WARNING: You Are Drifting
2020, Good Grief! Fires, flooding, racial unrest at a high, one of the most politically divisive elections in memory, and oh yeah, a pandemic! Any one of those things alone at the level we’ve experienced it in 2020 would be a lot, but all of them in a single year - it just feels like too much.
When shutdowns first went into effect because of COVID-19, an almost overwhelming sense of fear and dread came over me. “If the church cannot gather, we will lose people,” played over and over in my head. I was concerned for those who were a part of New City church - concerned for their immediate physical health with the virus but also for their spiritual health if we could not gather together on Sundays and as Missional Communities during the week. I know the important role that community plays in our lives. I was worried as well for the many people who don’t know Jesus and who, feeling overwhelmed and uncertain would have no place to turn. The church has always been a refuge in times of trouble and we would be closing the doors. A good friend “talked me off the ledge” of my worry and anxiety and pointed me back to the truth that even in this, our God was/is in control.
Over the initial weeks and months of the shutdown and slow re-start, I was amazed with our New City people and churches at large. The Church was finding ways to be the church! Ministry was happening and services were continuing and online numbers were through the roof! It was common in those earlier months for churches to see 5 to 10 times the number of online watchers as they had seen pre-COVID. Zoom exploded as Missional Communities and Sunday School classes moved to meet online. Even ministry opportunities with neighbors became a regular thing - shopping for groceries, sharing extra rolls of toilet paper and just checking in.
As the days went on and the months came and went, it all began to change. Zoom meetings became a dread! Toilet paper filled the shelves again, and lazy Sunday morning breakfasts became a norm. The numbers of online watchers for church services began to slowly dip until now they are only up a little over pre-COVID days. And it isn’t because church attendance is now back to normal; it isn’t. Churches that are open had an initial surge of returning worshippers seeing 50% of pre-COVID attendees return, but settled quickly for most churches at about 35%. With the dip in physical attendance has come a dip in serving at church. With fewer coming, there are fewer to serve in the places they are needed - as greeters, children’s teachers, sound techs… Many churches have also seen drops in giving, not from the expected reasons of lost income or jobs but from normally faithful givers who just stopped giving. Some, like Thom Rainer are suggesting that as many as 20% of those who have drifted will never return.
We’ve drifted.
Slowly it has become easy to stay home and we are comfortable with not attending. “After all,” we reason, “it is a pandemic and we shouldn’t risk it,” though we willingly “risk it” at work, at school, at the gym, shopping and attending kids’ events.
Slowly we have found more value in our lazy Sunday mornings than in gathering with the church.
Slowly we went from writing a check as an offering on Sundays, to mailing a check, to giving being nowhere on our mind.
Slowly we have gone from rarely missing a Sunday School class or MC gathering to gladly skipping out on Zoom meetings, and now it is just too hard - to meet face to face or to Zoom.
It didn’t happen all at once, we’ve drifted.
“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. ”
Attendance, giving and serving aren’t really the drift. They aren’t the issue. Attendance, giving and serving in the life of a healthy follower of Christ are fruit. They are the fruit of living as the new creations we have become in Christ - we gather because we are family. We give because he has given for us and to us. We serve because we are being shaped into the image of Jesus who came to serve. The real problem is not that we have stopped giving, attending and serving in our drift, the real problem is that we have wandered, slowly, from Jesus.
Hebrews 2 is one of several passages that warn against the drift. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” What have we heard? We have heard the good news of the gospel, and in that good news we have heard that through faith we are not only forgiven of our sin— we are made family, missionaries and servants. We have heard that as such we have a work to do, a mission - as we go make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them (Matthew 28:18-20). We have heard that a big part of holding tightly to the faith we profess and living it out in our daily lives depends on gathering together with other believers (Hebrews 10:23-25). We have heard that when we became believers and a part of the family of God, the church, we were given the Holy Spirit who empowers and gifts every believer with a spiritual gift that is essential to the good of the body, and every member of the body is essential (I Corinthians 12). We have heard that the “one anothers” of Scripture cannot be lived out in isolation but can only be given and received in the context of community (Colossians 3:13).
We could go on and on with similar passages that describe the life of the believer as a member of a family, as a missionary helping others live in light of the gospel, and as a servant who serves his family, neighbors and all around him. Really, these are descriptors of Jesus and as we walk closely with him and are being transformed into his image (sanctification, Romans 8:28-30), they should be growing descriptors in us. If they are not, then we have drifted, drifted in our relationship with him, drifted in our love for him.
And that is really the heart of the issue, our drift away from Jesus.
Warning: You Are Drifting
There is a “rule” called the 21/90 Rule. It says that if you commit to a personal goal or change in your life for 21 straight days it will become a habit. If you continue this habit for 90 days then it should become a permanent lifestyle change.
Scary. Nine Months into this pandemic, you are drifting.
Return to your first love; return to Jesus.
*There are many who are unable to join face to face with their family at this time for health reasons and for deep convictions. If that is you, please know that we understand! While you may not be able to gather with family, you too are in danger of drifting in your spiritual life. Stay connected as much as possible through livestream, Zoom meetings, texts, phone calls and your social media groups. Encourage others, serve as you are able and continue your pursuit of Jesus!
