These Precedented Times Part 2: Learning from the Innovation and Protest of the Church in the Spanish Flu

Last week I wrote that while we face some unique challenges during this COVID-19 season, these are not completely unprecedented times. We are given precedents that are needed navigating tools. The Scriptures teach us the precedent of God's ways with His people during crisis, and also the precedent of people's responses to crisis. Specifically, when we learn from the precedent of pandemic history, the most recent being the Spanish flu from 1918-1919, we find that there is nothing new under the sun, as King Solomon said.  Here are some of things we learned.

One of the characteristics of the Church's response to the Spanish flu was innovation. Pastors and congregations used new technologies like the telephone as a pastoral tool and published sermons in newspapers to maintain contact with their congregants. Many churches, like Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh above, embraced medical technology to convert to make-shift hospitals to serve their cities.  (It has been wonderful for Southlands to host multiple blood drives with the Red Cross these last few months too.  We have a great opportunity to innovate, not only to care for our churches, but to care for our cities. 

The other precedent was the Church's protest against the governments' limitations placed on worship amidst the perception of double standards, as some states kept saloons and gambling houses open while schools and churches were closed. Many church leaders went to court to argue that the First Amendment right to ‘peacefully assemble’ was violated. Research suggests that courts by-in-large upheld the government’s right to ban public gatherings for health reasons to reasonably enforce those bans. While we have had a moment of civil disobedience as we took the decision to sing from behind our masks as a reasonable defense of our freedom to worship, we do not want to expend all our energy on protest when there are still many ways in which we can still worship as the Church. 

Both the use of technology and protest over the freedom of worship have become dominant themes in our pandemic of course, and I wrote the following letter to our church yesterday to try and speak to both of these issues. Perhaps it may be of help to you in your church context? 

 Dear Southlands Brea, 

 The stunning Psalm 84 was my devotional reading this morning. “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, they are ever praising You. As they go through the valley of tears they make it a place of springs…they go from strength to strength.” What a promise for us today. God gives us an oasis in the valley of tears. More pointedly, the Psalmist was reminding God’s people that dwelling in God’s temple came with the blessing of strength and comfort in a season of sadness. Of course, we know that in the New Covenant, God’s people are the temple and that God dwells in each of us by His Spirit. It’s so wonderful that God’s presence is not limited to one physical place. 

Still, the New Testament exhorts God’s people repeatedly to gather together regularly in different places to encounter Him in special ways. “You yourselves are being built together into God’s temple in which God dwells by His Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22) Here the emphasis is not on a certain place, but rather on the togetherness of a people. In other words, while the Spirit dwells in us as individuals, there is an aspect of God that we only experience as we allow ourselves to be built together. There is much-needed strength and comfort from being built together. I must say that our expressions of togetherness have been greatly enlarged these past five months. Exploring being the church in back yards, on curbsides and on Zoom calls has been challenging, but fantastic. We continue to acknowledge that many who are elderly, immuno-compromised, pregnant, working in the medical fraternity or serving as caregivers will continue to express togetherness online from their homes. If you are in this group, please be assured that you are not a B-class member of Southlands! However, I have seen that the longer people remain physically separate from others in the church, the harder it is to feel like you are better together. Loneliness, apathy and offense can so easily creep in. 

To combat this, we are looking at new ways of helping you to feel built together, but we need you to help us serve you by leaning in. This Sunday at 9:45am, before our live stream, Bulus and Rose Galadima who are on our deacon team, will be leading an online pre-service prayer time. This will help you to prepare your hearts and pray for others to encounter Jesus during the service. Brett McCracken, one of our elders, will also be hosting the live chat during the sermon and then leading a Zoom discussion after the sermon.  I encourage you to lean into this growing online community by joining us at 10am at live.southlands.net or youtube.com/southlandschurch. 

 On the other hand, there are those who need no convincing that gathering together in-person to worship is important. In fact, I have had numerous people who have asked why we are not defying the governor's limitations on worship and simply meeting together on Sundays inside and in-person as normal. I appreciate these sentiments and can understand the frustration at what can appear as double-standards  at times. As you know, we have been willing and are still willing, to have moments of civil disobedience should they seem necessary, but we want civil disobedience to be a last resort rather than a first response. 

So, we have 4 Biblical lenses through which we make decisions about gathering:

 

 1. The importance of Worship (Hebrews 10:25)  

2. Love for our Neighbors (Mark 12:31) 

3. Obedience to Government (Romans 13:1-7) 

4. Maintaining a Good witness (Col 4:5-6) 

 These are tensions we must be able to hold as God’s people. While we place a high value on the importance of gathered worship, many seem to pursue value 1 while ignoring values 2,3 and 4! We cannot do that! At this stage, we feel that gathering in-person, outside on our patio is actually preferable to gathering inside, because it enables families to gather safely, is still within the government’s guidelines and is actually proclaiming the gospel to our city in a fun, family carnival atmosphere. We’ve loved seeing this patio gathering grow every week, and we encourage you to join us at 8:30am tomorrow by signing up here. 

 As ever, I am so grateful to God for your flexible faithfulness for Jesus’ sake.

Onwards and Upwards,

Alan 

These Precedented Times: Lessons from the Church's response to the Spanish Flu in 1918.

 

We tend to make the assumption that our current moment is completely unprecedented. I mean, how many times have we recently heard or used the phrase, "We're living in unprecedented times!"  The more I read though, the more I begin to question that assumption. I believe there is actually a precedent for these times. Of course, the unique blend of pandemic, social upheaval and economic downturn does make our times particularly intense and challenging. One commentator said that we are living through a combination of the 1918 Spanish Flu, the 1929  Great Depression and the 1960's Social Revolution. But if we listen closely to history, we will find some very helpful precedents for these times. They are not identical, but they are similar enough to provide helpful warnings and encouragements to us. 

The British poet, Steve Turner once wrote, "History repeats itself. It has to. We never listen." Now is our time to listen to the precedent of history, so that we do not repeat it. Now is also the time to take courage from history.

 

This article is the result of some research on precedents in pandemics by my friend and colleague, Kristine Nethers, a history teacher with her Masters degree from Stanford University. We asked Kristine to do some research on cultural and historic trends around pandemics. This is a teaser for her larger research project which is an outstanding piece of work. While the scope of her study begins broad, it narrows in to the Church's response to pandemics and scattering. This is a fascinating excerpt, used with her permission.

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There are stark similarities between the Church's response to the “Spanish Flu”  in 1918 and the Covid-19 crisis of today as detailed below. It is estimated that 50 million people died world-wide from the Spanish Flu, with approximately 675 000 of those deaths being in the USA. 

12 Historic Church Responses to the “Spanish Flu” of 1918-1919 (USA)

1. (Most) churches shut down. 

As state and local governments began to comprehend the scope of the crisis in their jurisdictions, they called for churches to shut down (along with schools, theaters, etc.). Some churches remained opened in defiance of local orders. Research suggests that most churches were shut from early Oct. 1918 to early December 1918, while some cities had bans on public gatherings until January 1919. The research is unclear about how churches dealt with the second wave. 

2. Churches quickly improvised with “home worship.” 

Churches provided sermon notes and hymn notes and worship materials during the shutdown. Some local newspapers printed sermons in their local editions. Pastors provided theological framework for this time as extended Sabbath and a way to disciple one’s family. 

3. New technology was quickly utilized to connect safely. 

Telephones were the Zoom of the day! Homebound people used the phone to greater degrees to connect during the shutdowns at the end of 1918. Home phones were becoming more popular in the 1910s, but the infrastructure was limited so cities urged citizens to limit their telephone use to emergency only as to not overload the system. 

4. Church leaders called an end to the ban on church gatherings and defended the church’s role in promoting the well-being of the community.

There are several examples of church leaders calling for an end to government bans on gathering beginning three weeks after bans were put in place. A Catholic clergyman in Baltimore pleaded on the vital role that churches play in the community by saying, “I am told that a number of calls upon our physicians are simply the result of nervousness, or the consequence of alarm. This might be considerably allayed by the reassurance of religion, and discreet words from our priests given the people in church.” 

5.  Services were amended for greater safety.

 A Catholic Bishop in Detroit stated they would be “willing to have their edifices fumigated between meetings, to cut the services to 45 minutes, to employ special ushers, who would eject persons who coughed or sneezed and to require all worshipers entering a church to wear influenza masks” if their city allowed them to reopen.  

6. Some argued that banning of church gatherings was a violation of the First Amendment. 

Many church leaders went to court to argue that the First Amendment right to ‘peacefully assemble’ was violated. Research suggests that courts by-in-large upheld the government’s right to ban public gatherings for health reasons to reasonably enforce those bans . 

7. End times were predicted.

 

Church leaders were predicting that the pandemic would usher in Jesus’ return  with numerous Doomsday theories.

8. Tithes & offerings went down. 

Appeals to continue giving and to resource a benevolence fund were called for.

Church leaders appealed to their congregations for giving and sought to help those who had been affected financially. The Southern Baptist denomination called for a “A 75 Million Campaign” in response to the pandemic. While they fell short of that goal, their combined giving towards missions was 10 times higher than it previously been in any previous year. 

9. Outdoor services were held as a response to government bans.

Some churches pivoted quickly to outdoor services, some to the ire of local authorities. 

10. Church leaders were divided about reopening and “grumbling” was common. 

Not all church leaders and churchgoers were in the same accord about church re-openings and “grumblings” among Christians ensued.  

11. God’s protection of people against the disease was called into question. 

One D.C. pastor provided this response, “The fact that the churches were places of religious gathering, and the others not, would not affect in the least the health question involved. If avoiding crowds lessens the danger of being infected, it was wise to take the precaution and not needlessly run in danger, and expect God to protect us.” 

12. Pastors were extra busy. 

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin newspaper reported that church closures did not “leave the city’s ‘pastors with any surplus of leisure on their hands.’ With the faithful encouraged to engage in ‘home worship’ and read sermons published in newspapers, Protestant and Catholic clergy were instead devoting more of their energy to pastoral care and sick calls.” 

 Used with permission  Kristine Nethers  © Manna Publishing 

     

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Does any of this ring a bell?! There are so many stark similarities between their pandemic and ours.

So, what can we learn from the Church's response to the Spanish Flu? 

1. First, a pandemic is an opportunity for innovation and we must seize it instead of resenting it. Whether  new modes of communication, new forms and precautions for gathering, or new ways of expressing care, the church must be faithful with it's message but flexible with its methods. In fact, while the pastoral cohesion becomes more difficult in the scattering of pandemic, gospel innovation can result in the advance of the gospel into new frontiers. Church members should adapt and commit to the new innovations instead of using the change as an excuse to drop out of regular fellowship.

2. Grumbling at God, each other and our leaders is a besetting sin of God's people in crisis, and we must beware of it. History teaches us humility and gratitude. We are not in a completely unique or unresolvable situation.  God’s people have experienced these times before, God has got them through it and He will get us through too. Be gracious to your pastors who are in the busiest and most highly criticized season of their ministry lives. 

3. We should beware of jumping to Doomsday conclusions, especially simplistic end-time or conspiracy theories. Too many folk have profited off fear-mongering and Christians' gullibility at times like this, and while the Church must live in anticipation of Christ's return, we will lose our witness if we become fixated with how and when that return will take place. 

4. Be slow to politicize pandemics.

Of course,  convictions around government infringement on freedom of worship run especially deep, and these are valid. But when these convictions cause Christians to disregard the reality of a pandemic, or become cavalier with safety precautions, we put other people in danger and damage our witness. The exercise of civil disobedience should be a last resort, not a first reaction,  and a willingness to lay down our freedoms temporarily out of love for our neighbors may very well be better in the long term for our gospel witness. 

5. This too shall pass! 

These times are not completely unprecedented and they are not permanent. Of course, there is likely to be a new normal after pandemic, but let's not overstate that by saying, everything is going to spiral down into an apocalypse! Remember, the Roaring 20's followed a year after the Spanish Flu which  was a surge of economic prosperity, positivity and culture.  Humans are remarkably resilient and adaptable, and God is faithful.  As the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, "There is nothing new under the sun." God brought His people through the Spanish Flu and He will bring us through COVID-19. 

(My next blog will be about learning from the Church in Antioch after the Diaspora)

A Guarded Heart or a Hard Heart? a quick self-test on emotional health during emotionally charged times

                     

                Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.  Proverbs 4:23

                                                                                                                                                                      

If you have a beating heart, chances are your heart has taken a beating these last three months. In this age of outrage, divisiveness and social media trolling, we've all taken emotional hits from friends, family, church or work colleagues. Perhaps we've lashed out in retaliation and given as good as we've got?  Many relationships have been strained or even severed in these polarizing times. Cancel culture seems to be winning. Because of this, most of us feel emotionally raw, or worse, numb. Our emotional health is at severe risk during these emotionally charged days. 

I sat with a friend and mentor last night who had received particularly stinging critique from both ends of the political spectrum as he had tried to respond as a Christian leader to the COVID-19 crisis and the protests following the brutal death of George Floyd. From my point of view he had done so with great courage, empathy and wisdom but his critics didn't see it that way. While he spoke about a feeling of fatigue from the relentless waves of criticism, he was remarkably buoyant. In fact, while I had received less severe criticism than he, my heart was more raw than his. Perhaps it's because he had learned to guard his heart?  

I find the above Proverb so helpful in this regard. It compares the heart to a well that is fed by an under-ground spring. This is a metaphor that Jesus spoke of twice in the Gospel of John when he talked about the Holy Spirit. "If anyone believes in me it will be like a spring of living water welling up from his heart to eternal life." (John 4:14) John's commentary on this statement was that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit who would be given when Jesus ascended to the Father.  (John 7:39)

While the spring of the Holy Spirit is what imparts life to the heart of a believer, it is the believer who must take care of the well into which the spring flows. We must guard our hearts above all else, not allowing anyone to throw trash down the well so that the pure water gets bitter. Guarding our hearts is like putting a grill  or a grate over the top of a well. The difference between a guarded heart and a hard heart, for me, is that a hard heart has got an iron-clad lid over the well. Nothing can get chucked in, but neither can anyone draw any life out of it. A guarded heart doesn't allow any trash in, but allows life to be drawn out of it, and because it is guarded, the water is pure, not bitter. 

The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, "I pray that your love may abound in all knowledge and discernment." (Phil 4:11) That is as good a description of a guarded heart as I've heard: to love with discernment. In essence, I want to try and help us to discern whether we have unguarded hearts, hard hearts or guarded hearts. The more common terms for these heart postures may be co-dependence, independence and inter-dependence.

A. How do I know if I have an unguarded heart?  (Co-dependence)

• I experience massive joy from people's encouragement and massive despair from their criticism. 
• I will give of myself willingly but feel resentful if it is not met with praise or gratitude.
• I allow people's opinions of me, either positive or negative, to be the core shaper of my identity. 
• I apologize just to keep the peace even if I don't think I've done anything wrong. The main thing is that we can maintain our relationship.
• I am extremely vulnerable with my emotions to anyone who will listen.

 

B. How do I know if my heart has become hard? (Independence)

• I view encouragement with suspicion and am very defensive if people critique me. 
• I will only give of myself if there is something in it for me.
• I simply don't care what anyone says or thinks about me. God's opinion is the only one that matters.
• I never apologize or forgive.  That is a sign of weakness. If you wrong me you're dead to me.
• I will never be vulnerable with my emotions in case people judge me or take advantage of me

C. How do I know if I am guarding my heart in healthy ways? (Inter-dependence)

• I am able to receive encouragement with sobriety and criticism without plunging into despair
• I have found a way to give of myself without being overly dependent on gratitude or praise
• I am attentive to the ways in which people experience me, but I am shaped most profoundly by what God says about me.
• I am willing to say sorry if I have wronged people. If I cannot see that I have sinned but that you feel sinned against, I am still able to own the fact that I have hurt you. I will be slow to reconcile if there is not true repentance and forgiveness in a relationship. 
• I will be vulnerable with my emotions to trustworthy people who can help me to be more healthy.

More than ever now, we need the well of our hearts to be filled with  the Spirit so that thirsty people can draw on the life of God in this wilderness season. But for this to happen we need to guard our hearts, engaging in healthy inter-dependence rather than unhealthy co-dependence or independence. 

Which heart are you? 

 

A Crisis of Opportunity

Zoom is now a verb, and while many of us are suffering from Zoom-fatigue as we connect,  I experienced a bit of Zoom-inspiration last week. It was a call between a group of pastors from Orange County and an Aussie pastor called Mark Sayers. I would peg Mark as a kind of prophetic social commentator - a quirky, brilliant, much-needed voice for these strange days. (In fact, he's written a book of the same title.) Mark's podcast, This Cultural Moment and his more recent book on revival, Reappearing Church , have shaped me profoundly this last year. Many of us who embarked on a new decade with an expectation for revival are now wondering whether this Coronavirus crisis is going to cancel or catalyze it. (The Lord knows, it's cancelled just about every thing else.) I was very keen to hear what Sayers would say about that.

On the call, he insisted that crisis was always the seedbed of revival, citing in particular the example of the new York Lunch Time Revival that was catalyzed by the New York Stock Exchange Crash in 1857. During that economic and social crisis, Jeremiah Lanphier's lunch time prayer meeting in New York  grew from 6 people to 2000. Lunch time prayer meetings began to spring up all over the nation and by the end of 1958 it was estimated that a million people had converted to Christ in the America. (About one-thirtieth of the entire population at that time!) As he cited this and other examples of revival out of crisis, he had this one throw away line. "We've all heard that the Chinese word for crisis is the same as opportunity." Upon  further linguistic research, it turns out that the Chinese word for crisis is actually made up of two characters, which mean danger and opportunity. 

This echoes the Biblical truth of a Sovereign God who is able to bend evil for His glory, our good and the good of many, as Joseph said at the end of his life, "What man intended for harm, God intended for good, for the saving of many lives." (Genesis 50:20)  Of course, we know that this crisis is dangerous. It is dangerous for our health, our relationships, our finances, our businesses and our churches. Good grief! It's turned our lives on their heads and we're unlikely simply to boomerang back to normal again. The repercussions will be deeply and painfully felt for some time, of that I have no doubt. 

But, being a prisoner of hope, I want to ask, 'How has this been a crisis of opportunity?

In a myriad ways, I'm sure, but here are nine that I can see.  

1. It's forced us to invest in our most important relationships. I've been saying for some time that our ultra-connected, frenetic lives have made our relational worlds a mile wide and an inch deep. This past month we've  had no choice but to re-connect with those in our family or household. As we worship, pray and sit under the Word, we are likely doing it with these people. Sometimes that has been painful and volatile, but what can we do? We have nowhere to run, so here we are. What if revival began with the Lord healing the breakdown of the family unit during this shelter in place time?  We are starting a few  Zoom  small groups that go through Paul Tripp's course on The Gospel-Shaped Family together, if you would like to seize this opportunity to invest in your family or marriage. Contact me at kirk@southlands.net for more info. 

2. It's given us solidarity as we fight a common enemy.  Despite the conspiracy theories that abound, this virus is no respecter of people. It is not an attack from one nation, class, party or culture against another. While I'm mystified by the refusal of some to acknowledge  the origin of the virus, and even more dismayed by others who weaponize its origin for their racist ends, by-and-large, this virus has provided an opportunity for solidarity across traditional battle lines. We all have a deadly common enemy, which means we are desperate enough to reach across those lines for the common good. As a pastor, I've enjoyed unprecedented unity with other pastors in our city and county during the crisis as we have prayed together, shared best practices on a weekly basis, and essentially just cheered one another on. We need each other!

3. It's made us realize the gifts and limits of technology. If this virus had swept across our world ten years ago we would have been ill-equipped as families, businesses and  churches to remain connected. But I've been amazed at the capacity of people to pause and pivot with technology and am personally encouraged by the staggering increase of the gospel's reach as we have used various social media platforms. That said, as thankful as I am for technology, we are tired of seeing people through a screen. We long for the gift of human touch, for the nuance of body language in our interactions, for the swell of voices raised in song together, for the reassuring murmur of an amen to the preached Word. Screens have made us long for the embodied presence of community, coffee shop and church. Absence has made the heart grow fonder.

4. It's driven us to pray as a first response not as a last resort. There is something about realizing that you are not in control that makes you pray. Very often, in the Western Church, prayer was a last resort when all our best efforts had failed.  Prayer as a first response is now on the rise, both inside and outside the Church, as we realize that our best efforts fall sadly short. Sayers mentioned Exodus 24, where Moses delegated leadership as he and Joshua went up the mountain into the cloud of God's presence for forty  days, as an opportunity for all of us to leverage leadership from a place of prayer.  Whatever we are leading, there is only so much we can do right now in terms of responsible delegation. We are not in control, but He is installed upon His holy throne. Jesus and the Spirit are interceding for us according to God's will. (Romans 8) If we come out on the other side of this more prayerful than before,  revival may be well on its way. 

5. It's provided a forum for evangelism as people search for answers.  If a loss of control doesn't lead everyone to pray, it does provoke most everyone to ask questions about mortality, suffering and why life seems unfair and disappointing. Many have seen the frailty of placing their hopes in career, finances, grades, and sporting achievement. They feel anxious, alone and in need of a  Savior. This Coronavirus has caused a serious hang-over from so much of the self-help Kool-aid that we've drunk. People are asking if there's a cure. A posture of  service, hope and care is resulting in some great gospel conversations. For example, we've been watching and discussing our beamed sermons with a family who are not in the church, and there is a real openness to the gospel. Because of this openness we are beginning a Zoom Alpha Course that explores the major questions about the Christian faith. Contact jds@southlands.net for more info.

6. It's been a seed-bed for creativity. Necessity is the mother of invention. I've seldom seen people so inventive as they find new ways to connect, to earn money and problem solve. Maybe this needed agility will keep us from getting stale in the long run? Certainly as a church we have needed to innovate on every level and the crisis has created new voices, new solutions, new songs, new forums and new leaders for such a time as this. One song that my daughter and I wrote  out of the time is from Psalm 91, called Shelter in Place. You can watch it here. Shelter in Place.  

7. It's been an opportunity to recognize our true heroes are servants not celebrities. 
In a celebrity fixated culture, we have become aware of how little most of them can actually do to help us in crisis. The real heroes in this crisis are those who willingly place themselves in harms' way in order  to serve and heal; nurses, doctors, paramedics, law enforcement, grocery staff and other essential services. What an opportunity to honor these servants and to gain a more sober view of those celebrities we've placed upon pedestals. 

8. The Myth of Radical Individualism is being exposed The popular saying, "You do You," is a dangerous idea right now. Those who refuse to isolate, wash their hands or practice social distancing, who refuse to cover their mouths if they sneeze or cough are basically dangerous to the common good. (I'm not going to argue the pros and cons of mask wearing) But you get the idea, the popular myth of radical individualism has been exposed as dangerous.

9. The Household is becoming the primary forum for Christian discipleship More than mere family unity, church at home is becoming the primary place for worships prayer and reading Scripture. This has always been God's intention, but we have tended to outsource discipleship to pastoral professionals,  the result being that we tend to live two distinct  lives - a public religious life and a private secular life. The home is now being redeemed as a place to encounter Jesus and learn about Him. 

10. We've moved from a life of wants to a life of needs. In America we have an absolutely dizzying amount of choices. Rampant consumerism does its utmost to turn our wants into needs and the result is debt and discontentment.   For the first time in many of our lives we have faced a shortage of  basic needs in empty shelves on shops, and it has helped us to recognize many of things we think are needs are not. 

I never want to be immune or unsympathetic towards the real danger and loss brought on by this crisis. But this is a crisis of opportunity. Let us make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. (Ephesians 5:16)  If we do, perhaps we will one day look back on this crisis as the time that God used the Corona Virus to spark the Corona Revival.