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 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.