Coronavirus + Cause of Christ
The Coronavirus is causing a massive trail of devastation as it has continued to travel to almost every nation on our planet. It’s actually quite spectacular to consider the scope of it’s global influence – if it weren’t so deadly.
I’m no expert on the virus. I just know that it’s caused a lot of death, a lot of loss and disappointment, disruption, and so much fear. This virus has taken so much.
But what it can’t take away from those of us in Christ, is hope. There’s hope because the virus doesn’t have the last word – in fact, it doesn’t even have the first word. That belongs to God.
Many are saying that this pandemic will set back the cause of Christ in global missions for years. Missionaries have had to leave the field. Supporters have lost jobs and so funding is drying up. Here at RVA we ended our term early and will only offer online classes for the rest of the year – possibly making school in remote areas difficult or impossible. Those missionaries and some of our staff will have to make some hard choices.
Will Coronavirus be a setback to God building his church? I’m no prophet, but I believe God is using this virus to prepare the way for massive growth in Christ’s church among the unreached and unengaged peoples of the world in the next decade. Here are seven possible ways he could be doing that:
- Freeing from comfort – freeing up gospel laborers from their jobs and comfortable lifestyles to send them to the unreached (I have to thank Pastor John for starting me to think about this, Coronavirus & Christ, John Piper – see chapter 11)
- Focusing on Christ in the face of death – focusing attention on eternal realities in the face of death may be preparing a worldwide harvest of souls
- Fueling courage – fueling the kind of courage health care workers are currently displaying to send people into a place of hard hearts rather than infectious disease
- Forming community – forming a unity of purpose around the globe that, instead of fighting a virus, can work together to spread gospel-joy
- Fostering creativity – fostering the kind of creativity that engineered the complexities of thousands of online schools in a matter of weeks, sometimes days, and that used social media as a platform to share how #JesusChangedMyLife – what if all this creativity is channeled to reach peoples with the gospel?
- Forcing local church mobilization – forcing missionaries to realize they are not ultimately indispensable to Christ’s work – maybe this is an opportunity for national churches to mobilize to reach those around them
- Filling up Christ’s afflictions – unbelievers seeing the supernatural love of God in action as Christians choose to stay in the midst of hardship rather than fleeing, thus “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” Colossians 1:24
It’s too early to know the extent that God will do any of these things. My words are nothing compared to his. But to the degree that we see what God could be doing through all of this should give us hope in the midst of it, focus to our prayers, and motivation to ask ourselves if we may be a means that he uses to be part of his unstoppable spread of the Good News for his glory and the joy of all peoples!
In future posts I’ll take each of these one by one and explore in more detail how God may be pleased to use this season of suffering to further the cause of Christ to the world.