Something is happening at our church we weren’t expecting during a global pandemic. Like you, we reacted without a playbook and pivoted in many areas, believing it would be short-lived. This was not the case around the world, and especially in San Francisco, California.

Online worked when it was all we had. Online church continues to be a tool, but it’s only a glimmer. Those who have returned in-person, we can’t get enough, say enough good things about being back together. (Note that the Church in San Francisco was online because of city ordinances from March 1, 2020-June 20, 2021 - about 68 weeks.) Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

You can ask anyone who calls Epic Church home and they might have various answers, but the one thing that is undeniable is that the Spirit of the Living God is upon us! I write this to encourage you. I write this to say it’s not a magic potion or found in a podcast or ordered online. It’s prayer and the Holy Spirit. It’s a collective daily time with Jesus. It’s meeting each other’s needs. Sounds a bit like Acts, doesn’t it? That’s exactly how it feels too!

This is a result, the fruit, of what happened in our church during a global pandemic! I got to baptize my friend, Sheila, a Filipino widow who was given a Bible from her university professor and she kept coming back to this book! After the Alpha Course plus new friendships she found in online church, she was ready to make her faith public by baptism!

Yes, it really has been these 3 miracles:

Prayer and the Holy Spirit. Our church family has met on Zoom weekly since shelter-in-place orders to pray for personal, local and global needs. We’re learning how to open ourselves up to the work of the Holy Spirit, part of the Trinity with God the Father and Jesus the Son. We take the posture with hands open whenever we begin a service, a team meeting, a small group, a class, and welcome the Holy Spirit to have His way. We are learning to be quiet and listen. We are growing more expectant! Epic did an 11 week series on the Holy Spirit that can be watched here. With the privilege of being a part of Epic’s founding families, I hesitate to call us Pentecostal or Baptist! I call us expectant and the Spirit tends to wow me every time!
Collective daily time with Jesus. I’m wowed by this, too. The best thing we can do as church leaders is to model how to have a quiet time, that personal time in the Bible and in prayer. While our church family was away from one another, we picked up our Bibles and asked God to teach us and speak to us. Friends reached out and invited one another to various YouVersion devotionals. In a time of crisis, people prayed. People took their spiritual journeys seriously and stayed spiritually fed with their own times with God. This is basic discipleship. What God has done with His people collectively reveals a strong root system. Those days when we wondered if we’d even have a church to lead, this was happening. People were reading their Bibles and praying and seeking God. Now that we are back together, we are stronger. I’m grateful for every man, woman, boy and girl’s part in strengthening the body of Christ in this way.
Meeting Needs. No one was above anything and no one was left behind.* I write this as we said far more goodbyes than welcomes to the city. Those who have stayed became more committed. We showed up for food distribution at the neighborhood elementary school. We got creative with seeing one another and online small groups. And to our surprise, as we started gathering again in person, new people are showing up! They are bringing with them a freshness and a newness to this place, to our church. Perhaps unbeknownst to them, they come as a reminder that Christ has not forsaken this city nor His Church.

I realize this isn’t happening at every church. Maybe you’re sad in reading my thoughts because you’re the one carrying the load at your church, because God seems silent, because there doesn’t seem to be much life left at your church. If this is you, you’re not alone. We’ve spent time with many pastors this year who are exhausted, discouraged, and just done. But my prayer in this post is that whatever your role is in the local church, that you will feel attached to Christ, the head of the body, and feel encouraged that whatever you do in His Name is not in vain. I’d love to pray for you by name as well. Send me an email or leave your name and church in the comments and more of us can pray for more of you.

*I write about the majority. Not everyone who moved had the option to stay. Not everyone clung to Christ. Not everyone agreed with everything we did as a church. Let us do our part in our local churches to be the welcome of Christ because we’ve all had different experiences and emotions. You are loved. You belong at church.

If you are reading this post because you get my newsletter in your inbox, thank you for subscribing! We’ve got almost 800 of us in the neighborhood now! The blog is like our front porch! The newsletter is more like conversation around the table! We welcome you to join us!