Perspectives: There’s no seminary course for COVID-19

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Editor’s Note: As part of our series of first-person perspectives on living during a pandemic, The Rev. Brent Levy, pastor of The Local Church in Pittsboro, writes about being a member of the clergy during COVID-19.

There’s no seminary course on pastoring during a pandemic.

This is not something they teach you in divinity school. As I’ve spoken to colleagues in the community and beyond, the general sense is that this is, for us, a strange new world — just as it is for so many globally. Like the early church in the book of Acts, we’re trying to assemble a bike while riding it.

What makes this especially difficult is that so much of what we do — so much of what it means to be a faith community — is the tangible and physical and in-person. Whether it is in worship on Sunday mornings or small groups during the week or loving our neighbors through mission and service, our communities thrive on the social. On connection.

In fact, we make the theological claim that, as those made in the image of God, we are hardwired for connection. To be disconnected, then, feels so weird because it’s not who we were made to be.

And yet, we are dealers in hope, too. We have been challenged to consider alternative and innovative ways to connect with God and one another and love our neighbors. For The Local Church, our mantra is “love where you are,” and we didn’t know it then, but it was made for such a time as this. Because church is more than a place, and it’s more than something that just happens for one hour a week. It can happen all the time — wherever you find yourself.

We are leaning hard into this mantra in this unprecedented season. “Love where you are” has looked like virtual worship through Facebook Live and YouTube on Sunday mornings — trying to make the experience feel as familiar and “normal” as possible to give people that sense of regularity and comfort. It looks like hosting “happy hours” through Zoom just to see one another’s faces and check in and pray for one another and offer virtual hugs. And it’s especially meant responding with care and concern to the significant needs our community now faces — to be love in this place we cherish so much.

I have also been inspired to see so many faith communities come together to this end, too. As challenging as it is, it is in circumstances like this that the Church does what she does best: offering the light and love of Christ through compassion and grace to bring healing to a hurting world.

Mostly, in my pastoral role, I’m working to keep our community connected, inspired, and hopeful. I was reminded recently of theologian Dr. James H. Cone’s words in “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”: “Despair was real; but it was not ultimate.”

In other words, yes; this is really hard. So many are facing tremendous challenge now and will continue to for the foreseeable future. And yet, God is with us in all of it, and will see us through. This is the message I’m carrying and seeking to share in every moment.

You can contact Brent Levy at brent@thelocalchurchpbo.org.