GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & Workplaces are in denial over how much Americans have changed. Now employees “pose the ultimate questions about death, about mortality: what is life for? What is our relationship with God?”

by Alvin Chang, The UK Guardian Newspaper, 3/21/22.

Nearly six months before Covid-19, the Yale historian Frank Snowden wrote a book about epidemics and pandemics. What he found was that these periods of suffering reshape not just how societies function, but also how humans want to spend their limited time on Earth.

“Epidemic diseases reach into the deepest levels of the human psyche,” he said in 2020. “They pose the ultimate questions about death, about mortality: what is life for? What is our relationship with God?”

Two years and a pandemic later, Snowden said Covid-19 has challenged another set of beliefs: how America is supposed to work.

Before the pandemic, Americans were already working longer hours than people in other developed nations. Perhaps it was in the spirit of the American dream – the idea that if you work hard, this country will make your sacrifices worth it. But mere days into the pandemic, it became harder to hold on to this myth.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & As COVID-19 Death Tolls Rise, More Americans Want Religious Funerals

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: one of the results of previous pandemics throughout history was an increased interest in our eternal destiny (heaven, hell and judgement). I pointed out in my book it’s important for churches to address these questions now. Focus more of your preaching and teaching on these topics to meet the needs of the post-pandemic population.

Here’s a reminder from some recent research that the topic of the afterlife is increasingly important to people in a post pandemic period.

As COVID-19 Death Tolls Rise, More Americans Want Religious Funerals

The trend toward secular memorials reverses for the first time in a decade.

by DANIEL SILLIMAN|CHRISTIANITY TODAY, DECEMBER 13, 2021.

Death abounded in America in 2020 and 2021. According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 570,000 more people died in 2020 than in 2019, with about 350,000 of those attributable to COVID-19. Another 350,000 people died from the coronavirus by the fall of 2021, bringing the death total to 700,000—and counting.

When roughly that number died over the four years of the Civil War, it had a widespread impact on American culture. Historians such as Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, say changesincluded increased attention to cemeteries, the rise in the importance of family photographs, and rapid growth in the popularity of practices of spiritualism, a new religious movement that claimed to help people communicate with the dead.

What impact today’s pandemic deaths will have on American culture remains to be seen. But one shift is notable now: The percentage of people age 40 and older who say that religion is “very important” in the funeral of a loved one has gone up for the first time in a decade.

HEAVEN & Nearly 70% of born-again Christians say other religions can lead to Heaven: study

by Leonard Blair, 10/21/21.

… Nearly 70% of born-again Christians disagree with the biblical position that Jesus is the only way to God, according to a new survey from Probe Ministries, a nonprofit that seeks to help the Church in renewing the minds of believers with a Christian worldview.

The survey, which looked at religious beliefs and attitudes toward cultural behaviors, polled 3,106 Americans ages 18 to 55 from all religious groups, including 717 respondents who identified as born-again Christians.

Born-again respondents were identified based on their affirmative response to the question, “Have you ever made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in your life today?” They were also identified by their belief about what happens after they die. Born-again believers agree that “I will go to Heaven because I confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.”

Despite this claim by the self-identified born-again Christians in the study, however, among all respondents ages 18 to 39, who profess an affiliation with some religion, fewer than 1 out of 5 of them strongly disagree with the statement that Muhammad, Buddha and Jesus all taught valid ways to God.

Still, some 60% of this cohort said they shared their faith with someone else at least annually with the intent of converting them.

“If you think that there are multiple ways to Heaven, why would you want to go out of your way to convert someone to your religion? Of course, you could be sharing with an unaffiliated person who needs to choose a valid religion,” noted Steve Cable, senior vice president of Probe Ministries, in his analysis of the data.

GROWING THE POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH & The meaning of life, death and the afterlife will increasingly be on people’s minds and must be addressed in church teachings. #eReformation. #GrowingThePostPandemicChurchBook

by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., excerpted from Growing the Post-Pandemic Church, 8/9/20.

Eschatology, the study of one’s final destiny, will be of increasing interest as the world grows smaller and waves of illnesses travel the globe at increasing speeds.

The problem:

In recent years the church shifted away from eschatology, to topics of how to live a better life here and now. And while that may be important, it is eternal questions that will begin to dominate people’s interest as catastrophes circle the globe.

The solution:

Start preparing now: churches need to be prepared with orthodoxy and in clarity to address the issues of life, death and the afterlife.

Remember …

Jesus told us, “Take a lesson from the fig tree. From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer’s just around the corner. And so, it is with you. When you see all these things, you know he is at the door. Don’t take this lightly” (Mark 13:28-29, MSG).

Christ knew today’s catastrophes would happen. He is not surprised (John 16:30, Rev. 2:23). So, as knowledge of a fig tree tells an orchardist about the coming season, so too must Christian leaders discern the season we are in. It is time for church leaders to carefully adapt electronic tools, the way it once did the printing press, to better communicate the Good News.

Click to learn about the “9 other marks of the eReformation” in Growing the Post-Pandemic Church.

ETERNITY & 41% of Germans think more about the meaning of life since the coronavirus crisis. #NotFooling

A survey by the market and social research Institute INSA-Consulere (Erfurt) on behalf of the German news website Idea, shows that 41% of Germans say that they are “thinking more about the meaning of life” because of the corona pandemic. That is not the case for 46% of the respondents, 8% did not know, and four percent did not provide any information. Additionally, women have more existential questions (45%) than men (38%), while younger people significantly less than older people (30 vs. 45%).
See more: http://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/5212/41_of_Germans_think_more_about_the_meaning_of_life_since_the_coronavirus_crisis_began

HEAVEN & Most people want to live past 75, but they haven’t given much thought to dying

By Jason Millman 9/29/14 The Washington Post

There have been a couple of important developments in the past couple of weeks suggesting that maybe, just maybe, we can finally have a long-sought rational conversation about end-of-life care.

First, the influential Institute of Medicine issued a 507-page report recommending major reforms for how end-of-life care is provided. And then Ezekiel Emanuel, a well-known bioethicist and former Obama adviser, explained why he wants to die at the not-so-old age of 75. Emanuel’s provocative essay has inspired a range of reactions, including on this blog, where University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack made his case for living longer.

Less discussed in the past couple of weeks is where Americans’ attitudes on death and dying stand — and how they’ve been changing. A couple of Pew Research Center polls in the past year provide useful perspective on this topic.

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Read more at … http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/29/most-people-want-to-live-past-75-but-they-havent-given-much-thought-to-dying/

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