That the world in experiencing a pandemic is a certainty.
That things have changed drastically is another certainty.
That the church of god is affected adversely by this situation is quite overt to the elect and to the world at large.
That the church has to respond to this situation with alacrity, both for the sake of the institution and the society at large is now a clarion call.
How therefore does the church respond to this dare challenge?
1 Mindful of Time
Let your speeches be within reasonable time limit.
Jesus preached a sermon that lasted less than one minute.
Luke 4: 21 Two thousand and some years later, and we are still trying to unravel the mysteries of this sermon. It is not the length of the sermon or how long it lasts but the power in the word.
Folks in the plague situation are highly traumatized. The attention span is seriously lowered as the worry level has highly increased. People are anxious and stressed, you do not inundate them with heavy sermons
2 Mind set.
All eyes of the world is upon the church. The church at this point in the history of mankind need to appear strong and formidable. It a period when the sons of God need to manifest and take control. Now, those that know their God must be strong and do exploits. Those who have accepted Him now have the power to be called the sons of God. For He has given is the power of Boldness and not that of fear or timidity.
There must be a sense of haste. The zeal of His house that has eaten us up has to be seen by the people of the world at such a time as this.
Numbers 16: 48 Aaron hastened as the plague started and put on the incense and made and atonement for the people and he stood between the living and the dead and living and the plague stopped.
These sense of urgency in the face of this pandemic will instill confidence in the watching world that all is not lost.
3 Content
The content of the massage need to undergo a radical change. If you are an African or maybe and American and used to your local lingo as you preach to an audience you are conversant with, a congregation you have been relating and interacting closely with for some years now, you have to readjust your mind to the new paradigm. The world has changed, and the church has to change with it. The only law of nature that is constant is change. If one tries to resist change, change will definitely change such a one. The church of today is not the church of thirty years back. All this African prayer of kill my enemy, Kill, Kill, Kill just got to stop. You may be speaking to some one in Katmandu or Sydney, he or she does not know nor understand what you are talking about. We are now operating churches without wall. You do not know nor see who you are preaching to. We now an invisible or unseen audience, you must adjust your sermons to accommodate them and their sociology.
The contents of your sermons and teaching have to transcend space. In the beginning (Time) God created the world (Space).You have to take cognizance of the fact that you may be speaking to someone in Tokyo, so you must put such a one in considerations in your Scriptural outputs in this trying period.
Your sermons and teachings also have to transcend time. Twenty to a hundred people may be listening to you as you speak now, may a thousand will key in to listen to the same Words later in the day, or a week or month later, or your grandchildren will listen to this your sermon fifty years later and wonder what grand daddy or mummy was talking about, and or totally disagree or even worse debunk and totally prove it wrong. This is because your teachings did not transcend time. We spoke earlier of the Master Jesus very short sermon which still is extremely potent Two thousand and some years later. Yes, one would say here that is Jesus, He is God, what do you expect. True, but there are still some Christian saying of the generation that still the power and potency to be classified as immortal – Give me Scotland or I die — and such.
Job 38 34-35, Psalm 19 3-4, Romans 10 18.
From these scriptures you can see that the Satellite, the telephone, radio and internet have already been prepared for us by the All Knowing God for a time such as this. This is so that the Word will reach the end of the world and to dark places where the Light of the Word has not yet shone.
To be contd
