Dietrich Bonhoeffer is probably most famous for his role in opposing Nazi rule. He was a Protestant pastor living in Germany during WW2 and the years leading up to it. If you’ve heard of Bonhoeffer, it’s probably due to the Christian pastors approval of a number of assassination attempts against Adolf Hitler. Or maybe it was his participation with a secret German intelligence service called the Abwehr, who carried out those assassination attempts.
What you may not have known about him, is that he was one of the most influential Christian writers and theologians of the twentieth century. A couple of his most notable works are Life Together, and The Cost of Discipleship (I highly recommend both btw). Both of those books have similar themes of community and discipleship. Two disciplines of the Christian life that have become evasive during the Covid-19 crisis, and the new quarantined lifestyle most of us find ourselves living. I find this quote from Herr Bonhoeffer to be particularly insightful in our current climate:
“Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.” ~ Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Bonhoeffers point is that we can't measure our faithfulness to God in community and discipleship by how often meet together, how deep those meetings feel, or what those meeetings look like. In Nazi Germany, Christian community looked a lot different than it did after the fall of the Third Reich. Our community and discipleship is going to look a lot different over the next couple months than it has for the past seven years! But we must not be tempted to think we are being faithless, as we try to adapt to our current circumstances where our friendships and community are drastically altered. Nor should we give in to despair as we long to be close to our friends.
Now I don’t want to minimize the circumstances we find ourselves in, the coronavirus is truly dangerous for many people. And the resulting isolation is a challenge, and for the extrovert and those that thrive in relationship and community, it’s excruciating. But I’m certain that all of us can see the vast distance of suffering between living in Nazi Germany, and living today in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are still in a difficult time of suffering, that has, and will continue to challenge the Biblical imperatives of relationships and community. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn't still try (Hebrews 10:24-25). After all, Hitler's mission to take over the world, exterminate entire groups of people, and his vehiment hate of the Catholic Church didn't stop Bonhoeffer and German Christians from finding community.
And we have much that Bonhoeffer and Christians in Nazi Germany never did. We have the internet! We have cell phones, and computers, and tablets! Technologies that allow communication and social interaction from the comfort (albeit quarantined “comfort") of our own couches. While the University sends us home, closes the dorms, and transitions classes to online video meeting platforms, GCF as we know it, has become an impossibility.
Taking GCF Online
For the remainder of the semester, we want to try and make use of God’s common grace of technology, and continue GCF through online interactions. Just because our society seems to be shutting down, doesn’t mean our responsibility to follow Jesus should too (James 1:2-4). So this week on Wednesday night, when we would normally be meeting in CHEM 123 to drink Coke Zero, hang out with our friends, worship, and study God’s word, we will be taking GCF online through Zoom.
In order to adapt to our new circumstances, we are going to try and figure out what it looks like to follow Jesus together at GCF, without actually being together. So at 7pm this Wednesday, we will have a video Bible study in Acts through the Zoom meeting app. It’s the platform UM is using for classes during the covid, so I know many of you have the app.If you don’t have the app or an account, no worries! You can download the zoom app here, or zoom will automatically download on your device when you try and join your first meeting.
It only takes a couple of clicks to download to your phone, computer or tablet, it should literally take less than a minute (unless your internet is Spectrum...in which case it will take a total of 1 year to download anything). And as far as accounts go, you don’t need an account to use the service, as you join a meeting you choose a user name, and you’re good to go (which is nice for those of us that like to be Anonymous Aardvaarks).
One of the beautiful parts about using the Zoom application, is that we can send out a link, and anyone we send that link to can join the meeting without having to set up an account, or be invited personally. Wednesday night we will be posting the meeting link on the GCF GroupMe, our Twitter, our Facebook, and our website.
The meeting itself will look a little different than a Large Group. Normally we preach on Wednesday nights. As much as I love preaching, and think it’s vital to what we do on campus, I’m not sure that online video preaching is the best use of this platform for us right now. So our new Large Groups will look a lot more like a Bible study than a sermon.
I do ask that we have grace for each other during this experiment. We aren’t going to figure this out right away, and there are bound to be some technological and formatting hiccups. The success or failure of this is going to depend on our ability to adapt and have grace as we figure out how to help each other follow Jesus during our new quarantined lifestyles. Should it be a success, I would really love to continue our Gospel and Life Bible study online as well. We just want to figure out how to do this in a way that helps us grow and feeds us spiritually, before we start failing at several of these at once...
What About Discipleship
Now while I love Wednesday night in CHEM 123, and I love the Bible studies we have during the week, all of it comes second place in importance to our Discipleship Groups (D-Groups). Our student leaders are as committed as anyone to trying to find a new normal in discipling each other despite all that our globe is going through. We still want to dive into each other's lives, help one another with our struggles, and encourage and love our brothers and sisters through all of this. But this is yet another area where we are going to be forced into having grace with one another as we find that new normal.
D-Groups will also be taken online. If you haven't heard from you D-Group leaders (or haven't responded to them), reach out and find out how your group is going to stay connected during this season. We need other Christians helping us now more than ever (1 Thessalonians 5:14). We need the encouragement when we are weak and longing for friends, the rebuke when we are lazy during our forced quarentine, and friendship that is patient when this is all so frustrating and overwhelming.
So here’s to Bonhoeffer! What is inevitably going to feel "weak and trifling to us", what we are inevitably going to struggle through, let it not burden or discourage us. Because "it may be great and glorious to God." In a time where a globe-spanning virus is preventing us from actually being together, trying to find community and discipleship is going to be a struggle. But it’s a struggle we should have together. So, “thankfully we daily recieve what is given to us,” and try and love each other online in the coming weeks. See you soon.
