Barry E. Fields

View Original

Coronavirus and the Church

The report the federal government and all governors were given last week. It’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.

And here’s the thing: lots of people will call these measures an overreaction if successful, but that’s exactly what stopping a pandemic will look like if you manage to stop it before it’s too late: an overreaction. We’ll never know just how many lives will be saved simply because we stayed home.

Going to be hard to go back to life as ‘normal’ (whatever ‘normal’ means these days anyway) without a vaccine likely in place for the next 12-18 months, for fear of spreading the virus and the potentially unfathomable loss of millions of our elderly and vulnerable were we to simply do nothing, more than at any time in modern American history.

In the meantime, social loss, economic loss, and anxiety remain real concerns. Will there ever be another opportunity in our lifetimes for the church to be the church? And that’s just it: never before in history have we had the technology to do what we can do, not as a physically gathered community, but a virtual one.

So let’s love our neighbors. Let’s check on and offer to help the elderly and vulnerable. Let’s pray for our government officials and hospital workers. Let’s support local restaurants and businesses as best we possibly can. And let’s share the gospel like never before, through every medium available, online and by phone. 

This is our time, Church. Let’s be the hands and feet of Jesus. Let’s shine the light in a dark world. In the midst of anxiety, panic, and fear, this can be our finest hour.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf