THE CHURCH IS ALSO A MARKET PLACE

Now that you are reading this; I crave your indulgence to follow me on this journey of Imagination.

The Federal Government in a bid to follow through on the ‘lockdown ease’ directives has recently just given an approval for Churches to resume public gatherings.
Although, this has come with a lot of skepticism, especially from the non-Christian populations, yet many devoted Church goers trooped in their numbers to resume Sunday services, tagged in many centers as victory celebrations.

It was not business as usual as the protocol for entry into the Church premises was very strict.
No one was allowed to enter the church premises without a face-mask including children. There was a 5-10seconds compulsory temperature check before the sanitizers dispenser, at the entrance of the Large Church complex.

Inside the Church the Preacher, Choir and entire congregation were all masked, sitting arrangements were different and there was a three-inch gap between each member of the congregation.

The usual hugs, handshakes and playful aspects of Church fellowship was missing, even the children were not allowed to play with each other.

Now, back to reality, I can go on and on but let’s stop to reason this matter. A lot of people have been saying; why should market place be open and churches closed, I believe the Church is also a market place but the transaction is different. This is not the time for the Church to play the victim card, this is a time for us to see what God is set to do in and with the Church in these times.

The description of Church as given in the first two paragraphs above is not the kind of church I am eager to go. What is Church without love? And what is Love when it cannot be expressed?

Why are we in a hurry to rush back to gather in the large Church complexes? The Church is NOT CLOSED as a matter of fact the Church has never been more open. Strip the “Church” of all the large buildings, large parking lots and Children play grounds and what you have left is the church- THE PEOPLE. This should be our focus. Perhaps we are mistaken to think that people gather every Sunday to come listen to a sermon from ONE MAN. This is obviously not the case.

The current reality and truth is that the larger population of church - goers don’t even have access and resources to follow “online services” diligently as they should. This is why the need for small group meetings is crucial, and let’s not forget this is how the Church actually started and thrived as recorded in the BOOKS.

In my opinion, I believe the lockdown ease should include permission for Churches to meet in small groups of 10 at most. The Church has the capacity to grow massively at this level, and the preventive measures can be easily adhered to at this level, this way, when we are finally able to resume large gatherings to celebrate zero case of Covid-19, the Church would have experienced an unprecedented growth to the Glory of God.

3,2,1 Oya flood the thread...