Together again …

Lots of people in San Diego are smiling today. It’s the first day in over a year they can walk into a coffee shop without wearing a mask!

Well, at the local Starbucks, masks are optional if you’re fully vaccinated, but at a different small chain of coffee shops everyone can leave their masks at home.

Finally!

In one of the coffee shops, they were bringing in more tables and chairs as the college students once again return to their favorite place to study … and a favorite place to socialize! I’ve watched on many occasions when students got little studying done because they were too busy enjoying each other’s company.

That’s been something that has been sorely missed for far too long!

God wired us as social creatures. Whether you’re an introvert or the most outgoing extrovert, we all need relationships in life. That couldn’t be any more true than in the church, where we don’t just “need” each other, we belong to and are part of each other!

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other,” Romans 12:4-5.

“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it,” 1 Corinthians 12:27.

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love,” Ephesians 4:15-16.

Now, as we begin to take broader strides into our post-pandemic lives, there are some warning church leaders not to turn their backs on the digital outlets that have been a vital means of keeping the church body connected for more than a year. While I agree there are real and important reasons to continue and even “normalize” and broaden “digital ministry,” it is vital the church re-establish and prioritize gathering in person on a regular basis.

Here’s just one key reason why I say that: We’ve learned through the pandemic that we can “connect” online, but most people don’t have the self-discipline to deeply nurture relationships primarily via online.

A primary reason why relationships of any kind fail is because we fail to nurture them. We weren’t all that great about nurturing relationships when we could be together in person, and we’ve been less so with “digital only” relationships. More than one study has revealed that at least one-third of previous church attenders have felt comfortable to leave their churches when connection was limited mostly to online “gatherings.” The church needs — which means we need — a greater level of intimacy that is inherent in being with someone in person.

It’s time to freshly nurture our relationships as being one body, belonging to one another.

It’s time to come back together again.

Scotty