Social distancing has become the byword everywhere. Among the anxiety and quick analyses accompanying our Covid-19 pandemic, there are surprises. And some of those surprises provide an occasional moment of levity or even inspiration in newscasts, in social media, and also among the conversations and emails and phone calls from within our homes. Our Prime Minister repeats it every time he appears to speak, "Stay home. That is the greatest favor you can do for yourself, your neighbors, your country".
This last Saturday I experienced what I would describe as surprise. It came in the form of relief, and in fact inspiration right here at my laptop, in my little office in the corner of our bungalow in Midnapore, SE Calgary! I am a part of a small grouping of Mennonite churches in Alberta. An annual conference meets once a year, usually in spring, to report on ongoing work, hear a financial statement and approve a budget, elect a slate of committee members, and hear a biblical based message or two for the guidance or inspiration of the gathered faithful. This year's sessions had been planned for March 21 - 22, to be held in Edmonton. Those sessions were cancelled along with every other public gathering one week prior. And then the big announcement; a virtual conference would be held the following week, and it would be a first. It would be a digital gathering utilizing the services of Zoom. Many of us had had some introduction to Zoom for an occasional consultation or group meeting, but never a province-wide official decision making assembly.
Surprise! Inspiration! Instructions appeared in group emails, registrations rolled in, more instructions and even a test meeting the day before. On March 28 we began to appear on screen! At 10:30 a.m. start time our moderator announced a gallery of 83 cheery chatty faces whom she welcomed and muted as the meeting came to order. Quorum easily achieved, and then followed three hours of the most focused and efficient decision-making I have ever witnessed - and I have attended many of these over the years. Gone were the long sometimes slightly off-topic speeches from some floor mike. Gone were the committee reports sometimes presented by a boring chairperson whose first gift was not public speaking. Gone were all the distractions; only the cheery, pleasant face of our moderator as we moved crisply from item to item - an obvious pioneering unanimity of purpose even as we played with our new electronic ballots dutifully screen-presented by our communications coordinator! I actually enjoyed myself.
Thus happened the 2020 Corona Conference as I shall name it. Now here is a confession of sorts. I am one of the critics of digital communications. I occasionally rant about millennials these days who hardly ever go to meetings, shoot emails around like flies in the room, and they believe this is communication! Many of our trendy pastors and committee members don't even know there is something missing here. Yes, I lament the absence of 'quality communication' these days. Hebrews 10:24-25 rolls off my tongue easily, 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.
Even so, Corona Conference had a lesson for me. There is a way of doing God's work that does not necessarily require a day's drive north, south, east or west to the gathering church, eating noisy meals, singing sentimental songs and then gossiping in the hallways until we are hoarse, and then lamenting this or that idea or person as we drive home in our gas guzzling (or energy efficient!) cars or pickup trucks. Yes, once we were the farmers of Alberta, but now we are an urban rural multicultural Mennonite conference. For all of us, our worshiping and our living is in a new day. Therefor I cannot even say that this was a better way of doing conference, but I do know this was creative and a most excellent way of doing that which needed doing right now AND we actually discovered some dynamics which may be very useful for the future of our faith community.
Now, if you will indulge, just a bit more. Seems to me we are kind of modernizing traditionalists. Even as we adapt to new ways of doing things we need much discernment. And while we do that a danger lurks (read 1 Peter 5:8). A theological consumerism can creep in to the extent that we become dependent on the convenience of comfortable sermons by well salaried preachers, churches looking to pay staff' to do the work which used to be accomplished by faithful volunteers - ie the most convenient cost-effective way of 'doing business'. New conveniences can make for lazy theologians.
I have a book in my bookshelf written by a longtime United Church Minister, now deceased, Rev Floyd Howlett, Beyond Churchianity (2003). Writing about his 30 plus years of experience as a missionary in Japan, he describes his growing conviction that Church is not necessarily the complete description of what God is about in this world. I agree with him, hoping and praying that our way of 'doing church' may always have that same awareness. God's ways are beyond our traditions and labels - beyond churchianity for sure (More on that in another post soon).
Christians are called to be a corrective to many societal trends which can only be labeled as self-absorbed and sinful. If we will heed this high calling of God we must take advantage of creative ways to spur ourselves and our neighbors on to love and good works. We did that in a commendable way last Saturday. My hope is that this was not a first step in the direction of no more annual conferences.
A test is coming just around the corner. We will need to participate in the Corona recovery.
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