is relative, contextual and depends on the subject area and the intentions of the assessment. I will avoid the fallacy of assuming that what is true with the fraction is true with the whole – that is theological carelessness and a luxury as a mission practitioner I cannot afford. The article is divided into two: the impact of the COVID on the church and the church after the lockdown (when the ‘Old’ church re-opens).

Impact of the COVID-19

Firstly, churches depend on offerings from members. Now that members no longer have income, the churches’ economy is impacted. Also as it is during the fellowship where the collection is received to support the life and work of the church. What it means is that churches in developing countries will now turn to those in developed countries to seek funding for mission programmes and social responsibility.

Secondly, the world’s current focus is on the COVID-19 vaccine. The question that Africa is dealing with is: ‘Who gets it and when’ This question exposes the economic inequality in the body of Christ. When I grew up, I was taught the African proverb: ‘When the sun rise, it will shine first on the taller trees.’ This is what will happen in the rollout programme of vaccination here in Africa.

The Church is defined as one institution that thrives on fellowship, physical support, and presence. Lockdown has created a mentality of individualism, and thus the Bible is no longer read as a community book with community narratives. Fellowship and physical support are areas in which churches are impacted negatively in Africa and the world over. Most people in Africa go to church for fellowship and social support, where the elders would always say: ‘When I die, who will bury me?’ Now, even if one is sick or bereaved, no one from the Church will visit due to the lockdown, or fear of COVID transmission. This has had a negative impact on mental health, especially among the elderly, who feel neglected, isolated and lonely. People are losing close relatives and friends due to COVID-19 and the Church is not there to give physical support or grief counselling. And there are some also who believe that if they are sick and the minister doesn’t lay hands on them, they will not be healed. Prohibiting this simple physical act has affected them not just spiritually but also mentally. This is another way in which churches are affected.

Theology is a community project that speaks about how people have a conversation with God. As such, the conversation with God, in the context of COVID-19, has emerged with new grammar. One of the notable example is ‘being a church’ in the context of COVID-19, where the ecclesiology of the global Church has always been defined in terms of physical and spiritual presence of the membership. Now, people read the Bible and pray as individuals, not as a community, meaning that being a church, in this pandemic, is being redefined.

When the OLD church reopens

Re-opening is an attempt to describe the future of the church in relation to the pandemic. In my former INSiGHT article titled “choosing being death and death” 2, I based my reflection on my experience of the lockdown subsequent to COVID-19. There I painted the picture of how the people were affected, especially the poor communities, with soldiers were deployed among them. People had to choose between staying indoors and dying of hunger, or going out to face possible exposure of COVID-19 and the guns facing its citizens. I built my submission on this line again, when the church emerges after the lockdown must:

The church pay attention to the emerging grammar, e.g. ‘NEW NORMAL’. This concept can be misleading and non-progressive in the public and prophetic theology. It may be read to suggest that things need to go where they were before the pandemic. A situation that would not be accepted who were finding it difficult. This would mean normalising the un-normal.

As the church emerges after the COVID-19 related lockdown, it must challenge the missiological glass ceiling. This refers to a belief that the church has reached height of their mission calling. This calls for the visit to the trans-Jordan theology, how would the church look like on the other side of the crisis.

The COVID19 must be taken as one of the live-denying situations - not ‘the’ but one of ‘the’. This would help the church not to lose focus on other life-denying situations, such as economic injustices, climate change, and gender-based violence (GBV). The church must not take its eyes off the ball. If it all it must use the pandemic as one of the hermeneutical keys to interpret these lives denying situations of economic injustice, and GBV, both in the context of COVID. This provides an opportunity to see the crisis in the context of the marginalised.