The Crisis And The Unplanned Changes Coming To The Church.

The new year was greeted with fanfare worldwide. Everyone had hope for a better tomorrow despite the disappointment of the previous year. Church services were jammed with worshippers offering prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord. During that period it is quite normal for churches worldwide to have high hopes concerning our rapture happening the return of our Lord to rule and reign on the earth. After all, this is one of the requests we are encouraged to offer in our daily prayer.

Afterward, the churches are engaged in filling up their calendar for the year 2020. With very high expectations of having a sort of revival and refreshing times. Then the Church leaders set the ball rolling with plans for the year, of bookings, printed flyers, and invitations, new sermon series, conferences, retreats, and the programs for outreaches all sent out. Suddenly all that changed with the sudden outbreak of the pandemic crisis. The church woke up with a rude awakening and a taste of sour grape having no choice but either to make a partial or total cancellation of all programs. The crisis became the reset button telling the church to start all over. How did it all happen?

This is what can be called a forced change, enforced without expectation and invitation. And human wisdom teaches us that the human spirit will always resist any unexpected change which does not agree with her fanciful expectation in life. So people are always overwhelmed when unanticipated changes occur especially when they distort the plans envisaged in life. Especially when they are not in line with our human anticipation.

However, in most cases, mankind is more dependent upon the predictability of human activities, the consistency of all things, including life events. Mankind is accustomed to believing that since creation all things just must continue as they are. So in the event of any unplanned change, human prefers the status quo. And in most cases always put up a violent fight, while resisting and opposing any changes. And this is the essence of our own self-preservation. But God can use any crisis to bring about His goodness and mercy to an individual or a nation.

And as humans, we are accustomed to believing that unplanned changes are not our friend because they tend to threaten and upset the balance of our nature and livelihood. But what looks like unplanned changes to us is God’s plan according to His purpose. The plans of the Lord always carries with her a vehicular seed to move us to a new level. God allows changes when it is His purpose to take us to Mount Pisgah so that we can see the Promised Land. He says I know my plans for you are good, to bring you to an expected, or a successful end.

Hence the Lord gave us the Bible as our guide and light to lead us in a dark world. Through the writings of the scripture, we are assured of the future and believe that God is sovereign over the affairs of men. The same truth of His sovereignty He had revealed to Daniel with his friends facing a difficult situation in the world capital of that time called Babylon. Babylon was the strongest nation and the capital of the then world. At that time there was a spiritual and moral crisis so intense that death was a choice to escape the horrors of that time.

Our sovereign God did not insulate Daniel and his three friends from the crisis at that time. So also the church today is not insulated from the consequences of the unplanned changes the present crisis has in its wings. For this reason, she must relearn the lesson of God's sovereignty over the affairs of man. As the church is not an organization, but a body, a living organism with spiritual life.

And if the Head had passed through a form of crisis in the past, it follows then that the body must experience some of the sufferings to a lesser degree.  For history has confirmed that crisis and hardship is the most effective path towards spiritual awakening.  The hall of fame in our faith register is founded on the crucible of suffering, afflictions, and persecution. This is the most fertile soil for the revival awakening of the church.

Hence, the church can draw lessons from the biblical experience of the past to live in the present. That is why the writings of the Old Testament prophets are for our instruction in navigating difficult situations and that includes the crisis of the Coronavirus outbreak. Not that the Lord allowed the crisis to rattle the church, but that the church should put her house in order.  

In the Old Testament book of Amos chapter 3, and verse 6-7 reveals that our God is sovereign over all that happens on the earth, whether it be good or evil. That is why I believe that God allowed, ordained that it should happen, including every single change and the effect expected.