Click Here to Read the Chinese Version | 中譯 of this Letter
Dear brothers and
sisters of RCAC, Shalom,
“I appeal to you
therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by
testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and
acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1, 2, ESV)
Crisis: Transforming
Threat into Opportunity (危機：轉危為機)
Last week I shared with you some of my thoughts on the New
Normal, focusing on the ideas of “Pause, play and no playback.” This week I
hope to continue to round up my thoughts and hopefully provide some more directions
on what it means for us at RCAC as we enter into Phase 2 of dealing with the
Coronavirus pandemic in B.C.
I came across an article (Strategies for Winter) which I found helpful, and it describes what
we are experiencing and what we will face by pointing to three key concepts:
blizzard, winter and ice age (Leading
Beyond the Blizzard). We have taken “shelter”(stay home) in the storm
(COVID), we need now to dress warmly to go out and “survive” the long and
bitter winter, and finally we need to “adapt and rebuild” as if we will be
going into a new Ice Age. In short, we all need to adapt to the “new normal.”
On the ground level, we hear in the news things like big
motor car plants are now assembling not cars but making millions of mask. Another
example I saw in the news was a high class restaurant owner giving out food to
the needy. In the latest news (from Quebec) there was a restaurant owner who
put some sort of mannequins in empty seats to separate the customers. These simple
examples should tell us that “the new normal” is completely different from “the
normal” three months ago. Life in Greater Vancouver will not be the same and
nor will life at RCAC be back to our “old normal” anytime soon.
Many Church leaders have reminded us that “we need to take
seriously not only our faith, but also science, as well as this virus, which
involves appropriate social distancing. It’s all part and parcel of engaging
effectively today.” (Pastor Mark, Beaverton) We are also reminded that we are “ambassadors
of Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:20) The question
for all of us at RCAC is, now that we are slowly moving from “stay home,” can
we “stay alert”? Can we be true “ambassadors of Christ” and messengers of peace
and hope to a world desperately looking for ultimate answers, and therefore
step up instead of step down our missional efforts? If “crisis”( 危機)
always has two components: “threat”( 危) and “opportunity”( 機),
then we should change threat into opportunity and should now seize the golden opportunity to
making our Church not just a place where people go to, but a Church that goes
to the people.
After much thought and prayers I believe we need some
fundamental changes in three directions:
1. Transform and
buildup the Church with more cell groups (「化整為零」：轉化教會建立小組)
2. Transform and
equip members to be “ambassadors of Christ” (「基督使者」：轉化信徒人人皆兵)
3. Transform our
Church community to a “Community Church” (「社區教會」：轉化群體深入社區)
1. Transform and
buildup the Church with more cell groups (「化整為零」：轉化教會建立小組)
We all long for the day when we can worship, learn,
fellowship and play together, like before. But it may be months before we can gather in
large groups in the sanctuary, fellowship hall or the gym, even with the
lifting of some of the restrictions. We understand that right now in Phase 2 we
still can only have up to 50 people in the whole Church and we still have to
maintain physical distancing of 2 meters between people. We will have to wait
till Phase 4 of the Reopening to return to large gatherings.
However we have discovered that in fact during the past two
months, many groups have been able to meet virtually with video conferencing (numbers
vary up to 100 plus people based on number of devices connected to one event.)
Moreover we have found that meaningful worship, real learning and good
fellowship, fun and game can take place. Much of the security issues have been
resolved and people are becoming more familiar and comfortable with going
online to meet using different meeting apps.
Looking at it from the perspective of the “opportunity”, our
experience has shown us that we can use these methods to draw our people
together in ways that were not possible before. Therefore if we can encourage
each member of our congregations to belong to at least one small groups, online
or offline, such as fellowships or cell or study groups, we can serve our
people even better than before. In
short, we want to be transformed into a Church that supports each other in
small groups. Secondly, even with full
reopening, we will still continue to take advantage of all these means to draw
us closer together.
2. Transform and
equip members to be “ambassadors of Christ” (「基督使者」：轉化信徒人人皆兵)
We have discovered that many lay leaders have in fact become
even more active in leading various activities and in reaching out to people to
invite them to join our meetings. We believe in the “priesthood of all
believers” and therefore we should continue our emphasis of “Equipped to serve”
(theme last year) and trained our members to be “ambassadors of Christ.” We
need to boost our leadership training programs even more to respond to the
people needs exposed by this pandemic.
3. Transform our
Church community to a “Community Church” (「社區教會」：轉化群體深入社區)
As a Church we have been shut down for over two months. The
Church (ekklesia) is called by God
out of the world to be “saints” and the community of God. But we are also sent
back to the community, in fact to all the nations, that is, to the ends of the
world, to be Christ’s witnesses, and to make disciples of all nations. The
pandemic has impacted our Church community in many ways, but it has also
awakened us to be the Church in the community, outside the four walls of our
Church building. We should be the light
and salt of the world. We should learn to be “in the world and not of the
world” and make ourselves and our faith relevant to the people of our community.
In other words, we should be missional in our purpose and in our engagements
with the people out there. Let’s rethink and reimagine our efforts in
evangelism and missions, and transform our Church into a “Community Church.”
These are some important emphases that we should take heed
as we move into “the new normal.”
In the words of Paul, “I
appeal to you therefore …to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship,” we are urged
to dedicate ourselves to God, because that is the only “spiritual worship”
(reasonable service) that is acceptable to God.
Our transformation can only happen “by the
renewal of … mind, that by testing…”and in the “test” that we as Christians
have endured in this pandemic, our mind should be renewed so we may be able to
discern the perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1, 2, ESV) May we as individuals and as a Church live to
please God. Stay tuned.
Your servant in Christ,
Rev. Simon Lee
