The Pandemic and my Faith
Item
Title
The Pandemic and my Faith
Description
I am a 65 year old man who has lived his entire life with faith in God. I was raised a Methodist and at the age of 20 married a girl who was a member of the Presbyterian church in my town. We married in her church and our children were baptized there, so I felt the proper thing was for me to transfer and become a member of the Presbyterian church and worship there as a family.
Through the years we were regular church goers although my wife and I both worked turns and weekends, so we weren’t that involved in the operation of the church, we just attended and our children were raised in the church.
As I approached my 60’s, I suffered some health problems and while I always had believed and felt that I had a lot of faith, my faith in God and my involvement in church increased after a couple near death experiences. I was overcome by a feeling that there was things I needed to do and while I have been very active in my church and community since my health issues, I’m still not sure that I’ve done everything needed and I still pray to God and ask for direction as to what he wants me to do and how to serve.
As what is these days a sign of the times, our church which was a traditional (not a contemporary service church) was failing financially and we realized we must merge or close our doors and walk away from our building. 3 years ago we did complete a successful but somewhat difficult merger with another Presbyterian church in our community. And I was filled with the thought that I should work to make our merger successful. I became more active in my church. I became an elder and am on our church session which runs the business of the church. My wife and I are Sunday School teachers together for the 1-3 grade levels and I am Sunday School Superintendent. I sing in the church choir. I am the chairman of both the Personnel committee and the Pastor Nominating committee. After our long time pastor(who was a yoked pastor with the church we merged with) retired, I was in charge of hiring both an Interim pastor and our current pastor. As strange as it might sound to some, I’ve felt that I have been doing what I was kept here to do after my health issues.
And then the pandemic hit. As a member of Session, mine was one of the votes, after much consideration, that was cast to close the church and all church activities until our national and state leaders tell us it’s safe to reopen. I especially agonized over the loss of the children in Sunday School and I still feel we aren’t doing enough in consideration of the children’s spiritual needs during the pandemic.
However, I do feel that I am learning more and am being refreshed with the online teaching and devotions we’ve been having Monday through Friday along with our online Sunday services. I also have a niece who is a pastor and she leads online worship which I watch. One of my weaknesses is that I’m not properly schooled in the scriptures and I feel that the pandemic has helped me in that respect. I describe our new pastor as a “preacher/teacher” as he is very good at leading you through the scriptures and teaching God’s word, so in a way, the pandemic has helped me and I hope I’m of better service to my church when this is all over.
So I hope this is helpful and what you’re looking for. My granddaughter who has certainly been one of God’s gifts to me, asked me to do this and I hope I haven’t let her down. God bless you!
Through the years we were regular church goers although my wife and I both worked turns and weekends, so we weren’t that involved in the operation of the church, we just attended and our children were raised in the church.
As I approached my 60’s, I suffered some health problems and while I always had believed and felt that I had a lot of faith, my faith in God and my involvement in church increased after a couple near death experiences. I was overcome by a feeling that there was things I needed to do and while I have been very active in my church and community since my health issues, I’m still not sure that I’ve done everything needed and I still pray to God and ask for direction as to what he wants me to do and how to serve.
As what is these days a sign of the times, our church which was a traditional (not a contemporary service church) was failing financially and we realized we must merge or close our doors and walk away from our building. 3 years ago we did complete a successful but somewhat difficult merger with another Presbyterian church in our community. And I was filled with the thought that I should work to make our merger successful. I became more active in my church. I became an elder and am on our church session which runs the business of the church. My wife and I are Sunday School teachers together for the 1-3 grade levels and I am Sunday School Superintendent. I sing in the church choir. I am the chairman of both the Personnel committee and the Pastor Nominating committee. After our long time pastor(who was a yoked pastor with the church we merged with) retired, I was in charge of hiring both an Interim pastor and our current pastor. As strange as it might sound to some, I’ve felt that I have been doing what I was kept here to do after my health issues.
And then the pandemic hit. As a member of Session, mine was one of the votes, after much consideration, that was cast to close the church and all church activities until our national and state leaders tell us it’s safe to reopen. I especially agonized over the loss of the children in Sunday School and I still feel we aren’t doing enough in consideration of the children’s spiritual needs during the pandemic.
However, I do feel that I am learning more and am being refreshed with the online teaching and devotions we’ve been having Monday through Friday along with our online Sunday services. I also have a niece who is a pastor and she leads online worship which I watch. One of my weaknesses is that I’m not properly schooled in the scriptures and I feel that the pandemic has helped me in that respect. I describe our new pastor as a “preacher/teacher” as he is very good at leading you through the scriptures and teaching God’s word, so in a way, the pandemic has helped me and I hope I’m of better service to my church when this is all over.
So I hope this is helpful and what you’re looking for. My granddaughter who has certainly been one of God’s gifts to me, asked me to do this and I hope I haven’t let her down. God bless you!
Date Created
May 6, 2020
Community
Longs Run Trinity Presbyterian Church
Denomination
Presbyterian Church (USA)
State
Ohio
This item was submitted on May 6, 2020 by Jeff Mercer using the form “Tell us your story” on the site “Pandemic Religion: A Digital Archive”: https://pandemicreligion.org/s/contributions
Click here to view the collected data.