What the Covid Protection Framework Taught Me About Following the Spirit Into Unexpected Places
I recently heard African American theologian Willie James Jennings describe three key dynamics within the book of Acts; the one which particularly captured my imagination, was “the dynamic of a God made known through Jesus, but now a God restless in the world through the Spirit, speaking through the followers of Jesus, guiding them, directing them into the new in ways that they were not prepared for.”
I was not prepared to be leading within a Christian faith community that would have to wrestle with a decision that would result in people being prevented from engaging in in-person gathered worship. Exclusion is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ and yet, following a church family discussion, we have decided that from Sunday 5 December that all who would gather to worship in-person must provide evidence of their being fully vaccinated.
One could spend any number of words seeking to justify that decision, and still find legitimate critique and alternative options. At the risk of oversimplifying it, the principle of caring for the most vulnerable was what drove our decision, and therefore we agreed that we should do everything in our power to protect people from being exposed to the COVID virus and its variants.
My reflections since the decision was made have been on the process that we engaged in. I am convinced that one of the reasons for the level of division that we see and experience in the Western Church is because we have not had modelled and therefore the opportunity to practice disagreeing in a healthy way. In my late teens, when I first started attending church meetings I observed a distinct lack of humility, the expression of unprocessed pain being directed at the pastor and/or church leadership, and an inability to acknowledge that there are different ways of reading, interpreting, understanding, and applying the biblical text. I have observed this in most of the churches that I have served in. It’s as if we as Christian faith communities are struggling to listen to our God, restless in the world, speaking to followers of Jesus and guiding us into new ways that we are not prepared for.
I have worked hard at articulating the importance of sitting with, and even celebrating the differences that are present in the Christian faith community that I am the pastor of. It is an easy thing to say when it is theoretical, but our response to the Covid Protection Framework was the first time this theory would be explicitly tested. With the foundation for the discussion placed in Jesus’ command to love one another in John 13:34-35, the floor was opened for people to be heard. It was clear there was an awkwardness as people were initially hesitant to say what they thought and were more comfortable raising the various issues that made the decision so complex. Eventually the ice was broken, and someone shared where they were sitting. This brave step gave permission to others to do the same and enabled the voicing of counter points which needed to be clearly articulated. The whole conversation was respectful. People listened empathetically. When fears arose, they were not shut down, they were acknowledged and invited to be unpacked. It was a hard but good conversation.
“It’s as if we as Christian faith communities are struggling to listen to our God speaking to followers of Jesus and guiding us into new ways that we are not prepared for.”
I believe in a small way that we followed the Spirit of Christ into a new place that we have not been prepared for. Am I certain that the decision we made is the one Jesus would have? Not at all. I am certain that, whether right or wrong, we made a difficult decision with the best intentions, listening to one another and seeking to discern what the Spirit was saying to us. The love for one another that we based the conversation in was evident and so I am also certain that Jesus was honoured in the process.
In Acts we see the early church struggling with the coming together of two groups of people whose history was one of separation, animosity, judgment, even violence at times. We see the struggle of new interpretations of ancient scripture. We see the challenge of different cultural practices being brought into the family of God and the questions that this raised. These same struggles are present in the church today. I wonder if much of the division and controversy that we are known for is because we have not learned from the example of the early church in Acts. Rather than learning from the discussions, the conflict, the sharp disagreements, and the challenges of welcoming the unexpected into the community of God’s people, I wonder if we sometimes idealise the ‘Acts 2’ church and forget about what the rest of the narrative of Acts shows us.
Despite all of the conflict that the early church experienced, Acts shows us the Kin-dom of God spreading, and reconciliation and restoration between people happen. What a beautiful picture of people following the Spirit into new ways that they were not prepared for. It wasn’t easy then as it isn’t easy now, but the Spirit is continuing to lead the followers of Jesus into places we are not necessarily prepared for. Will we follow or will we remain stuck? I hope I have the courage to follow, as a disciple of Jesus first as well as in my role as a local church pastor.
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Steven Goulstone is pastor at Wellington South Baptist.