The INC’s response to Covid-19: A Case study

Problem

 The effects of the global pandemic have impacted society on so many levels including religious attendance. Churches were forced to shut down for months and on reopening limited attendance was allowed, many churches struggled with this sudden change to online services and taking church out of the building, back to churches at home.

However, this is not the first global pandemic, and in previous pandemics churches have had to respond as well. This paper seeks to draw upon lessons learned from past pandemics (specially the Spanish flu), and to compare this with reported responses by INC leaders as a case study.

Introduction

The year 2020 is a year that that will for ever be engraved in history as the year the world was heavily impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Plagues, epidemics, and pandemics are not new to mankind, one of the first known plagues are found in Exodus 7 to 10 where the Bible describe the 10 plagues of Egypt. Viruses are part of human existence, it is as if they have minds of their own and do not adhere to human rules and regulations, they tend to have a surprise element to them (Ryan, 2019).

In this paper, the author will firstly examine the history of pandemics and the western Christian response to them. This serves as a backdrop to understanding the contemporary response to Covid-19.

The International Network of Churches (INC) is a modern Pentecostal movement of which the author is a senior pastor. The INC will be used as a limited case study, through qualitative research to explore how one church movement has responded. This is of particular interest to the author because he planted a church under the INC 2 years ago and want to see if his church is following the current trend in the INC. The result of a survey to 10 INC pastors will be presented and analysed.

In the final section, the results for the study and findings from the literature review will be discussed and synthesised to highlight the key issues that impacted the INC churches.

Some recommendations for further research and application will be given.

Chapter 1.

Definitions.

An Epidemic: Is defined as a “disease that affects a large number of people within a community, population or region” (WebMD,2020).

A Pandemic: A pandemic takes place when an epidemic spread over multiple countries and continents. It can be described as an epidemic that travels (WebMD,2020).

An Outbreak: An outbreak happens when there is a greater than expected increase in confirmed epidemic cases (WebMD,2020).

It is the responsibility of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare epidemics and pandemics (WHO, 2011).

Historical View on the Church and epidemics and pandemics.

Although our generation and church is faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemics and pandemics are not new to the church throughout history. The first major epidemic in history was the Antonine plague in AD166-189. Due to this disease being contagious people would chase their loved ones that became infected out of their homes into the streets to die there. It is believed that the most famous physician of that time fled Rome to be safe from the disease. The christians of the city responded by not running away but running into the plague to help the sick. Many christians died from the plague helping the sick. This unselfish and caring actions caused a rapid growth in christianity (Sunshine, 2020).

In the following century, the world faced the plague of Cyprian. During this plague, the bishop of Alexandria, Dionysius said that although the pagans fled from the sick and pushed their loved ones out on the streets to die, the church on the other hand showed love and mercy and started taking care of the sick without thinking of themselves. Dionysius compared the christian’s ministry to the sick to martyrdom. Same as in the previous century many heathens came to Christ because of the work of the christians during the plague. This growth in christianity was described as having an explosive growth within the Roman empire (Sunshine, 2020).

When there was an outbreak of the Bubonic plague during the time of ministry of Martin Luther, Luther refused to neglect his duties as a pastor and as a christian. He stated that if someone that is sick needed him, he would be there even if it would cost him his life (Sunshine, 2020). Luther had a very strong stand on servicing the community during the plague, he stated that if a person is in spiritual ministry, that person must remain steadfast even when facing death. He said that Christ gave a command that the good shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. It is the responsibility of christians to be the “good Samaritans” in their communities that must follow the law of love and the civic law wherever they may be. Service to God is also service to your neighbour (Sandeman, 2020).

During the 1800’s most missionary expeditions had a medical component. Hudson Taylor who was a well-known missionary who did great work in China was a qualified medical doctor. Throughout history, christians responses to epidemics and pandemics always affirmed the importance of the physical body, with the result that “wherever christianity went hospitals were built” (Sunshine, 2020).

In 1854 London got struck with a Cholera outbreak, during this time a 20-year-old Charles Spurgeon pastored the New Park Street Chapel. He said that the plagues of the day are a way for people to make Christ their refuge. Many who opposed his preaching before the outbreak, changed their ways and started listening to Spurgeon and accepted Christ as their saviour (Scrivener, 2020).

Although there were many epidemics and pandemics through the ages, for the purpose of this study the focus will be on the Spanish flu of 1918 and the current COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Peter Hobbins (2020) refer to both pandemics as historical déjà vu. Not only will the two pandemics be looked at, but more importantly how the church responded during these times of crisis.

The Spanish Flu.

The Spanish flu spread in 1918 throughout Europe, but mostly through Spain, France, Great Britain and Italy. The spread of the influenza caused disruptions to many of the military operations during World War 1 (Martini, Gazzaniga, Bragazzi,& Barberis, 2019). The influenza was called the Spanish flu because Spain was the only country that did not censor any reports of the spreading of the epidemic (Hongisbaum, 2020). There is no consensus where the Spanish flu originally broke out due to wartime censorship. The main way that the virus was spreading was by means of soldiers that were returning to their home countries (Brad Ryan ABC News). The most likely explanation for the spread of the influenza to Europe is blamed on the American troops who carried the flu to Europe in 1918. Although it originally started as an influenza it transformed into a pandemic by October 1918. The first cases of the Spanish flu reached Australia in January 1919 (Humphrey McQueen, 2020). Doctors called the Spanish flu pandemic as “the greatest medical holocaust in history” (Brad Ryan, 2020).

During this pandemic more than 50 million people died and more than 500 million people got infected by the Spanish Influenza worldwide. In Australia there was an estimated 16000 deaths (Reilly, 2020). Most of the Spanish flu fatalities were people in their middle ages, around 35 to 40. The cause of most of the deaths were because of secondary bacterial infections (Ryan, 2020). Because Australia was more secluded from the rest of the world it was spared a large mortality rate (Reilly, 2020).

Although during the Spanish flu pandemic, medical knowledge was not as developed as it is today, there were a few measures in place to try and prevent the spread of the virus. These measures included travel bans, quarantine rules and various social distancing precautions. Cinemas, churches and all festivals were closed. There was also a request that people did not congregate in shops and public spaces (Ryan,2020).

It is interesting to note that the first media report of the Spanish flu in Australia was published on 25 January 1919 and the first report of Covid-19 in Australia was published 25 January 2020, exactly 101 years apart. It is believed that the first reported patient with Spanish flu was admitted to a hospital in Melbourne on 9 January 1919, within 10 days cases increased to approximately 100. Persons who travelled from Melbourne brought the disease to New South Wales (NSW). In response to this outbreak the NSW government made it a requirement that masks be worn at libraries, schools, theatres, public halls, churches and all indoor public entertainment in the Sydney metropolitan were ordered to close. Originally there were little opposition to the imposed restrictions, but due to various inconsistencies there was resistance. An example of such an inconsistency was that people were allowed to make use of crowded public transport and go to the beach but were not allowed to attend church, although they wore masks and observed social distancing during services (Kildea, 2020).

Because there was no vaccine or cure for Spanish flu, Australians had to rely on quarantine, supportive medical care and the goodwill and compliance of the community. There is no doubt that these measures influenced people’s jobs, social life, family life, church life and how people kept themselves entertained (Hobbins, 2020).

Many people were traumatized by the Spanish flu, one contemporary called this pandemic “a veritable tornado of plague” (Phillips, 2008). Survivors of the pandemic struggled to recover socially, materially and physically. Many people started to look toward religion to try and make sense of this catastrophe that changed everything that used to be a normal way of life (Phillips, 2008).

The church’s response to the Spanish flu.

One of the measures that were introduced to prevent the spread of the Spanish flu was to shut down all forms of public gatherings, these included church services. Churches around the globe responded in various ways to the church shutdown.

When the churches in Birmingham were closed, the Birmingham newspaper stepped up to the plate and started to print the sermons of the clergy, as well as service outlines, scriptures and announcements to help church members to continue their worship in the safety of their homes. There was a strong call for people to make use of meditation and reflection. One pastor wrote that “meditation is profitable to the soul and during this time when people are not allowed to leave their homes and congregate, it might be wise for christians to spend their time in isolation to reflect and pray while sitting as a family in front of their fireplaces” (Garrison, 2020). Reverent Cox from the Birmingham Presbyterian church motivated his congregation members to practice their worship at home. He mentioned that in sacred home-circles. By bringing families together to worship in their homes can mean there is blessing in the curse of the pandemic. The Methodist church of Birmingham asked its members to inform the pastor if there are any members of their household that have taken ill. The Lutheran church in Birmingham requested its members to continue tithing and that they should personally deliver or mail their contributions to the treasurer of the church’s home address. Some of the churches in the city requested the government to allow churches to be open 24 hours seven days a week so that members can come to church to pray to God the Healer in this time of pandemic. The request was denied. (Garrison, 2020).

Pentecostal churches in the USA responded to the Spanish flu pandemic and church closures as follows. The churches ministered to the needs of the people. The Church of God opened a Bible School, when it opened only 5 people attended, student numbers increased when the pandemic came to an end. The Pentecostal church believed in the power of prayer, many of the churches sent handkerchiefs that were prayed over and anointed with oil to the sick. A large amount of prayer groups was started, these groups received many telegrams, letters and telephone messages requesting prayer for people that became sick due to the pandemic. Although there was a pandemic and churches were not allowed to meet, the Pentecostal church in the USA was rapidly growing. One of the Pentecostal churches purchased printing equipment and started printing and distributing religious materials. This ministry ended up printing and distributing 11 000 Evangels per week (Hunter, 2020).

An Episcopal church in Shadyside USA called Calvary church gave the use of their parish house to the USA military to use as a hospital. The rooms were used for military trainees that were recovering from the Spanish flu. The house was turned into a 60-bed hospital. The church ministered to its members by mailing them sermons, Bible readings and prayer materials. The Calvary church became the enduring example, to many churches in the city to open its doors to all people in need (Smith, 2020).

In Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Council of Churches asked all Christian families to set aside 11 am on Sundays as a time for prayer, devotions and Bible reading at home. The Catholic Church used all its charities and parishes of the diocese to fight the Spanish flu pandemic. The Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper announced that all its priests, nuns and lay workers were ready and available to answer all calls for help. The Catholic Church of Pittsburgh set up 40 relief stations in various locations around the city. Unfortunately, many of the priests, nuns and lay workers lost their lives because of the pandemic. The Pittsburgh Catholic Newspaper called them “Martyrs of duty” (Smith, 2020).

Washington DC, the churches were closed for a period of 4 weeks. The churches abided to the government institutions stayed closed. Many of the churches lost church members due to the pandemic. Although churches in DC could not meet, they did continue to care for their members to the best of their abilities. Pastors and deacons kept visiting church families, staying up to date with families that have members that have fallen ill and collecting finances for the church. Although there were so many disruptions to church life, there was an increase in church numbers once the churches re-opened, many churched described the year of the pandemic as their best year spiritually and showed an increase in their finances (9marks, 2020).

The Dutch churches did not escape the impact of the Spanish flu, although the churches did not embrace government intervention as the other churches around the globe did. The former Dutch Prime-Minister Abraham Kuyper argued that any political restrictions on any church activities are against God’s word and an infringement of freedom of conscience. He was very open about his opinion that churches are essential, and people should not be stopped from hearing the Word of God. Many Orthodox Calvinists viewed and referred to the pandemic as a rod that God was using to punish mankind for not fearing Him and for having a worldly lifestyle. The Liberal Protestants did not follow this viewpoint, by stating that God will not directly intervene in the world or return evil with evil. They viewed the Spanish flu as a medical issue instead of a spiritual issue. Some Orthodox Protestants proclaimed that the Spanish flu was a sign of the times and that people should realign their lives with the Bible. Many of the Dutch Catholics responded to the pandemic by relying on the “intercessory power of saints” and massive street processions were held all over the country during the height of the pandemic (Krijger, 2020).

In Canada many church and public meetings were cancelled. In this time the telephone, that was invented by Alexander Bell, was a relatively new method of communication and started being used in many ways to keep contact with people during the time of the pandemic (Reilly, 2020).

The Spanish flu was described as one of South Africa’s greatest natural disasters. The clergymen of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church viewed God as all powerful and that He was the original cause of the Spanish flu pandemic. The reason that most clergymen offered for the outbreak of the Spanish flu was punishment for sin. There was a very strong focus on the second coming of Christ. On the flip side most Non-Calvinistic clergymen did not share this point of view and stated that God would not directly intervene in the lives of people and will not punish them with a pandemic (Phillips, 2008).

When the Spanish flu arrived in Australia, all churches were closed for a period of three weeks. Representatives of the Church of England, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational and Baptist churches as well as the Salvation Army and various ecumenical bodies met at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne on 31 January 1919. At this meeting, all the churches involved assured the government that they were willing to co-operate with the health authorities to ensure that the effects and impact of the Spanish flu pandemic were minimised. The delegation issued a call to prayer to all Christians of Australia and to submit themselves to the authorities to fight the pandemic. Once services were permitted again, there was a regulation by the state that all members who attended services should wear masks, the churches assured the Minister of Health that everything would be done by the church to co-operate in the battle against the pandemic (Reilly, 2020).

In summary, a review of the historical accounts recorded reveals that the church was always actively involved in the community when a medical crisis took place.

In the next section, the focus shifts to the current pandemic caused by COVID-19 to look for points of commonality in the impact on the church as well as the response of the church during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Chapter 2

COVID-19

What is COVID-19?

Coronaviruses have been around for many years. Both humans and animals can get sick from coronaviruses. Some coronaviruses cause illnesses that is the same as a common cold while others can be more serious. Some diseases that are linked to the coronavirus family are Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). COVID-19 is classed as one of the many Corona viruses. It originated in Hubei Province in China (Australian Government Dept of Health, 2020).

The first cases of COVID-19 that were reported were in Wuhan City in China during December 2019. All the original positive cases were linked to the wholesale food market, also known as the wet market, in Wuhan China. It was later suggested that this market was the source of the outbreak. This market closed 1 January 2020 (WHO, 2020). The Director General of the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency on 30 January 2020 (Australian Government Department of Health, 2020).

Dept of Health, 2020). There is another a theory that the Covid-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology Laboratories. This theory is fiercely disputed by the Chinese, especially by Dr. Zhengli who denies that there is a link between her work and the COVID-19 outbreak (Mosley, 2020).

Where did the virus come from?

Although many people might be under the impression that COVID-19 is a new virus, it is not the case, it has been around for a long time just in a different form. The latest studies that was done on the virus found that is lived in horseshoe bats in the Southern part of China for thousands of years. The bats evolved over time and became immune to the effects of the virus. In 2013 scientists of the Wuhan Institute of Virology announced that they succeeded to isolate the Coronavirus from the Horseshoe bats in their labs. Researches from the Harvard Medical School studied the virus in 2016 and found that this coronavirus was effective at infecting the cells that are growing in the human raspatory tract, the researchers made their concern known that the virus could jump from the Horseshoe bats and start to infect humans. COVID-19 can be described as a “monstrous mutant hybrid” of other coronaviruses (Mosley, 2020).

The outbreak of COVID-19 is described as “China’s Chernobyl moment”. The danger of COVID-19 was that because it is a new form of Coronavirus, nobody in the world has any form of immunity against it. The reason why this family of viruses are called Coronaviruses is because the virus has “menacing proteins that protrude from its surface” these proteins give it the appearance of a crown (Hoginsbaum, 2020).

How does the virus spread?

It is important to know how the COVID-19 virus spreads, so that people will understand why the measures are so harsh in the battle to stop the spread of it. The COVID-19 virus travels in droplets of fluid. When a person coughs, a single cough produces about 3000 droplets of fluid and in effect will release around two hundred million virus particles in the air, some heavier particles will fall on nearby surfaces. When a person is about 2 meters away from the person who is coughing, there is a great possibility that the droplets in the air will be avoided, however the lighter particles in the air, known as vapor, will stay suspended in the air for up to 3 hours. By touching the particles that fell on the surface, the virus gets on the hands of the person. If this person would touch their mouth or eyes the virus gets into the body (Mosley, 2020).

A huge concern for medical professionals is how severe the infections are, as well as the lack of antiviral treatments. Statistics show that about 80 percent of people who test positive for COVID-19 will only experience mild symptoms, further 20 out of 100 positive cases will need to be hospitalized with severe or critical disease symptoms, these cases might include respiratory failure, septic shock and/or multiorgan failure. People in the 70 plus age group make up most of the fatalities. There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19 and the only treatments are just supportive methods like oxygen and artificial respiration (Schilling, Gamble & Gamble, 2020).

Why churches are a great risk for spreading the virus.

The story of The Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church Choir is a very good example of how rapidly this virus can spread. When the choir gathered for their practice, they took the normal precautions like using hand sanitizer, avoided handshakes, and practiced social distancing. They practiced for a few hours like they normally do and when they finished each person went to their individual homes. About 3 weeks after the choir practiced about 45 members of the choir showed symptoms of the virus or tested positive and few members also died. The possible cause for what happened to the choir could be explained as that one member was an asymptomatic carrier of the virus (a person who had the virus, but did not show any symptoms), that while busy singing produced a fine mist of viral particles, these particles infected all the members close to that person (Mosley, 2020). Because of this knowledge guidelines were created for churches to prevent the spread of the virus in church meetings when people are singing. Originally the rule was that there must be a 7 square meter space between people if the church has singing in their service (Zita, 2020).

As part of Australia’s Covid-19 prevention strategy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on 22 March 2020 all pubs, restaurants and churches had to close until further notice when the infection rates were down (Rev.com. 2020). This drastic shut down was not unique to Australia, most countries around the globe followed this type of approach prevent a rise in infections.

How various churches around the globe responded.

Although there were many church leaders who became very outspoken and even refused to close their churches, in the USA there were reports that some pastors including Rodney Howard-Brown was arrested for refusing to shut down his church services. Charges against him were dropped later (Mazzei, 2020). Unfortunately there is the case of Pastor Gerald Glen of the New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Chesterfield, Va. who refused to close his church services and contracted COVID-19, he passed away on the 4th of April 2020, his wife also tested positive for the virus (Vigdor, 2020). Although some resisted, most pastors submitted to their governments attempts to overcome this pandemic.

Most churches in Australia realized that the restrictions were necessary and have mostly been embraced in a spirit of solidarity with the wider community. Reactions varied but most christians, pastors and churches remained upbeat and started to show great creativity in adapting to the new circumstances to make the best of this bad situation (Errington, 2020).

The loss of life due to a pandemic is horrific and still growing around the world. On 29 September 2020 the world reached the sad milestone of one million deaths due to Covid-19 and still counting (Safi, Davidson,Guiffrida, Mohdin, Bossley, Briso and Yacht, 2020). It is the moral obligation of the church to avoid all actions, behaviors and attitudes that would allow the virus to spread and threaten the life of people in the community. If there is one organization that needs to be in the front leading the drive to stop the spread of the virus it is the church, it can be said that taking precautions to avoid the spread of the virus is “pro-life” and a moral duty. Pope Francis said that if policies that nations and the church introduce during the pandemic will purposely endanger the lives of the poor and the old for economic reasons it will make them examples of the “throwaway culture” of the world, instead of focusing on economic gain during this time of crisis the church needs to be seen as a field hospital for the battle against the disease (Carr, 2020). Pope Francis made a statement that the church must see the pandemic as an opportunity for mission and service to others (The Catholic Leader, 2020).

The shutdown of churches in Australia occurred around the time of Easter. For most churches Easter is traditionally a time for people to attend church and various churches have special rituals, rites and productions during the Easter weekend. The Covid-19 pandemic challenged the way that people practiced their faith. 2020 forced Christians to look at different ways to celebrate Easter than any year before. Most churches used various websites and social media platforms to livestream their services to their parishioners. Glen Davis, the Archbishop of the Anglican church stated that their online services reached more people than what would have come to church. He did feel that the church needs to urgently address the challenges of isolation and loneliness people are experiencing during the time of shut down (Gilbert, 2020).

The Dean of St. Andrews Cathedral, Kanishka Raffel, said that for people to have church in their homes is not new for the Christian faith. He stated that is very important that that faith is nurtured and practiced in both the home and community (Gilbert, 2020).

Brian Houston, leader of Hillsong church said that Hillsong church adapted quickly to the change because they have been livestreaming their services for many years already (Taylor, 2020). The day after the announcement of church closures the church launched an online channel that linked all Hillsong’s Australian and International worship services. It became possible for all Hillsong’s members to access the services any time day or night (Gilbert, 2020).

The leader of St. Phillip’s Church in South Turramurra, Reverend Jaime Dickson, anticipated that churches will be closed decided to suspend all his church services on 16 March 2020, and announced to his church various creative ways they will still continue to fellowship through the duration of the crisis. The focus of the church shifted from their main service on a Sunday to small groups and a weekly live stream webinar on Facebook (Gilbert, 2020).

Westley Mission has 11 congregations in New South Wales moved all their services online. The Superintendent of the church Rev. Dr. Keith V. Garner in a statement said that he did not take the government’s decision to close churches lightly, it is important that the Westley Mission respond to the advice of the medical advice to demonstrate the church’ care for the community it serve(Gilbert, 2020).

The Baptists in Western Australia was reluctant to closing their churches for Sunday services, but encouraged their congregations to start to livestream their services and find creative ways to continue fellowship and keep contact with their church members and to be aware of the needs of the communities the churches serve (Gilbert, 2020).

With the COVID-19 pandemic all clergy were forced to become technology literate and started to preach as effectively as possible to empty pews in front of a camera. They had to rethink the way they do ministry because the normal way ministry was done changed at a very fast rate. Ministers could not attend to the sick in hospitals and had to rethink the traditional ways funerals, weddings and baptisms were conducted (Bloom, 2020). Due to the pandemic, there is the possibility of mass funerals, some governments including the UK, started thinking it can become a necessity. Clergy had to start thinking about how to conduct mass funerals in case that would become a necessity.

When there is a time of high mortality as in the case of 2020 there is an increase in the demand for baptisms and marriages. When this happen and the clergy cannot attend to all the demands, it might be a possibility that the laity might have to step in to assist with baptisms and some of the work related to marriages. (Donnelly & McManus, 2006).

After examining the literature of the Spanish flu epidemic, the truth is that the pandemic had an impact on the world and the church. The same is true for the current COVID-19 pandemic, the question is what will change and what will remain the same?

What will the church look like in a Post-Covid-19 World?

Looking at the challenges the church faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the question is what would the church look like in a Post-Covid-19 world? Surveys done in the USA by the Barna Group shows that there is a large possibility that 20% or 1 in 5 churches will close during the next year because of the pandemic. It is also found that the digital or online church is here to stay and that around 20% of the people who attended church before the pandemic will not return to church due to some decided to follow the services online and others just stop attending in total (Sandeman, 2020).

Same as the Barna Group, the church consultant Thom Rainer did the same type of research and came to the following conclusions. He predicted that 2020 would be the year that more pastors would leave the ministry than any other year in history, further he suggested that the emphasis of the church would change from growth in believers to conversion growth, the church will make the Great Commission a priority again. He suggested that there would be a rise in micro churches, more churches will be started but their member totals will be not more than 30. The churches would experience a change from getting many people to assemble at one location to fewer people assembling at many locations. Rainer further talked about the possibility of two movements within the churches that will rapidly grow, that is church adoption and church fostering. With adoption larger churches will adopt struggling churches or in other cases take a struggling church and foster that church till it can be strong enough to stand on its own again (Rainer, 2020). The next twelve months will be interesting to see how churches around the globe and in Australia will adapt to the new normal in a Post-COVID-19 World.

The role of the Pentecostal Church

All Churches have a role to play during a health crisis, Chris Green (2020) states that the Pentecostal church has a special role to play in times of crisis. He feels that the Pentecostal theology has a mystical and prophetic component, but the most important part of Pentecostalism is its teachings on the importance of prayer. Pentecostalism teaches that God is at work in the world and that Christians must have a deep sense of personal and communal responsibility, as well as a strong focus on divine power and God’s love that was revealed on the cross. Green feels very strongly that these are some of the truths that is needed by the church in times of crisis. A very important part of Pentecostalism is that the church is communal and missional, this means that the love for God cannot be separate from the love of your neighbor and the love of prayer.

The International Network of Churches (INC) is a network of Pentecostal Churches in Australia, it was founded on 16 June 1974 by Clark Taylor (Taylor, 2017), due to its history in Australia, and the author’s personal involvement in the INC the following part of the research will focus on how the INC responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How the International Network of Churches (INC) responded?

The research method used was interviews with 10 INC pastors, they were chosen to ensure the following criteria was covered. The INC is organized into 5 groups according to church size (Network 75, Network 120, Network 200, Network 450, and Network plus). The 10 churches chosen covered all 5 groups. The chosen churches locations range from low to high socio economical areas as well as rural and more populated areas. A further consideration was the ages of pastors to ensure it covers a wide spectrum of age and ministry experience. A qualitative methodology was used to gather information because there was a need for a more personal approach to gathering the data by discussing each of the chosen pastors approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and issues faced by their church. The qualitative method used was interviews, interviews is an effective tool to use for this type of research because it can incite discussion. It is also possible for the researcher to gather extra information from the interviewee by asking additional questions (Cropley, 2019).

Question 1.

What action did you take when the church went into lockdown?

It is notable that all the pastors interviewed immediately submitted to the government order to shut down services, all interviewed churches took immediate action to make use of alternate ways to connect with their church members so that the spiritual needs of its members were met.

When going online 10/10 churches used their website as a contact point where members could go to access their pre-recorded services online.  Five of these also uploaded their pre-recorded service to YouTube and two of the five added Facebook Live to livestream their services. One of the 10 used Facebook Live with the website and not YouTube.

Question 2

What was the impact of COVID19 on church numbers? Was there an increase, decrease or remained the same?

When services recommenced 5/10 churches recorded a decrease in their membership and the other 5/10 churches recorded an increase in membership, however the increase was marginal. The churches that showed a decline in numbers were the larger churches while the smaller churches showed a rise in member numbers. There were no churches that were not affected by COVID-19 when it came to member numbers, they either showed an increase of decrease in numbers.

Question 3

Youth Ministry, did your church continue the youth ministry and what did the youth do to connect?

To go online with youth ministry was a challenge and many of the churches recorded low numbers and stated that the struggle was to keep the young people engaged in the meeting. One pastor commented that the young people seemed to be bored with Zoom meetings because most of their schoolwork was done via zoom during lockdown and that they did not want to do youth the same way as school. 4/10 churches shut down their youth ministry completely during lockdown and tried to get the youth to engage with the Sunday online services. 4/10 churches connected with the youth via Zoom and 1/10 connected via Zoom as well as delivered gift packs to the homes of the young people. 1/10 church connected via Zoom and also used YouTube as a platform to connect with the youth.

Question 4

Did your church’s children’s ministry continue and what was its format?

6/10 churches uploaded pre-recorded children’s programs on YouTube. The links to the videos were sent to the children’s parents for them to show it to their children on Sundays while the parents watch the online church service. Two of these churches that uploaded the YouTube programs also sent care packages to the homes of the children. These packages generally included material that linked to the videos the children would watch on Sundays. One of the churches that used YouTube also added Zoom meetings for their children’s ministry. 4/10 churches made the decision to shut down their children’s ministry during the time of lockdown.

Question 5

What did your church do during COVID19 when it came to the worship ministry?

Most of the churches found the worship part of the service very challenging.  3/10 churches had no worship on Sunday mornings because they did not have the equipment to be able to produce a professional product to send out with the Sunday message and did not want to release an unprofessional product. 0/10 churches livestreamed their worship services. 3/10 churches used worship song links with pre-recorded content and 4/10 churches pre-recorded the worship with the sermon.

Question 6

How did pastoral care take place?

Due to lockdown and social distancing rules, pastoral care was challenging. 6/10 churches divided their membership list amongst their leadership teams and expected them to contact the members on their list on a weekly basis and report back to the senior pastor. One of these churches added encouraging videos on YouTube to the regular contact and one added contact from the pastor. One added Zoom connect groups to this, and another one added Zoom plus send care packages to the families. 3/10 churches had the pastor contacting church members regularly and one of these added encouraging messages on Facebook live. 1/10 used Facebook live encouraging videos as a platform to care for their members.

Question 7

How did COVID19 impact the finances of the church?

All the pastors interviewed were generally positive about the finances of their church. 4/10 churches recorded an increase in giving, 3/10 churches recorded that their finances remained the same and 3/10 recorded a slight decrease. Finances was not as disastrously impacted as most pastors originally feared, some of the reasons mentioned was that many church members are in the habit of giving online and not at church during offering. One of the churches that showed a decline in finances was a church that consisted mostly of seniors and most of them are not comfortable with doing their finances online. 6 /10 of the churches recorded their running costs to remain the same while 4/10 churches recorded that there was a reduction in running costs. 6/10 churches made use of the job keeper grant introduced by the government to help with salaries of staff members.

Question 8

Which changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic will remain in your church?

The pastors were unanimous that the online service will remain in their church. 3 of them said that they were willing to invest more money in equipment to be able to produce a more professional product. Six of the pastors commented that they will have both Zoom connect groups and groups that meet in person.

Question 9

If there is a pandemic again in 100 years from now, what message will you give to the future INC church to be prepared?

The pastors’ answers varied but showed their hearts for the church and the people they pastor. They answered as follows.

For the pastor.

·      Be prepared to spend more time with God, it will be a difficult season but just keep going.

·      If you persevere you will get through it.

·      Be aware of the opportunities that will come your way.

·       Keep on reinventing yourself and be able to change fast and be innovative.

·       At all times have a solid theology and preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

About the church.

·      When times are tough remind yourself that it is God’s church, the church is resilient and will flourish.

·      Do not go to church, be the church.

·      Be careful that you do not make the method greater than the message.

·      Stay true to the Great Commission and find ways to activate the lay leaders in your church more effectively.

·      History showed that through persecution the church always came out on the other side stronger and triumphant.

Relationships.

·      Through relationships people stay connected with each other and the church.

·       Never forget the power of small communities.

·      Relationships build an authentic community.

·      Make the primary strategy of your church connection and programs secondary.

It is about God.

·      Although times may be tough, always give God the glory for what is happening in your church and allow Him to grow His church.

Discussion, looking forward by looking back.

Looking at the churches during the Spanish flu, it is notable that the churches during the Spanish flu were externally focused, meaning that they focused not just on their own church members but also reaching out to the sick and the non-church goers, while the church during COVID-19 was more internally focused, this means that the focus was on keeping connection with current congregation members and trying to retain church membership numbers. Looking forward, INC pastors must consider focusing on their whole community and not only their church members. Allan Platt (2017) states that “the church needs to change its mentality about the world from just caring for the world to having compassion for the world”. The message of the gospel of Christ is not directed primary at individual persons, but to the community (Myers, 2018). Looking back at how churches during COVID-19 focused more on retaining members than reaching the lost, the question can be asked, did the church miss an opportunity to reach the lost community? Is the deeper reason for this inward focus perhaps that the churches became too comfortable in their buildings and stopped reaching out to those not in the building?

Connection is more important than programs. The first thing that most interviewed pastors did was to stop their programs and made keeping contact with members a priority. Looking forward, INC pastors must make connection a priority in each church. Myers (2018) states that to be a christian is not to become a member of a church or following a system of ideas, but it is to be included in the circle of the followers of Christ. People want to belong; it is the task of the church to be more than just an institution but rather a loving circle of followers of Christ that consistently welcome new people to the circle.

Self-care is very important in ministry to prevent burnout. Thom Rainer (2020) predicts that 2020 will be the year that more pastors will leave the ministry than any other year in history. All 10 pastors that took part in the interviews stated that although there are many issues to be addressed and many uncertainties, all of them were in a good place mentally, physically, and spiritually. Is the reason for this that the INC is a network that really support the wellbeing of its pastors? INC pastors must make sure that they practice self-care when it comes to their spiritual, mental, and physical health.

Finances is an important part of the church. During the interviews pastors had various ideas why the finances of the church was impacted. One possible reason that stood out was that churches who had more members that gave online showed no decrease in finances some even recorded and increase, while churches that still made use of physical offerings showed a decrease. Looking forward, INC pastors must be aware of various online methods of giving and motivate their members to give this way.

Activating the lay members in the church became valuable during the lockdown. 6 of the 10 churches interviewed made use of their lay members to provide pastoral care to members. Pastors sometimes tend to forget about the lay members in the church, Leonard Sweet (1999) states that people placed pastors on pedestals, and they enjoyed the view. INC pastors must get down from the pedestal and become aware of the gold that is surrounding them in the form of the lay members.

Conclusion

In the first part of this paper, the impact of the Spanish flu pandemic on the church was investigated. A further issue that was explored was how the church responded to the pandemic and what methods were used to get the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people. 

In the second part of this paper the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the church was explored. Specific focus was on the response of the INC church. Ten INC churches’ senior pastors were chosen to be interviewed on various aspects of their church’s response to the pandemic. In order to have a true representation of the INC church in Australia the interviewees were chosen from different categories, these categories included church size, location of the church, the socio economical community the church is located in as well as the age of the pastor.

The hope is that this paper will be found interesting and helpful to the current INC church as well as the INC church of the future. It may be helpful to pastors and church leaders in the future to help them with planning during epidemics and pandemics.

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