One Year Later: How the Church Moved Through Crisis

by | Mar 10, 2021 | Uncategorized

The photo above is a from a Love INC Facebook post with a series of God Sightings from the first month of the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.

It has almost been one year since the shutdown due to COVID-19. One year ago, the words pandemic, unprecedented, mask, and so many others were not a regular part of my vocabulary. Now, I don’t think I can go a day without saying one.

One year ago, many of us closed our doors and went home. We settled into new and hard routines of working from home, homeschooling, ordering groceries for delivery and probably way too many TV shows.

One year ago, life as we knew it turned upside down and told us to buckle up for a ride, one that we are still on one year later. Here we are, in March of 2021, many of us still at home, still wearing masks and washing our hands, still baking bread and limiting our social interactions. One year later, we are still fighting an enemy that has taken over 500,000 American lives alone. One year later, still worrying about the at-risk populations and doing what we can to protect them and all those around us. 

Time is a weird concept to me now. Sometimes I catch myself in the mindset of moving forward and leaving the past behind me completely. But, other times, I have to pause and reflect. I reflect on the past year and all that has happened, and more specifically, all that I’ve seen happen through Love In the Name of Christ. 

One year ago, when most people went home, the Love INC staff went to Meijer. We shopped each day for food to fill three local churches that would distribute groceries for months to their communities! We came alongside the Church, sorting and packing boxes and bags full of the essentials that would help so many just get by during this unprecedented time. 

We gathered with over 30 local churches via Zoom to talk about what the Church could and should be doing in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. We had weekly conversations with pastors and volunteers about how Jesus’ followers could show love during this time. These partners, now called friends, pivoted with us into a transactional ministry so we could meet the immediate needs of our neighbors. I have never seen so many people come together to just simply show up and say “I am here, what can I do?” I have never seen the Church show up in such volume and with such humility, to say “we want to help, but we don’t know how” or “how can we all work together to serve our community?” 

As we continue on into 2021, may we be a Church that asks these questions each day. May we be a Church that takes action when our neighbors need us most.