Readings
Isaiah 51: 1-6;
Psalm 138;
Romans 12: 1-8;
Matthew 16: 13-20

Collect
God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have to gain the pearl  beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Reflection - The Real Church

When we wished ourselves happy new year on January 1, 2020 and looked forward to joyous and wonderful year; we had no clue how ‘interesting’ and challenging the year is going to be! Moreover, none of us could have imagined that our shops, offices and churches could be closed for several weeks!. By the time the congregations in our partnership return to the church in September, we would have been worshipping at home and online for about six months – who could have imagined that?

Over the period of being away from the church buildings, most congregations have made the best use of the technological tools at our disposals to keep interaction and worship going and I can imagine that worship in the church (for some of us) will feel almost like a new experience given the passage of time since we last worshipped in a church building. Hence I have been thinking of my personal experience over this period and what I have termed the ‘takeaways’ or ‘gifts’ from the period of online worship or church at home as it is called by some people.

The first takeaway is the we somehow had the opportunity to partake in the experience of the early church when they made met in private homes for worship with the difference being that we were only able to worship by ourselves or with immediate family members. However, this would have been one of the closest experience we will have of the early church as they worship at home and in some cases under intense persecution which means they were unable to meet freely – just like we have been unable to meet freely presently due to the pandemic. 

The second takeaway is that we have received a re-awakening of what it means to be the ‘Church’, which is that the church is the people and not the building. I’m sure it is something that we all know prior to the pandemic, but the questions is  how did we operated as church prior to the lockdown? I say this because I see churches getting so caught in the maintenance of the building and fabrics that less attention is given to the people. But since the lockdown, it is heart-warming to see the shift of focus of churches from buildings to the people and supporting them through the difficulty period of the pandemic. This is by no means saying that the maintenance of churches are not important, but it must not be at the expense of the people who are the real body of Christ. 

The third takeaway is that we have been offered this time away from our church buildings as an opportunities to think about how we were doing church prior to the lockdown and how we will do church when we go back to our buildings. I feel like we have been offered once in a lifetime opportunity to look what church has meant prior to the lock down and what it should mean in the light of our recent experiences so that we can become a church that is more relevant to people than it has ever been.

Despite the difficult challenges of the early church, the church remained steadfast and what followed was a period of rapid growth and expansion of Christianity. I daresay that the current church has been steadfast in face of the challenges of the past few months and have been faithful in ensuring that church find its place of relevance in all that has been happening, I hope and pray that the ‘re-awakened’ church will bring the light and love of Christ to our communities where it is most needed.

Adedayo Adebiyi