The Light to the Nations and COVID-19
The following originally appeared as a blog post written by TCT Member Pastor Wes Van Fleet, as a message for the members of Kaleo Church in El Cajon, CA on March 18, 2020.
If you are like me, there have been a million narratives coming at you, a billion different thoughts bouncing around your head, and a trillion questions about what all these changes to everyday life mean for you. I personally have a tendency to fear the worst and want to protect my family from any potential threats to them. But I also have a tendency to look to God in these fears and let His voice become louder than all the other ones. As one of your pastors, the question I keep asking God in prayer is, "What would you want from your church during this time of fear and confusion?" As I have prayed and searched the Scriptures, I believe I have found a possible answer and a challenge to us all.
God is unchanging (Heb. 5:8), but our experience of him does change. What I mean is that throughout history, God often shows up in unexpected ways. At the Red Sea when the people of God were being trapped between the sea and a hostile Egyptian Army, God split the sea and saved his people. On the cross, the Son of God died and all his followers scattered in fear, only to be surprised by his glorious resurrection three days later. Throughout church history, our Triune God has used plagues to bring people to himself. He has used the death of martyrs to expand the gospel to the nations. We have a God who is not trying to figure out how to adjust to the COVID-19 outbreak, but is intimately involved with his people in this whole process.
In Isaiah 58, God is confronting his people for observing his Sabbath rest and fasting with the wrong intentions (58:1-4). True Sabbath rest and fasting is meant to be a means of worshipping God by resting from producing, while also seeking justice and love for neighbor (58:5-14). In fact, with the looming darkness of COVID-19 and the surrounding rainclouds above us, look at the brevity of Isaiah 58:10: "if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday."
The people of God have always been saved to be sent. Read that again: the people of God have always been saved to be sent. Throughout Isaiah, God calls his people back to covenant faithfulness, which is often paired to be a Light to the Nations (42:6; 49:6; 52:10; 60:3). And this call to be a Light to the Nations continued into the New Testament (John 8:12; Acts 13:47; 26:23), and continues with us today.
So, how do we become a Light to the Nations when confined to our houses? How do we become a light to our neighbors and unbelieving friends when a simple sneeze or touch could potentially spread the virus? There have been an array of opinions on this. Some believe we need to ignore all of this and "just obey God." I'm not sure that it is true or helpful. If we were being called not to gather as churches because of our faith, it may be a different story. But we are being called to not gather so we can help slow down and stop the pandemic. Others believe we must hideout and not face the public whatsoever. I also am not sure that this is true or helpful. There are creative ways to Sabbath, fast, and be a Light to the Nations. What appeared to be the darkest day in human history (Matt. 27:45) was actually the Light of Nations himself being lifted up to bring rest and satisfaction to all who would believe (John 12:32). Will we use this dark time to point to our Glorious King and Savior?
Herein lies my challenge to you, Church. I have comprised a list of things you can be doing if you are working from home or spending more time at home than usual:
1. Pray. How many times have you thought to yourself, "If I had more time and less distractions, I would pray more?" Right now we are in a confusing time but we have unlimited access to the throne of God (Rom. 5:1-2; Heb. 4:15-16).
2. Pray for Revival. I have been overwhelmed with the hope and longing that God would mobilize us by the power of His Holy Spirit to seek ways to love our needy neighbors. In a dark time like this, the church can be a Light to the Nations in a way that causes unbelievers to ask questions (1 Peter 3:15). Wouldn't it be a shame to look back on this time and see that we drowned out our fears with Netflix instead of being a Light to the Nations?
3. Check-in. Use this time to download Zoom, Marco Polo, or Facetime to connect with brothers and sisters in the church. Read together, pray together, cry and laugh together.
4. Share Wisdom. If you are a homeschool mom, there are more than likely some parents in the church and some neighbors who are freaking out right now as they have become a homeschooling parent. Share resources and help in any way possible.
5. Serve Neighbors. If you are aware of a neighbor that needs something but you are afraid of human contact, use Amazon to ship them something they need or something that can cheer them up.
6. Worship. If you are a parent and have never really had the time to lead your kids in family worship, start a new rhythm. Ten minutes in the morning or at lunch. One Psalm, one song, and a time of prayer.
7. Make a Schedule. Create a daily schedule of rhythms that can accomplish needed tasks, make time for worship, and provide some kind of online community. Free time can often lead to sloth and lust and we must be active to not fall into these.
8. Spend Time. We have been spending time, in person, with our neighbors. We are safe about this and I know this isn't for everyone. Our neighbors have made us cookies, and we have gone to the store and got needed items for our neighbors. If this is doable, do it.
9. Marvel. Right now it is raining like crazy. Get on some old clothes and go walk in the rain (umbrella is optional). Go dig up worms, get dirty, and be a kid again. Marvel at God's creation.
10. Download RightNow Media. This is an incredible resource for which our church has a certain number of licenses. This will help with Bible Studies, provide sermons, etc. Contact the church office for more info.
Church, what if God is using this time of worldwide change to draw a host of people to himself? What if this is a time for our neighbors to know that we are not a people of fear but a people of hope? This is an incredible and exciting time to be alive. We have a message that can give hope and eternal life to those who are afraid and dead in their sins. Let's not waste this time, beloved.
Pastor Wes
2019 P&W Retreat: Jesus Saves Sinners!
Treasuring Christ Together Network
Pastors and Wives Retreat 2019
Kempton Turner: Jesus Saves Sinners!
Additional Sessions
Quieted to Witness | Nathan Knight
Personal and corporate strategies of wartime living, courageous witness, and social action to show the supreme value of Christ to fallen people and fallen culture.
I am one of the fortunate ones. Having been sent out by North Wake Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina I was able to sit under the ministry of Pastor Larry Trotter, otherwise known as the “Baptist monk.” Larry is one of the few that carefully pays attention to Jesus’ example of prayer and solitude for the sake of the mission.
He once told us of the need to regularly pull away for prayer and solitude retreats for if we don’t, we’d get “wobbly.” I can't tell you how many times I have been snappy, grumpy, or just spiritually or emotionally tired wherein I evaluated why and recalled this counsel. You can only imagine how this might negatively affect my attempts at witnessing to others the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The fifth dimension that The Treasuring Christ Together Network emphasizes is this need to witness. We define it this way:
Personal and corporate strategies of wartime living, courageous witness, and social action to show the supreme value of Christ to fallen people and fallen culture.
You can practically feel the energy of this sentence. “Wartime living,” “courageous witness,” and “social action” are daunting tasks, to say the least. To live this way in order to testify to our neighbors and the nations the greatest news of all requires much of us, therefore it likewise demands our souls be quieted. We cannot properly extend ourselves if we are persistently exhausted.
In Matthew 14:23 we read that “after [Jesus] had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” In Mark 1:35-39 we read of a similar incident of Jesus pulling away early in the morning and then coming out to preach to the crowds.
Evidently, our Lord saw the need of having His soul stilled before His heavenly Father as He prepared to go to the crowds and when He left the crowds. Surely, this pulling away to pray was petitionary, but also quieting to the noise of preaching. It likely reminded Him why He was there in addition to strengthening His resolve to continue on in the difficult task of preaching the Gospel.
Note also, these instances weren’t momentary. In Matthew 14:23 Jesus was there so long that night came on. In Mark 1:35-39 He had been there early in the morning while it was still dark. This reveals to us the need to not only pull away to be quieted, but also that quieting takes time. Our souls don’t have brakes like our cars that we can merely step on and stop. They are more like flywheels that need both the removal of motion and time for the wheel to slow down. If we are going to be effective as a network in witnessing we must do as our Lord did and quiet our souls so that we will not be “wobbly” and ineffective for the call to wartime living.
Not only is this important for pastors, this is also important for pastor’s wives. They are constantly on the go helping and engaging wartime witnessing themselves. From late night feedings to early morning discipleship meetings all the way to exhausting conversations with their husbands who like to sometimes verbally process the difficulties of their jobs. Pastor’s wives must also have their souls quieted in order to effectively witness to others for Christ.
Let's consider a few ways we can quiet our souls for the purposes of witnessing both personally and corporately:
1. Personal Private Prayer: The life of Christ and Acts 6:4 would indicate to us that one of the most important things we do as leaders in the church is to pray. Simply put, if you are not praying, you are not communing with God. And if you are not communing with God what might this indicate about your witnessing?
Try and find a quiet spot at a time where you know you will not be disturbed and consistently give yourself to prayer. That may be an actual closet or it may be getting to your office early or waking up early before the kids get up. Use the Psalms or other prayers from Scripture in addition to resources like Valley of Vision or Prone to Wander by Barbara Duguid and Wayne Duguid Houk to assist you when it's hard to begin.
2. Meditation: I've found that by adding the step of Scripture meditation in between my Bible reading and prayer time has assisted in quieting my soul for witnessing. It tends to warm my soul and quiet me down and lead me into prayer more naturally. That singular thought or verse I meditate on tends to find its way into conversations and prayers as I go about my day.
3. Personal/Corporate retreats: Whether it be a half day or a full day, pulling away from your regular context as an individual or with others once every 4-6 weeks is ideal in quieting our souls in order to be an effective witness. Find nearby parks, go on a hike, or sit in an art museum. Provide enough time to let that flywheel slow down. Most often the hardest part of slowing down is that first hour. Therefore, extended time is needed to get the most out of the exercise.
4. Corporate prayer: Whether it be the prayer gathering before church each week or in members meetings, I have found listening to the prayers of my covenanted brothers or sisters pray for others often stirs my soul and fills me up. They do the praying for me as I listen and drink in their petitions to God for others.
5. Turn off the screens: We have a beautiful view off of our porch that overlooks NW D.C. that my wife and I sit on each night in the warmer months. We put down our phones, turn off the TV, and light a couple candles, and sometimes play beautiful music softly after the kids go down to sleep and we just talk. I enjoy watching the trees sway back and forth against the breeze and I often stare at the moon or the few stars we can see in the city. There is something about those quiet moments wherein I look to creation and am reminded of my smallness as I speak with my wife whom I love that naturally stills me and gives me strength for the next day.
Whatever it is, brothers and sisters, quiet your soul so that you do not become “wobbly” and tire in the task of witnessing. As a network, we emphasize these things so that we might be in our communities courageously witnessing for the long haul.
Nathan Knight
2016 P&W Retreat: Quickened Hearts
Quickened Hearts
Jordan Thomas
2016 TCTN Pastors & Wives Retreat
San Diego, CA
Lighting a Candle Not Cursing the Darkness
A Video from the 2016 BCSPasCon
Speaker: Steve Timmis