World
W COVID - 19: Locked Down Or Locked INto God?
W
What has been your response to COVID -19? Have you seized the chance to get off the treadmill that we have been frantically running on like a gerbil and find quality time with God? We have a golden opportunity for a REAL intimate knowledge of GOD, not to be missed! We can choose to ‘dance in the desert’ or die in despair because whenever we are God is there and He will provide for us, He doesn’t change. Lately, while I was in the throes of domestic chores and business tasks, multitasking as we women do, God asked me: “When last have we been intimate? You haven’t been to Church per se but have you been to me?” We can send God the type of communication that I call ‘e-prayers’. We just quickly send God a voice note, text or email and we don’t even wait to hear the ‘ping’ in God’s inbox; we have moved on to the next task, ticked our box, we are done. Meanwhile, God is thinking,
When will I get a word in? When will they actually spend some time listening to what I have to say? Since COVID, there has a been a paradigm shift from, ‘Going to the Church’ to getting together with God and that growing phenomenon has manifested itself in the ‘House Church movement.’ In 2006, this headline caught some attention: “1 in 5 adults attend house churches,” according to Barna.com “...about 5% of the adult population is currently engaged in a house church based upon the most stringent of the questions we have developed. With growing numbers of conventional churches attempting to incorporate both the house church concept and language into their ministries, it becomes increasingly difficult to get an accurate reading, but we are confident that the longer, more detailed question we use gives a realistic, perhaps even an undersized estimate of the number of people who rely solely on or partly on a house church experience. All research is simply an estimate of reality, but our preference has
always been to use conservative measures rather than questionable or exaggerated figures.” What the stats are showing us is that there is an increase in church activities happening in the privacy of people homes. Unfortunately what the stats don’t show us is if this increase is from extracurricular church activities from a “traditional” church or if these are house groups or their own individual churches. What is clear is that the Biblical pattern of meeting in each other’s homes was the pattern that the Apostles worked from and it gave room for the Holy Spirit to build the Church globally, witnessing unprecedented exponential growth. In short, God’s way was ‘effortlessly fruitful’. “Our planning puts man and money to work but our praying allows God to work.” H. Slack I believe that COVID is that golden opportunity for the ‘Church to Get back on track with God. What could God possibly have to say to us, today, that is so important that He has not already
https://www.barna.com/research/how-many-people-really-attend-a-house-church-barna-study-finds-it-depends-on-the-definition/?fbclid=IwAR02oqmoD56PhQnXghfY0vT MBcvPMLbUnL0p4N1pC6GcJiZGyP28a36jci8 30
|
SHARE|MAGAZINE
October - December 2020
