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The Reshaping of the Church

4/2/2020

36 Comments

 
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We are now just over two weeks into our national “go home and stay home” order, precipitated by the global Covid-19 pandemic. People are finding new structures and rhythms for their “stay at home” lives, the shock of the cascading changes is wearing off, and the realization that this is not just a pause, but a full-blown reshaping of society, is sinking in. 

I come from a theological position that believes that God is in control, yet not just in a general but disengaged way, rather in a very active way, shaping, maturing and positioning His Church for His glory, regardless if we are going through times of prosperity or calamity. While we must weep with those who weep and keep engaged with the very real suffering that is all around us, this lens means that even in this current crisis, we look to see where and how God is actively moving. What is He redeeming, what is He birthing? I find that looking for the work of the Spirit doesn’t just encourage me, but it inspires and directs my intercession, as I seek to “bless what God is doing”. I’m sure you too, find that your heart encouraged and your spirit activated in intercession, when you observe the hand of God at work.

Over the last 12 years I’ve had the honour of leading a large, national, interdenominational house of prayer (on Zoom), and at the same time, chairing Ears to Hear (the Canadian Network of Prayer Ministries). These two ministries have provided two unique windows into the Canadian Church. One window is a view into trends in the Church, and the other sees where the emphasis in intercession has been over the last number of years. 

So here are a few things, right in the midst of the Covid calamity, that I’d like to share with you. Places where I can see the Spirit moving, reshaping the Church in extraordinary ways in this hour. Of course it’s bigger than what can be shared in a simple blog post, but I’ll try to hit some of the macro changes. And what I’m observing now is where I’m leaning in in intercession, as I believe that these trends could very well be laying the ground work for unprecedented renewal of the Church and revival in our generation.
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A Shift Away from Consumer-Christianity
To the grief of many pastors, over the last years, the trend has been towards “consumer Christianity”, where Christians have developed the habit of picking and choosing what they like from an assortment of churches and ministries. It comes from having being discipled by our culture where anything we want has been available to purchase or experience with a click of a mouse. But the downside spiritually, is that we reject what makes us feel uncomfortable, what challenges our flesh, what calls us to commitment or service. We have become like children allowed to pick whatever we want from the buffet, so we’ve heaped up our plates with desserts and left the rest. It’s a trend that is absolutely toxic to discipleship, it refuses accountability and treats the Church like a form of entertainment that we engage with as long as it pleases us (but not a minute longer). 

Covid has changed this. Churches are now unable to deliver that commitment-free, carefully designed Sunday experience for the whole family that has come to be expected, even demanded. In a time of high need and stark isolation, churches been reduced to running services online, and suddenly the pursuit of spiritual entertainment and excitement is irrelevant in the face of our immediate need for connection and care. Yet the kind of connection and care we crave right now only comes by being known, engaged, and committed to a church family, not by being a consumer. The Lord is giving us an incredible opportunity to break out of the toxic pattern of consumer-Christianity and shift back into healthy church structures which enable us to grow as disciples. Praise the Lord!
A Restoration of Sabbath and Spiritual Disciplines
A second aspect of this reshaping is the restoration of the sabbath rest that we haven’t had time for, or given ourselves permission for. The driven-ness of our society which values success and productivity above all, has seeped into the Church and many of us have unwittingly adopted a similar lifestyle pace with less than two or three hours of downtime a week. When we do have free time, we quickly fill it out of a fear of boredom or the stigma of being “unbusy”. Our kids keep similarly full schedules as we anxiously push to ensure their  academic and athletic success, assuming this will lead to career success later on in life. But this pace has not allowed for the biblical rhythm of sabbath or the vital practice of spiritual disciplines (such as reading, meditating, and the studying of scripture, waiting on God, prayer, intercession and unhurried communion with Him). Our lack shows, we are spiritually anemic and easily overwhelmed. 

The Covid crisis has abruptly interrupted this unrelenting busyness. If we are not a healthcare worker or in a similar frontline industry (which most of us aren’t), we’ve been sent home. While some are able to work from home it’s shorter hours without the commute, others have been laid off, still others have been quarantined because of possible exposure. Many of us, (likely most of us) are being forced to rest.

Sabbath is not just an old religious idea from the Victorian era, it’s a powerful statement of dependence on Jesus. Taking a day off doesn’t mean that you don’t have work to do, it means that you trust Jesus to enable you to do it in a shorter amount of time. It’s willingly handicapping our productivity to make more time for Him, and trusting Him to make up the difference. But without sabbath, our lives become increasingly unhealthy and self-reliant. The Lord is giving us a reset in our lifestyle pace as well as an opportunity to explore and establish spiritual disciplines that we’ve avoided in the past. If we lay hold of this moment, we can grow in relationship with God in ways we’ve never believed possible. Going forward, this development of the inner life in God, cultivated by spiritual disciplines and strengthened by sabbath rhythms will have profound effects on the maturity, holiness and resilience of the Church. Praise the Lord!
A Deliverance from our Hyper-Independence 
A third aspect of reshaping, is a jarring deliverance from our radical, (even hyper) independence and a lifestyle marked by our worship of personal freedom. In its place the Lord is calling us back into biblical community oriented around home, family and neighbourhoods, but not isolated communities, with raised drawbridges disconnected from the rest of the Body of Christ. No, rather, interconnected, linked across regions and nations. So it’s both the restoration of parish-type Christianity, but with the addition of the new virtual connections that are powerfully linking us and uniting us globally.  

This process of reshaping will take a while to adjust to and will be both refreshing and wrenching. Suddenly families with children are in lockdown together which, even though this can be very difficult, also creates a genuine opportunity for connecting in deeper ways simply because of time and proximity. Everyone is homeschooling so parents are hands-on and engaged with their kids in all their areas of strengths and weakness. Secular ideologies that have been quietly eroding the Christian worldview that parents have sought to instill in their children no longer have a platform of influence during this moment of reset. Pray for families that we emerge from this lockdown season closer than ever, rather than hanging on until we can escape from each other!

In our desire to protect our society from Covid, seniors have being highlighted as the most vulnerable demographic and suddenly they are not just being seen, but very intentionally being cared for. The Church has long sought to create a place of honour for our “fathers and mothers”, but the prevailing “your value is in your beauty or your productivity” ethos of our society has splashed into the Church, often leaving our seniors marginalized. But now God has used this pandemic to restore seniors to a place of being cherished and honoured, enabling  the Church to carry on upholding this value as Covid fades. Like the restoration of sabbath, honouring fathers and mothers provides a huge well of blessing that God wants to uncap. This new focus creates an opportunity for them to be authentically knit into our communities. 

We can also see the effect of spending all our time at home by the shift in how we think about our neighbours and neighbourhoods. We’re starting to think about the command to love our neighbours as actually having an immediate application of loving and caring for the people that live beside us or near us. There is a new sense of neighbourhood cohesion and responsibility. This is impacting non-Christians as well, as many are now watching out for those that have needs to lend a hand. But for believers, it has an additional spiritual dynamic and this awareness of neighbourhoods is activating prayer and ministry, if you like, we are being called into a very real pastoring our neighbourhoods. 

The reshaping of our focus around families, extended families and neighbourhoods creates massive opportunities for the Church. It’s a moment to guide our people into intergenerational, authentic, Christian community, marked by the presence of God, where people are known, welcomed, and loved. In this age of radical independence— vibrant, missional, communities centred on Jesus become an extraordinary apologetic for the gospel, just as they were in the book of Acts.

“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Act 2:46,47


Communities, as we see in this Acts passage, also provide the most effective way to care for a harvest. We are all longing for harvest, but the Father doesn’t want any to be lost once they have received Christ, so our independence really needs to be reshaped into community. Over the last 2-3 years there has been a glorious national crescendo of intercession for harvest, for souls— could it be that God is ready to answer this cry in a massive way?! If there is a great ingathering in coming days, these communities will be the very best way for us to lead new converts into becoming mature disciples. Praise the Lord!
The Gift of Humility 
In addition to the intercession for souls, over the last year (in particular) there has been a very strong intercessory focus on humility. I have been in hundreds of prayer meetings where  humility has been a partial or central focus. God has heard our prayer! Covid is being used to humble the world. Remember, He gives grace to the humble, so consider the wonderful way He is redeeming this crisis! With this unprecedented humbling, He’s setting us up to receive extraordinary grace! The wealth and strength we have taken for granted and leaned on— is tottering, shown to be no match for a teeny virus. We are being delivered from the intensity of narcissism, as vanity and image—obsessing over how we look—seem, in this new reality, shallow and foolish. Our heroes are now masked and gowned in sterile protective covering, they’re the frontline medical workers, not perfectly photoshopped Hollywood celebrities in up-to-the-minute fashion. The great celebrities of sports and entertainment have lost their platforms. Humility and transparency is becoming the new normal. Praise the Lord!
An Awakening of Prayer
Perhaps the most important change is that the Church is rising in prayer. Within the last week there have been four different days of prayer called by various groups, nationally, regionally and internationally, but not only are days being set aside for prayer, churches, stripped of many programs, are turning to prayer and instead, gathering online, establishing a new culture of intercession and dependence on God. Individuals are also praying with new consistency and earnestness. Regardless of our experience in prayer, the Church is being tutored by the Spirit in this hour and given grace to grow. We are face to face with our need to pray and the grace of God is here to powerfully enable us. 

Because of the overwhelming changes and the humbling that this crisis has brought, it is no longer odd or awkward to ask someone if you could pray for them, so Christians everywhere are stepping into this opportunity. Even in the public square that was so hostile and offended by prayer a month ago, prayer is being welcomed and respected. Look around, see the prayer awakening that has begun like a mighty groundswell! Praise the Lord!

If we put all these pieces (and others we didn’t mention) that are emerging in this hour together,  we see the building blocks of a glorious renewal of biblical Christianity with the potential for a massive revival. New levels of commitment and discipleship, a restoration of spiritual disciplines, holiness and a lifestyle marked by dependence and trust in God, the reorientation towards Christ-centred community— all these pieces infused with deep humility and much prayer. Wow! Let’s not just pray for Covid to end and for the mitigation of the suffering, but let us in this hour also loudly bless what God is doing as He reshapes his beloved Church for her finest hour. 


by Sara Maynard
36 Comments
Helen Powers
4/3/2020 02:07:01 pm

Excellent,Sara! Yes ,Yes to what God is doing in the world! How amazing He is!

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madeleine
4/19/2020 02:08:52 pm

Thank you for this article Sara. I feel a lot of prayer that went out before you got up to write this. It is panoramic in scope and I felt so edified when reading it as you acknowledge and point to every aspect of Covid19 's violation in the landscape of our lives nation and economy. In doing so you underline for us areas to pray for and how to pray. I have printed it out for my own prayer reference.

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Ann link
5/23/2020 08:52:58 am

I am very bless and til how God is changing our world and our hearts and life today true this cover. 19.Let US take seriesly what He is calling Us to be in this world as His children Light and Salt in this dark hour unknwn.May we realize they we need echater brothers and sisters with all differences become One loving Family. God bless Us all and watch over Us all,Amen.

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Richard Long
4/3/2020 02:12:02 pm

Lots of excellent insights here, Sara. Thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together.

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Sara
4/3/2020 02:16:01 pm

Thanks so much Richard. That means alot coming from a thinker like you! ;)

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Elsie Bouwman
4/3/2020 02:29:00 pm

"He watches His word to perform it. It will not return to Him void." Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God!!

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Carol Clemance
4/3/2020 03:13:31 pm

Thank you, Sara, for sharing your insights into these various areas. A re-read or two are in order to think them through.

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francis.tutu.brenpong
4/19/2020 01:28:02 pm

Yes thanks very much for your insights, God uses everything to accomplish his purpose in the world, even that which the enemies may intended for evil, our God is always in control.

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Dave Carson
4/3/2020 03:53:43 pm

Thank you for articulating a very thoughtful description of the reshaping that is suddenly in process. This will be helpful to refer to.

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Sara
4/4/2020 11:47:29 am

Thanks so much Dave. I am you also have seen the hand of God moving in beautiful, redemptive ways through this fire. Be safe friend.

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Sharon Bodner
4/3/2020 05:23:55 pm

Such a great word Sarah! Thank you for sharing.

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Irene Armishaw
4/3/2020 06:37:24 pm

Beautiful. Thanks. The only thing I would add is under the seniors section. PLEASE pray against the mentality that the old people's lives are not worth fighting for. If you are in a nursing home, they will not give you a ventilator. They just give drugs and palliative care. The opportunity to use the Do Not Resusitate Orders is being used as an "OK" not to try to save their lives at all. I have seen the push for euthanasia in the last year in our local hospital on seniors. I'm assuming it's going on everywhere. Seniors are NOT respected in general in our society and people DO devalue their lives as they become in need of care. This area needs a GREAT GODLY AWAKENING.

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Linnette G Walker
4/3/2020 08:31:25 pm

very well said, and so in line how we as the body are having to adapt to being The Church.

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Joyce M. Johnson
4/3/2020 09:12:45 pm

Thank you Sara, for your well crafted article. God is sending a new wave to crash upon the shore unlike we have witnessed before.
Blessings,
Joyce Johnson

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Genevive
4/3/2020 09:41:07 pm

I’ve had similar thoughts! You wrote a very interesting article, thank you!

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Vanessa klassen
4/3/2020 10:13:38 pm

Beautiful Sarah. A resounding yes and Aman.. do it God!

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Jolene Moeller link
4/4/2020 07:10:55 am

Thank you for those words. Made real sense. Hope we can listen for Gods direction. Revival and all that we can do. Intercession on every level for personal and massive people.

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Leonor Ward
4/4/2020 07:21:52 am

Very dear Sara: I have read this note a few times since yesterday night. I am grateful for your insight and ability to synthesize and communicate it. This is indeed a wonderful time and we must direct ourselves to what Jesus is doing in this storm. Thank you again and keep writing

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Sara
4/4/2020 11:49:33 am

Bless you Leonor, let's keep praying!

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Benjamin link
4/4/2020 08:13:00 am

Thank you for this message. I strongly believe that God is calling us for a sabbatical. We have been a hyper busy people just chasing material things and ignoring what is important.

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Ingrid Roberts
4/4/2020 10:54:18 am

What a beautiful summary of God's bigger agenda for this time and season. I hope to share this with as many as possible. Thank you so much Sara, and thank you for being a general of prayer over our nation.

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Sara
4/4/2020 11:50:34 am

Bless you Ingrid, thank you.

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Linda Nordick
4/4/2020 04:42:35 pm

I read this aloud to my husband... this is bang-on Sara! I shared about it at online noon hour prayer at Harvest Church Kelowna today and copied to my FB page. Thank you articulating the issues so well... a new wine skin has emerged for the Body of Christ !

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Grace Ngunu
4/4/2020 06:49:47 pm

Amen well done and articulated. Bless you

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Samuel Fame
4/4/2020 09:11:27 pm

excellent article. I think the Spirit of God is speaking of the same truths to many hearts as articulated in this article.

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Jim Ziemer
4/5/2020 07:59:49 am

An excellent article Sara and articulates so well what many of us have been feeling in our spirits. Thanks so much!

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Carissa Demian
4/5/2020 02:45:46 pm

YES!!!!! May God’s heart become our heart ❤️.

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Sara
4/6/2020 01:08:51 pm

Thank you everyone for your encouraging and kind comments.
Blessings!

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Doug Horst
4/9/2020 07:15:06 am

Thanks Sara. Well laid out

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Sandra Vos
4/9/2020 07:54:16 pm

The release of John 17 prayer across the globe. Thank you Sara.

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Wendy Leigh
4/10/2020 05:16:12 am

What an excellent article Sara! Thank you for sharing with us.

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Eileen Simpson
4/13/2020 06:54:09 am

This is excellent Sara. You have put in to words many things that have been on my own heart. One being not just praying for Covid to end but to seize this opportunity for the reshaping of His Church. Prayer feels very much like Galatians 4: 19 My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you.

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Sara
4/13/2020 09:20:23 am

Amen Eileen! That’s such a perfect scripture for this time.

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Bob McInnis
4/19/2020 06:43:32 am

Sara, I once believed that the church and religion had a connection to a spiritual realm beyond the muck and mire where we reside. The eight thousand year old idea of a sky wizard who has a plan now seems to be complete folly. Every day thousands die horrible deaths, every day millions starve, and every day believers pray rather than share, care, and act because "it is in his time". The principles you espouse as spiritual disciplines are generally sound but without the works of our heads, hands, hearts they are meaningless selfishness.

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Sara
4/21/2020 10:16:32 am

Bob, thanks for your comments. You are completely right in grieving over the brokenness and suffering around us, and the reality that many of us in western society are insulated from that. For those of us seeking to be Jesus's apprentices, we are trying to follow Him in both the place of communion with the Father, as well as humble service to mankind. We don't always get it right, (and yes, sometimes we hide from the messiness of it all) but the commands to love God and love our neighbour keep inviting us to be more and more like Christ, who shows us how to do this.

blessings,
Sara

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Beverley Hiebert
4/21/2020 07:38:04 pm

Thank you for your excellent commentary. Yes,my heart is sensing that God is using this time to transform His Church into the beautiful spotless Bride that the book of Revelation talks about. These are difficult and challenging times. However, if we keep focused on Jesus and what he wants to accomplish through us, He will grant us the courage and strength to be obedient.

I agree that humility is very important right now. this is the time to pray like David did "Search my heart Lord and see if there is any wicked way in me."

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