Our New Reality?

“In my quiet time this morning, I sensed God telling me that this was our new reality and I needed to accept it and embrace it.” That was a comment a Millennial staff member in one of the largest churches in America made to me recently. We were talking about all the difficulties COVID19 had placed upon churches. For this Millennial, the path forward was in the acceptance of the current state of affairs.

“I finally cleaned out my office at work and moved everything to my home office. I’ll probably never see my old office again.” A Gen Xer made that comment to me recently. Each of these quotes is saying essentially the same thing, there is no going back.

The above two quotes illustrate that especially in younger generations,

They have accepted the present to be their future.

Their fears might be overblown as I’ll illustrate later in this post, but they are real fears. In their minds even if COVID19 is not as bad as feared, it has served as a wake-up call that we live in a dangerous environment that demands caution. Why not wear a mask for the rest of your life? How hard is it to stand six feet apart? Those that espouse this are basically adapting a safe than sorry approach to life. They are forgoing personal freedom for the hope of personal health.

Those that hold to this view have arrived at their position based upon science. That’s what they will tell you at least. In fact one consequence of the pandemic and the Churches response has been to illustrate how,

Science has now become our ultimate guide for how to live in the 21st century.

How many times have you heard the word science thrown around to settle an argument or stifle dissent? What is amazing about this is that science is seldom settled anything. For every Dr. Fauci statement of “scientific facts,” there is another opinion with another set of “facts.” Sometimes scientists are wrong. Often they must change their views and presuppositions because of new information. Remember when the “experts” told us masks where useless? Remember when they told us even with caution between one million to two million people would die in America from COVID19?

Richard E. Simmons III in his book, “Reflections on the Existence of God,” tells the story of Albert Einstein’s scientific mistake in 1916. Einstein didn’t like where his calculations were leading him. If his theory of General Relativity was true, it meant that the universe had a beginning. That was unacceptable. So, he created a cosmological constant into his equations to show that the universe was static and to avoid an absolute beginning that would point to intelligent creation. Einstein’s new equation was dubbed the Fudge Factor.

Other scientists began to find the flaws in Einstein’s work. For one thing, the math didn’t add up. A Russian mathematician in 1922 proved the mathematical flaw in Einstein’s theory. Ultimately in 1927 astronomer Edwin Hubble at Mount Wilson Observatory discovered that the galaxies were expanding from a single point. The universe wasn’t static and eternal. It had a beginning. This essentially launched The Big Bang Theory. Hubble’s discovery put the final nail in Einsteins equations. Einstein himself traveled to Mount Wilson in 1927 to see for himself. Simmons in his book sums up Einstein’s reaction.

“With his cosmological constant now completely crushed by the weight of the evidence against it, Einstein could no longer support his wish for an eternal universe. He subsequently described the cosmological constant as “the greatest blunder of my life,” and he redirected his efforts to find the box top to the puzzle of life.”

The above story illustrates the problem of putting our trust and faith in science. Even the brightest scientist of the 20th century erred in his calculations. At least he had the courage to admit his mistake and move on. Will today’s scientists have the same character as Einstein? So far the evidence seems to be to the contrary.

99.98% survival rate! The Wall Street Journal pointed out that you have a greater chance of being killed in a car accident than you do of dying from COVID19. That is the math. Yet our scientists by and large remain acting as if millions have died and will continue to die. The policies being enacted have and will continue to limit not only your own personal freedoms but how your church can function.

The Churches new reality is that fewer people will now physically attend our services thus putting a greater strain on giving. Are you prepared for this? Whether we agree with what is going on or not the reality is your church’s financial future just became more problematic. My question is,

Do you have a plan to put your church on the path to financial security? I do! Check them out at, https://acts17generosity.com/memberships/

The Church that survives into the future is the church that plans today fore tomorrow!

Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach

@stewardshipman