I love autumn. For as long as I can remember, my soul has been just a little bit happier when the air is crisp, and the leaves are changing color. Ancient people often celebrated the changing of seasons with festivals or holidays, as we do ourselves, in our own way. Autumn has always been viewed as the end of the harvest; the end of the growing season, when much of nature goes to sleep. It is a time when vegetation dies or goes fallow. Perennial plants will revive next spring, but annual flowers and crops have completed their life cycles and will not return. I think Covid-19 is a little like the autumn for the life cycle of the church.
When the pandemic first arrived eight months ago, the world shut down. Little by little, things have returned to a new normal, but we’re still in a season where many of our activities are inactive. Some of those ministries will be revived when this is all over. The availability of vaccines and better treatments for Covid will be like the spring, and fallow ministries will blossom again. We may also discover, that after a year or two, some ministries will have died.
When I think about that, my immediate, gut-response, is grief. Perhaps you feel that way, too. However, if we look at the ministry of the church through the lens of a life cycle- through the lens of seasons- then we can shift our perspective into one of hope. Sometimes, things must die before a new seed can be planted. Sometimes, we have to clear out the field in order to sow a new crop. Jesus himself used the life cycle of wheat to illustrate how his death would be necessary in order for us to receive new life in Him.
From my perspective (eight months into Covid with at least eight more months to go), I cannot yet tell which of our ministries will be perennial, ready to spring back to life, and which were annual, beautiful for a season, but not to return. It’s alright if that makes you sad. It’s alright to grieve, so long as you do not allow your grief to keep you from planting new seeds of ministry for our next season. God is not absent in these strange times. Nor will God be absent from our future. He will continue to inspire and direct us, as we seek to be faithful and fruitful in each new season of ministry.
