In my earlier perspective on 10 May 2020, I considered what God might be saying to us individually and as a family during this Covid-19 pandemic. I lamented that it would be a pity if our lives registered no change when this storm blows over. If we come out of it behaving the way we used to, then we would have robbed ourselves of a golden opportunity to be sanctified by our Lord.
Today, I want to consider what God may be saying to us as a church during this season. Almost all of church life has gone online overnight. We have our weekly 11am online services, where we worship together in our respective homes. Our Discipleship Groups (DGs) are studying the Bible and having fellowship through various online platforms. Pastoral, EDC and Session meetings are conducted over Zoom. We have our monthly synchronised prayer meetings, again in our homes, every first Wednesday of the month.
We are able to speak with each other and even play games with each other “face-to-face”, though we are not physically together. I really thank God for technology and for brothers and sisters who are adventurous enough to make use of it to ensure that church life continues to run as normally as possible.
Still, we are not operating in normal times at all. We do not know when things will return to normalcy. Many have said that even then, things will not be the same anymore. We have to be prepared for a new normal. What is God saying to us as a church? I have a few insights to share but let me just touch on one in this perspective.
LOVE THAT BINDS
We need greater cross-generational interactions as we continue to build the church. There is a need for more collaboration between the young and old within our spiritual family.
We are very used to doing ministry in silos. For example, we have the U12, YZ, YAM and adult DGs. There are advantages when we group people according to their life stages. They share similar interests and we can then roll out suitable, age-appropriate activities to meet their needs.
But what binds us together should not be the similarities that we share, for that will make us no different from any social clubs out there. What binds us together is the Triune God we worship. We call God our Abba Father and we are his beloved children; in Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins; his Holy Spirit indwells each one of us as a seal of his ownership.
Regardless of how different we are, or which generation we belong to, when the church exists in unity, it is a powerful testimony of God who is love and who binds us together in love.
In this regard, whether we are young or old, we can come together to worship and pray, and to fellowship and serve. During this season, we are not able to gather together physically for corporate worship – a wonderful platform for cross generational participation. But how can we still maintain such interactions so that when we eventually do come together again, it will pave the way for such interactions to thrive?
SERVING TOGETHER, YOUNG AND OLD
I see some very encouraging signs right now.
I join a group of Truewayians for Morning Prayer every day at 9am, and it is heartening for me to see the young adults and the more senior folks gathering around God’s Word in worship. It is wonderful for me to hear the young and old praying alongside each other with no inhibitions.
I know of families who have stepped forward to serve, parents alongside their children, in the area of worship leading as the recording is now home-based. I know of one worship leader who has gotten one son to play the piano and another son to do the video recording, while his wife stitches up the whole production.
Similarly, for my weekly church advisories, Gracia helps to edit my script and Gaius helps with the video production. Gavriel has also recently helped to construct a make-shift teleprompter so that I am looking up more when I address you. As parents and children serve together, there is a cross-fertilisation of viewpoints which can make the final product more refined.
The younger generation has many ideas on how they want to do church and we really need to give them a listening ear and a space for their voice to be heard.
Last year, the EDC was reading a book together entitled “Messy Church – a multigenerational mission for God’s family” by Ross Parsley. Ross says that we should not resent our young people when they come in and think that they can change something that has been going on for a long time. We should not try and fit the next generation into our own plans and force them to use the same ideas, tactics and tools that were used in the past.
If we could take the maturity, wisdom and resources of age and put them together with the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of our young people, the spiritual family can be more effective and impactful in building up the kingdom of God.
For the young and old to serve together, we need mutual respect, humility and big doses of love. I think that even without Covid-19, multigenerational ministry is the way to go. But with the pandemic, we have been thrust into a situation where such collaborations are even more needful.
In the production of the weekly online services, many of the young people are taking the lead. But the older ones are also around, doing the work as well as sharing their wisdom. Often there is a sparring of ideas where people hear each other out and understand each other’s point of view, thereby coming out with a better way of doing things. It is a very healthy picture.
CHANGES TO CHURCH WEBSITE
Do anticipate some changes coming our way where the church website is concerned. Again, a group of YAMmers have many creative ideas on how to leverage this platform to do church more effectively. The resources for Covid-19 found under one of the banners on the website is their initiative and they are also very passionate about being a loving neighbour to the marginalised in our society.
There is an on-going conversation between them and the existing website committee, and we look forward to some exciting changes taking place in the near future so that we can continue to effectively build community within and engage community without.
We are not asking the younger generation to take over the church completely while the older ones sit back and relax. We are asking both the young and old to serve alongside each other, the younger ones tapping on the wisdom and experience of the older mentors, and the older ones being inspired by the energy and creativity of the young. Together, we can march forward to bring positive changes to the church who is the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Rev Lee Kien Seng
May 31, 2020
