Like most of you, my world was turned upside down a few weeks ago. And like many of you, I started living in a different world instead.
The world of electronic communication suddenly became the platform for my communication with the outside world.
At the beginning, it seemed like a temporary substitute — something to tide me over until I got to the other side. Then it seemed to take on a life of its own. I was preaching online, I was speaking to small groups online, I was doing eschatology sessions every week on Instagram Live, I was on Zoom panels every week for our church, I was speaking on Messenger Video to people all over the world.
Who would ever have thought you could run a small group via Zoom? How many for that matter even knew what Zoom was? I wish I had bought shares in it a few months ago! Who would have thought a programme like Alpha, which depends so heavily on human contact, could work electronically? Who would ever have thought that the church would sail through a season where it couldn’t even meet?
Well, the jury is in. Every pastor I’ve talked to has said more people are coming to the Zoom groups than ever came to the actual groups. Alpha has so many people lined up to take the online version it can hardly accommodate the numbers.
And as for church services, the statistics are unbelievable. Judging by online numbers only, the average church in the USA has grown by 50%. In the UK, six or seven times more young people are watching online than ever darkened the door of a church building.
What are we supposed to make of all this? First, we are assured that God has a plan. He knew what was coming. He determined to use that time in a whole variety of ways. He is shaking the tree of an idolatrous and arrogant world. He is calling a complacent church back to its first love. And he is showing us that the One who invented change wants his people to be in the forefront of using it.
God has called us to surf the tide of the history he is every day creating.
Are we going to live in this online world forever? No, at some point some semblance of normal life and personal interaction will resume.
The question is: what will we have learned?
I think God is teaching us he wants to be Lord of all forms of electronic communication. He wants his people to use something he has created for his glory.
Nothing can substitute for the joy of personal fellowship. But in this age, the world of the internet is where we go fishing to reach the people we want to bring into the world of the kingdom.
Electronic media is not an end in itself. And yes, the devil is using it. But this is the time for those of us who believe the earth is the Lord’s to take hold of the great declaration of Abraham Kuyper: There is not one square inch of this earth over which Christ does not cry “Mine!” And to apply it to this electronic world in which many of us have been living since March.
When we come out of this, what have we learned from what God taught us in the midst of it is the critical question.
The answers we make to that question may determine the progress of the kingdom for the next generation.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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