A COVID-19-INSPIRED
REFLECTION ON CONNECTIONS NEVILLE BARTLEY | Youth Team Leader, SUNZ
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eliever and non-believer alike have had so many questions about the COVID-19 pandemic: Why? When will it stop? Will I be safe? What will the world be like when it’s over? We’ve been used to having a world focused on self—my needs, desires, time—with the freedom to go where we wanted, to meet with whom we wanted, to go to church. All of a sudden our freedom was gone; we were locked down in a bubble, with no physical church meetings. The reality of lockdown shone a light on life and revealed a lot of cracks. Acts 2 shows us we are supposed to be there for others, to love them, have time for them, and care about them. Many of us now realise we haven’t been. Some realised their connections were only on a superficial ‘what can I get out of this?’ level. Families who thought they were close discovered that relationships were really very shallow. We were designed to be connected with one another and with God. Now our churches couldn’t meet and some
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were demanding their rights to gather and claiming persecution. SUNZ is hearing a lot of discussion about ‘what is church?’ Churches are asking if people will return. Gathering online has challenged us to stop and ask ‘do I want to gather?’ and ‘why?’. Some churches realised during the lockdown that large portions of their communities did not have access to technology and it has forced them to be creative. What have we learnt to take forward? I’ve heard lots of families saying they don’t want to lose what they have developed over lockdown. We have learnt that we can’t survive on our own, that we do need others—not only to receive from but also to actually give to. What about church? Is it just a gathering once a week to sing and listen to someone speak, have a coffee and a quick chat? I hope and pray we have discovered it is much more than that. The way ahead is not to shift everything online or to just go back to what we did before. We believe this is a wonderful time for the church to stop, reflect and pray—involving
