The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to individuals, families, communities, and economies and has challenged the church in numerous ways.  What changes have you seen in the church during the pandemic, and what lessons might we learn? How can the church’s witness be strengthened as a result of COVID-19?   

On the plus side the Church is connecting with shut-ins more effectively than ever before. Zoom committee meetings and worship have a near zero carbon footprint. We are learning to be grateful for our many blessings and rediscovering that the Church is not the building, but our relationship with God and neighbors. 

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The reality of the COVID-19 pandemic is that poor people, immigrants, and people of color are much more likely to catch it and die. This is the truth of our unequal society laid out in body bags. COVID-19 also highlights the dignity and value of all work. Low-income people hold most of those customer-facing positions with long hours and few benefits. Immigrants pick our fruit and process our meat in conditions that are, at best, unhealthy and, at worst, deadly. The poor put their lives on the line every day. We often treat our fellow human beings as disposable rather than as equally beloved children of God. COVID-19 has revealed the stark disparities in our communities, and calls the Church to acknowledge and work against the oppressions of our time. COVID-19 also means our churches must endure in an economy battered by mass unemployment, rising bankruptcies, hunger, homelessness, and the social byproducts of despair: addiction, abuse, and depression, stretching current support networks thin. 

The pandemic has revealed many challenges in the home. Parents with children are overwhelmed by the tasks of caregiving, teaching online learning, working from home, and trying to maintain social networks.  Some families struggle without the routine of going to church; and need as-yet revealed spiritual supports to fit this new lifestyle. Other families have rediscovered joy and gratitude in a less busy way of being, valuing the ability to worship on their own schedules and may be reluctant to return to earlier ways. The way families engage with church has changed almost overnight, online technology emerged to reconnect some…and leave others in the dark of the digital divide.  A new space for justice advocacy has become clear: access to technology and internet as a right and necessity, not a luxury. Our witness can be strengthened by leaning into our challenges.  

To help our smaller churches adapt to the changed environment, Arthur would like to raise $5 million in new funds to provide 2,000 of our smaller churches with $2,500 grants to build their online capacity, enabling purchases of good equipment, upgrade Wi-Fi, and purchase subscriptions as needed. Funds might also be spent to connect low income and isolated members who need tech help to participate with our congregations in the virtual world. 

To help families, Marie would like to see an emphasis on family ministries based in the home rather than in the church building or by focusing on age-ranges.  Looking to the knowledge of our church educators, how can we better empower parents to find comfort and joy with the home as the first classroom of faith? In addition, many pastors refer members to mental health providers when appropriate, but how good might it be to expand this practice as a ministry of the larger Church, providing funding and opportunity? The Presbytery of Arkansas has contracted with a Teaching Elder who is also a licensed counselor to provide access to mental health for pastors, their families, and their church members when possible. Can this model be replicated elsewhere?