How Covid Has Helped the Church

We now seem to be emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic and various observers are assessing the damage it has done to all our institutions. This includes the church. How much has Covid hurt the Christian church? It may surprise you but I think in a number of ways it has helped and ultimately God may take this terrible tragedy and put it on the plus side in terms of influence on the progress of Christianity.

Covid may well be an overall positive for the growth of Christianity but we can’t overlook its devastation. First, and foremost, it has taken the lives of many of our most precious saints. All of us have lost dear friends and loved ones to this terrible plague. They have taken their places in heaven but we know they are grievously missed and we mourn their passing. 

There are other significant negatives. One of the worst is the growth of government power, especially power over the church. Politicians all over the world used Covid as a pretext for attacking religious freedom and hampering the ability of the church to operate.

Clearly, in the short run, church attendance is down. Most assessments put the number at about 20%. 20% fewer people attending worship services in person than before the pandemic.

Possibly the worst effect of Covid is the divisiveness it has caused in the church. Godly parishioners who once dwelt together in unity have become foes because of their response to the disease. Some have argued that we should take every measure to limit its spread and listen to our government authorities and obey them. Others have argued that allowing Covid to limit our Christian worship and actions is part of the program of anti-Christ. There is every imaginable position in between. Many pastors I have talked to say this is the worst crisis they have faced in their ministries.

In spite of the negatives there have been numerous positives that God has brought out of the ashes and destruction of Covid. I would like to identify six.

#1: I have had pastors tell me that many people who have never once darkened the door of their church have watched services online. Of course, it’s better to attend in person. But if someone watches online who was never exposed to your ministry at all, this must be counted as a positive.

#2: Churches have been forced to learn new technologies, and although the learning curve has been slow and annoying, mastering new ways of reaching people has been a good thing. Along the same lines, churches have been force to be more flexible. The refusal to change is often a negative in a church’s ministry and Covid has forced us out of this negative inertia.

#3: One of the greatest enemies of Christianity has been damaged by Covid. I refer to the educational establishment. For more than a generation it has been hostile to Christian moral positions and they have not exactly covered themselves with glory during the pandemic. When it was obvious that schools needed to reopen and children were being severely harmed by the lockdowns, the greatest opposition came from the educational establishment for arguably selfish reasons. Typical was a member of the Chicago teacher’s union, who tweeted out that it was too dangerous to return to the classroom. She sent the tweet from a beach in Puerto Rico.  

Online learning has allowed parents to see what their children were being exposed to and millions did not like it.

The education establishment been subjecting children to wokeness, political correctness, and left-wing indoctrination. They are hostile to America and Christianity. God has used the pandemic to expose them to public scrutiny.

#4: The breakdown of the public education monopoly has caused millions to consider non-traditional approaches to education. One writer observed: “joining with neighbors to collaboratively homeschool in so-called “learning pods” or “micro-schools,” …turned out to be a surprisingly rewarding challenge. One poll of parents found that during the first year of Covid many parents became far more comfortable with educating their own children than they had ever thought possible. Personally, I think that non-traditional educational alternatives are a boon to the Christian faith and bode well for our future.

#5: Something that surprised me is how local church facilities became centers for alternative learning. One educational specialist said, “The unsung heroes of the alternative educational movement were pastors and church boards,”  For months, they provided the “spaces where kids [could] gather in small groups to learn with and alongside their parents and other adult leaders, especially at a time when they were not allowed back into their public schools.

Andrew Barnes, a historian at ASU,  said the widespread clergy support of homeschooling collaboratives during Covid heralds an entirely new social function for organized religion. Starting in about 1550 and for the next 300 years, churches were the primary innovators in education. That is beginning to happen again.

#6: Christians have grown greatly in their faith through the pandemic, and many have come for the first time to personal faith in Christ. Nothing can be more important or positive than this.

We have seen many times in history when God has turned a catastrophe into a catapult. A great period of growth and renewal for Christianity. The Christian faith is now the largest in the history of the world. It has been through many times as bad or worse than the Covid pandemic. Our Lord continually reminds us that He is in charge of the events of this world.

Thanks for watching. May our Lord bless you this day in a mighty way.

More Resources: An excellent article on the post-Covid world is found here: https://spectatorworld.com/topic/why-a-post-covid-world-might-not-be-so-bad/

Teacher who tweeted the unsafe return: https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/ctu-leader-who-vacationed-while-claiming-its-unsafe-to-return-to-school-apologizes/