Empowering Believers in the Pandemic

God has a habit of using tough times to advance His Kingdom of love. So what is God doing throughout this pandemic? How is He advancing the Kingdom, and advancing His Church during these times? And if God is at work, Why is Church attendance dropping during the pandemic?

History is filled with stories of how God has used tough times to empower everyday followers of Jesus to share the good news. 

In Acts 8 there is a turning point. A great persecution breaks out in Jerusalem and all the believers scattered except for the Apostles. But what happens next is extraordinary. You see, up until this point we are only told about the Apostles performing signs and wonders. It is the Apostles who preach the gospel. But here we see that God piggybacks on the tough times and all the scattered believers begin to share the gospel and perform signs and wonders. The good news is now done by the whole, rather than the few.

When Mao Tse-tung took power in China, he began a purge of everything to do with religion. Missionaries were deported, leaders martyred, Bibles burned, gathering out-lawed. However, God used this extremely tough time to empower the everyday believers and as a result one of the wildest revivals ever broke out with an estimated 60 million people coming to Jesus over 60 years!

Last year Melbourne came out of a combined 260 days of lockdown. What if God was doing what He always does with these tough times? Yes, there are plenty of stats and stories that demonstrate how Sunday Service attendance has taken a hammering. But what if those who are not coming on Sunday mornings have actually found purpose to their life and are now the scattered and empowered believers?

What if God is using these tough pandemic times to shift the power from the Leadership, and placing it into the hearts and hands of the everyday followers of Jesus? 

Imagine what the state of Victoria would look like if our leaders recognised the times, stepped out in faith, and empowered the scattered…