This is the vision your church needs now

How is your church doing as it hits the autumn? How are your services at the moment?

The question I am hearing in every webinar from church leaders is: are we ready post-lockdown? How will the impact of the prolonged absence of physical services affect our congregations?

‘Church in pyjamas’ has become disturbingly pleasant and, as a preacher, I have enjoyed waking up on Sunday morning relaxed and slightly lackadaisical, because the sermon is already ‘in the bag’. If I’m experiencing that kind of inertia, can I expect the congregation to feel more inspired?

Returning from ‘exile’

Haggai faced a similar problem. Israel had returned from 70 years of Babylonian exile, which was initially a joyous moment, provoking both praise and tears in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. But soon inertia set in: ‘These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the House of the Lord … Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses while this house (the temple) lies in ruins?’ (Hagg. 1:2, 4)

The grand plan to rebuild the temple had been shelved while the people focused on securing their own economic future. In my home town of Aberdeen, with job losses set to explode, it’s not hard to see a similar temptation: ‘Let me keep my job, or find another one quickly, and I’ll re-engage with church later.’

The glory of God

But into the spiritual malaise, Haggai launched a fresh vision of the glory of God, inspiring the people to pour their energies into building a temple that would put God in His rightful place, and trusting Him in the midst of economic uncertainty.

Leadership priorities

It is tempting for leaders, wanting to fire their people up again, to focus on giving (our budgets have been hit) and evangelism (we haven’t been able to meet people). But that was not God’s chief concern. Yes, the people needed to roll up their sleeves – ‘go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house’ (1:8) – but they needed to remember why they were doing it – ‘… that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord’ (1:9).

As we step out of lockdown, we need to remind ourselves why we give, why we witness, why we form mission committees and invest in social action projects. We are people for God’s pleasure, and our goal is to glorify God so that His kingdom comes and His will is done ‘on earth as it is in heaven’.

Needing a reboot?

I hadn’t switched off my PC properly before I went on holiday, and my Apple Mac seemed to take it personally! When I switched it back on, its first words were not ‘Welcome back, Jeremy’, but ‘Windows was not shut down properly’ and I had to reboot it to get it back on track.

That’s what the church needs. We went into lockdown by surprise. We didn’t shut down properly. And to start up again, we can’t just return to the same old routines. We need to re-invigorate our churches with a fresh vision of the glory of God, and what it means to be people of His pleasure.

Then, and only then, can we start challenging about ‘giving’ and ‘evangelism’. And before we start preaching to other people, we need to hear God’s word to our own hearts: ‘You were made for My pleasure, and your chief end, in the words of the Westminster Catechism, is to glorify Me and enjoy Me forever!’

Put God’s glory back as the goal of our lives, and the evangelism and giving and everything else we long for, will follow!