I’ve had some time on my hands lately…and that has given me an opportunity to think about a question:
How do the activities of daily life add up to what we experience as community?
Here we are in this Covid-19 lockdown, and that question has taken on a new urgency. And our circumstances are forcing us to ask it in a new way.
It used to be that one of the first things we would think of in analyzing with our lack of community was time. The answer always, “We’re too busy.” Now, suddenly, most people have way more time, but lack the ability to physically be together.
Before Covid-19, time was our scarcest resource.
So one massive disruption has taken away something we took for granted, which was the ability to get together, and given us way more of the thing we often felt we didn’t have enough of, which was time.
This is affecting all of us in unprecedented ways. As one who works with businesses, non-profits and churches, I’ve noticed some interesting similarities, and am hearing common questions in each. We often assume that money is the limiting resource, and simply take time for granted.
The question we are all asking is how do we make “the best use of this time”? We don’t know how long it will last, and we don’t know what the ongoing effects of it will be.
Since I’ve been working on this question of community for a while, I’m seeing some trends which offer insights into the future.
The bottom line is that the Covid-19 lockdown offers remarkable opportunities to build community. How? By engaging our people in the work of the ministry.