Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXXII
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatian 2:28)
Covid-19 is culturally diverse; it infects anyone and everyone. While the rich and middle class hunkers at home, the minimum wage, hourly worker is deemed essential, working at grocery stores, drug stores, and meat packing plants, but all are susceptible to the disease.
But the Church? I helped a white pastor start an inner-city church in the midst of Black and Hispanic communities, yet we remained a White church in a White Christian culture. Our old, renovated church building had a large Sunday School room on the 1st floor and the sanctuary on the 2nd. Sunday School was at 9 a.m., worship service at 10, done by 11:30.
As the White church fled to the suburbs, a Hispanic congregation bought the building. They advertised church at noon, but no one showed up until after 1 and the place didn’t rock until 2, and went until 5! The 1st floor became a veranda for socializing and dinners. Although the congregation was made up of Mexicans, Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and San Salvadorians, I couldn’t tell the difference.
I got to go to South Africa in the 1990’s when apartheid defined three social classes: European White, African Black, or “other” called Colored, mixed breed. I spent a weekend at a White church in Pretoria and a weekend in a Colored church at Fishhoek outside Capetown since South African churches are also segregated.
Jerusalem in Jesus’ time was a melting pot of diverse Jewish culture: Hellenistic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Remnant Jews, etc. At Pentecost, Christianity was a predominantly Jewish faith until Saul, converted to Paul, would evangelize the Gentiles in Asia Minor. By the time of Constantine’s conversion, the Church became Romanized and lost its Jewish influence.
Like Covid-19, Christian evangelism can touch anyone and everyone as a response to the Great Commission. The 1st century Church was about building relationships and communities. Paul scouted a city’s culture before evangelizing. When Paul saw the temple to the Unknown God, he utilized it as an opportunity to tell them about Jesus. In another city he taught against idols. Local craftsman revolted and kicked him out of town for ruining their economy.
Persecution caused the 1st century church to scatter. With an universal message, diversity soon became its strength as Jews, gentiles, slaves, and freemen, males, and females all became peers in this priesthood of believers. Will it take persecution to make today’s Church diversify, to become multi-racial, multi-lingual? Should the church today be more community based, or will we continue to drive miles away to attend church. We need to make Church be our neighborhood in order to make it a 24/7 community. Peer acceptance and equality must become a quality of the Covid-19 era church if it is to move forward, thus the need for new multi-racial, diverse, peer accepted wineskins.