This shutdown is only beginning, and already most of us are looking forward to life getting back to normal. But my prayer is that the church will never get back to normal. Here’s what I mean.

Too much of the church I’ve seen in my 41 years has been complacent, apathetic, lukewarm, and self-seeking. I don’t want to get back to that.

In some ways, the church is being scattered today, and that’s what should continue:

“We gather to scatter.”

Maybe God is using this moment to scatter the church so it can actually BE the church. Maybe this quarantine can make us more aware of the needs and hopes of those around us.

So I’m praying for a new pandemic, a gospel pandemic, a pandemic as contagious as any virus we’ve ever experienced.

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