It’s hard to believe it’s already been a full year.
I was in Austin, Texas, attending a roundtable with several other folks from the church Production world. It seemed that each hour brought more news about the spread of the Coronavirus and how organizations and governments were responding.
Sporting events canceled. Schools closed. Businesses shut down.
And the way we do church was radically changed.
Everything we thought we knew about doing ministry, or the things we had taken for granted and accepted as “normal,” was tossed on its head.
One year later, the new “normal” is very different than it was, and even that is widely different for everyone.
I think a lot about a verse Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10. It’s easy to take the verse out of context or misquote it and proclaim that, “God won’t give us more than we can bear!”
Some churches have struggled financially and have had to close their doors or merge with other congregations. Others have seen explosions of giving through new online platforms and have been able to make deeper investments into community outreach and initiatives.
Some churches have had to cut staff and reduce expenses, while others have been able to add to their team and pull the trigger on vision expansion or technology upgrade plans.
Most have seen in-person attendance and volunteer engagement plummet drastically. Many have seen online and digital connection soar.
Some still are unable to gather in person, and many others still face restrictions on gathering size.
But just about all are having to rethink strategies for how to reach their communities most effectively.
For those of us who are technicians, many of us have had to reimagine our roles as well.
The truth is, the process of ministry sort of requires that we’re constantly being given more than we can bear.
Maybe we’ve had to learn how to do more filming and editing so we can help create on-demand content during the week. Maybe we’ve had to learn about online streaming on the fly so we can get live services available on the weekend. Maybe we had to do quick recon to figure out how to upgrade some of the AVL gear and then get it installed overnight.
Maybe we had to learn how to be more of a pastor to our team and figure out how to stay in touch with all of them during the last year, so they didn’t feel disconnected from their church. Maybe we had to build new relationships with manufacturers, integrators, or industry peers we could lean on to help solve a problem.
But just about all of us are doing our job differently now than we were a year ago.
It’s probably been stressful or exhausting or hard, or all three.
I think a lot about a verse Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10. It’s easy to take the verse out of context or misquote it and proclaim that, “God won’t give us more than we can bear!” So, during difficult times we can fall back on that and find some solace that easier days are coming.
Unfortunately, though, that verse (1 Cor. 10:13 NIV) says that we won’t be “tempted” more than we can bear. It doesn’t say anything about not having bad days or difficulties or work stress or pandemics. Jesus actually promised throughout the Gospels that we WILL have troubles in this world; we won’t get to avoid them or take the easy way out.
The consolation is that He’s bigger than those problems!
The truth is, the process of ministry sort of requires that we’re constantly being given more than we can bear. If I could do it all on my own, then I wouldn’t need any divine guidance or supernatural help. But if I’m constantly being challenged with more than I can handle, it’s a neverending reminder of the importance of keeping myself spiritually healthy and connected to my source of strength.
Personally, I know there have been many times in the last year when I had to live this out. Balancing a job and at-home school for my kids? Finding technological solutions to problems I didn’t know existed? Developing new strategies on the fly for an evolving ministry? Continuing to lead and inspire a team of staff and volunteers whose roles had changed dramatically?
None of it was something I had experienced before. But thanks to God’s guidance, I (like many of you) have been able to navigate through a season that developed new challenges seemingly every day.
God is still on the Throne and his Message is still reaching people.
And even though we have all been stretched more than ever, many of us past the point we previously thought we could go, we’re coming out better on the other side. Maybe in the natural world it seems like there have been things that were negative (and there truly have been, as evidenced by the thousands of casualties, millions of lost job, and untold number of those affected emotionally, physically, and psychologically), but God is still on the Throne and his Message is still reaching people.
In Genesis, Joseph reminds his brothers that what they had intended to use for harm, God actually ended up redeeming in order to save people’s lives (Gen. 50:20).
And the blessing for us is knowing that we’ve been on the front lines for all of it. Without the church production technician, there wouldn’t be online services and digital platforms and camera upgrades and online audio mixes.
There is redemption for all the craziness of the last year. More people have access now to churches streaming online, more doors have opened for online giving, and more people are hungry and desperate for hope and peace because their lives have been so dramatically changed.
And the blessing for us is knowing that we’ve been on the front lines for all of it. Without the church production technician, there wouldn’t be online services and digital platforms and camera upgrades and online audio mixes. There wouldn’t be the impact of immeasurable lives being changed. And there wouldn’t be the untold number of seeds planted that we won’t even see blossom for years.
We have learned things that have made the last year possible, but there’s also no way to know what new things we’ve learned that will make a difference in our lives many years from now.
It’s been a long year, and a crazy one at that. But instead of seeing it as the end of the “normal” way of doing things, let’s see it as a year that marks the beginning of a new and exciting future for ministry.
