We couldn’t have imagined we’d still be here last March. No, we couldn’t have imagined then that we would still be here now but here we are physically distanced, doing drive-through worship, showing up on Zoom, Facebook Live, and YouTube.  And, somehow, some way…by the grace of God, it’s working, it’s all working.  And it needs to keep working for quite some time.

Recently I had the opportunity to spend some time talking with a public health expert.  Someone who lives in the world of exposures and workplace safety.  Someone who has no skin in the game except to keep people safe.  He said hunker down.  The worst is yet to come.  We have another 9-12 months ahead of us before we can feel safe gathering in groups indoors.  A year?!  Another year?  We definitely didn’t see that coming last March!  

But maybe that news could be freeing.  Rather than looking ahead for each corner we need to turn in order to go back to the way things were before, what if we let go of that and just focus on what’s ahead, focus on the new year?  What if we dove into the next year with creativity, energy, grace, and adaptability without worrying about being in our buildings?  Could this be our best year of ministry yet?

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