Pandemic Chronicles #23: 2020 was the End of A Thing in the church
The end of a thing is better than its beginning; - Ecclesiastes 7:8
As we reflect on the craziness that has been the year 2020, I believe it is the end of an era. It's the end of a season.
Right now, it looks chaotic and all bad, but I think 5 years from now, we'll look back and think that 2020 is the best thing that could have ever happened to the church, the nation, and us individually.
It seems crazy now because everything seems to be falling apart, but the truth of the matter it's been falling apart for a long time now.
Many say it was the year of exposure and 2020 vision was all about clarity. For heaven's sake, that was one of my words for this year!
People said that this was the year of seeing the truth of the situation.
The church found herself in a unique position in 2020. WIth churches closed, services moved online, and many events canceled, church as we know it will more than likely be changed forever.
2020 was the Year of Exposure, Revelation, and Reckoning in the church and that is a good thing.
Exposure, Revelation, and Reckoning.
"Pray for the church. God is cleaning house," - Pastor Del Augusta
In 2020 I saw some of the "ministries" that I had suspected to be "off" go down in flames with accusations of fraud and scams. I also saw "pastors" and "Christian Influencers" that I long suspected of being wolves in wolf clothing go down.
This generation of the church doesn't take well to accountability. Others who had also sensed something to be "off" with these people and previously spoke out had been accused of being haters and too judgmental.
When the truth was revealed it wasn't surprising
Revelation and Exposure
This caught my attention.
As nouns the difference between revelation and exposure
is that revelation is revelation while exposure is (senseid)(uncountable) the condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected. (Source wikidifferences)
Losing Covering and Protection
In my reading of the scriptures, God always gave the people multiple chances to repent and get it right before bringing the house down with judgment. It doesn't happen out of the blue.
There are warnings because God is merciful
Amos 3:7
Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.
I've looked at so many of those situations and thought, "Where was the covering? Where was the protection? Why was the enemy just allowed to come in and wreak havoc?"
I think that's one of the elements of exposure: Losing God's covering and protection and now everyone sees publicly what God was trying to correct them about privately.
Perhaps these were situations where God had warned the people and we saw the fallout of losing God's covering and protection in 2020.
The people are now fully exposed
Revelation
According to Merriam-Webster, The definitions of Revelation are:
2a: an act of revealing to view or making known
b: something that is revealedespecially: an enlightening or astonishing disclosure
2020 also revealed many truths.
In the negative sense, we saw that people weren't who they may have claimed to be such as False Prophets. There was also the Revelation of true motives: Are you in it for the souls or for the stage and the lights?
False Prophets
One of the most disappointing parts of 2020 was the revelation of all of the false prophets surrounding the election.
It wouldn't have been so bad if they had just said, "Well, I allowed my personal biases and agendas to get in the way of my ability to hear from God, and I'm sorry. I have sinned against the Lord, the church, and I repent."
Instead, we had people doubling down about Donald Trump being elected for a second term, calling Angels from Africa (Is that even a thing? I don't even know), holding Jericho marches on behalf of Donald Trump, and continuing to insist that they are not wrong and Donald Trump is God's chosen man to lead the country.
It's been super disappointing to see those who I've greatly admired over the years caught up in this mess.
The Revelation of Motives
In other aspects, the motives of people involved with "ministry" were revealed. If you were in it for clout, stages, platforms, lights, and/or to peddle your crap, Once Covid came in like a flood, that was it.
The model of the Christian Marketing Industrial Complex was finished.
Ministering to smaller groups? Having to get in the trenches with the people? No shine? Nope...I'm out.
In the age of social media, we have access to more people than we've ever had before. Anybody can create a platform for themselves. We don't have to start out in our local church serving and ministering to others. Ministry is about service. Very little is about the stage.
If you want to be on stage with a microphone, then go do karaoke. Do not get up to play with people's salvation and try to become a "minister". In the past ten years or so we have gotten this so wrong. People have made it about branding, marketing, influencing, and selling crap. We have forgotten about saving souls and making disciples.
"Christian influencers" and "Social Media Preachers" can build "ministries" online and sell their lifestyle or dreams to their followers. My experience has been that many of these "Christian influencers" and "Social Media preachers" are nothing but window dressing.
When you hear them "teach" in person, they seriously lack substance because they rely heavily on optics and emotion.
This pandemic and subsequent shutdown of the churches and the Christian Marketing Industrial Complex have revealed the futility of this model. While people are dying in a pandemic, the enemy is wreaking havoc with people's mental health, economic situations are dire, "Christian Influencers" and "Social Media Preachers" who rely heavily on optics and emotion are still posting superficial and shallow content to engage followers.
They lack words of encouragement or even a word from the Lord in this season. They are being revealed as ill-equipped to seriously minister to the flock in this season.
None of this should have been a surprise to anyone because they were never in ministry.
They were in marketing.
This Exposure and Revealing have led us to a reckoning. Time's up and it's time for settling.
Reckoning
In Accounting, a Reckoning is a settling of accounts.
I believe this year we've started to settle these accounts in the church.
Racial Reconicilation
We saw mass protests break out across the nation in response to racial injustices against Black Americans. The church could no longer turn a blind eye to Racial Reconciliation and pretend everything was fine.
After so many years of pretending that "we don't see color" and "Racism is a sin problem, not a skin problem," the church in the United States was forced to air out their sins of racism and discuss TRUE racial reconciliation.
As I write this, the Southern Baptist Convention is dealing with Black pastors leaving the denomination.
This is simply one example of how long-simmering tensions in the church are coming for a reckoning.
The Great Reckoning: Failure to Disciple
However, the major reckoning I think this is happening in the church is our absolute failure to disciple and shepherd our flock. In the past 10 years, the church has sold out to marketing strategies, politics, and hype.
We've forgotten discipleship and now it is time to settle this.
When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him three times, he said, "Peter if you love me, then feed my sheep". If we're really about loving God and loving people, we needed to make it our priority to feed the sheep and not sell merch.
A Year of Closure
2020 is a year of closure.
I think this is the end of the line for the false prophets, this era of hype church, and "Christian influencers".
God is doing a NEW THING. He took away all of our comforts, complacency, and the Christian Marketing Industrial Complex. For all the hype, It was quite unsuccessful at producing mature and solid believers. Much of it produced lukewarm believers who were chasing money, clout, and fame.
I don't want to go back to the way things were. Sure, I can't wait for my church family to get back together so we can worship together. I'm even excited for great preaching and worship crusades, but I do not want to go back to the pre-covid, shallow, superficial, and phony church.
While I believe the church will be better and be stronger that doesn't mean it will be easy or comfortable. Far from it but I believe it's for the best.
Five years from now, we're all going to be glad that God sent this disruption and that truly the end of a thing is better than its beginning.
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