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Christianity Today, May (Web-only), 2009 |

Soulwork

How to Handle the Next Pandemic

Christians at their best have an odd answer.

Mark Galli | posted 5/07/2009 09:11AM

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Last I heard, some churches were creating preparedness plans in the case of a flu pandemic. One 3,000-word plan I read tended to focus on institutional survival. It encouraged churches to answer questions like: Will staff come into the office? How will the church communicate with members if public gatherings are forbidden by the government? If the church does meet for worship, how should members share in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper? And so on.

It's all well and good, but I wonder if churches would be better served by asking its members to read Stark's account. That would be the most crucial form of preparedness, no? That would prompt us to start thinking about the discipleship choices that will face us in a real pandemic: Who should visit the sick and dying, and who should not? Should clergy protect themselves from the disease at all costs to guarantee ongoing leadership, or is effectual leadership at such times to model sacrifice? If vaccines are in limited supply, as news reports indicate, should entire churches forgo their right to a vaccine so that others can be protected?

Christians at their best concern themselves less with the church's institutional survival, or even their own survival, and more with the welfare of the suffering. We live with a host of contradictions that give us courage in the midst of a culture of panic. We've learned that in weakness there is strength, that in giving we receive, and that in losing our lives, we save them—all because of history's greatest contradiction, that story about a suffering God whose death brings life.

Mark Galli is senior managing editor of Christianity Today. He is author of A Great and Terrible Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Attributes of God (Baker).

Related Elsewhere:

Previous SoulWork columns are available on our site.

Imago Fidei, CT's image blog, noted a clash between Egypt's Christians and police over swine flu.

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May (Web-only) 2009, Vol. 53

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Philip Wong

Posted: May 12, 2009 8:31 AM


Some Christians and some non-Christians in Hong Kong actually risked their lives caring for SARS patients. One of those Christians died and her life and death were made into a movie which moved many to come to Christ or become more like Christ.

Texan in China

Posted: May 12, 2009 7:32 AM

I lived through SARS in Shanghai, and I remember being very scared because of the fear of the unknown--how can any of us possibly see microbes? Yet I also learned through that experience that true courage is not the absence of fear, nor is it a mindless, foolish disregard for danger. Rather, true courage is acting in the face of fear. Fear is an emotion that God gave us, and it can be a good thing, because fear can warn us of very real dangers. But when fear paralyzes us, that's when it becomes an unhealthy thing. I greatly appreciate Stark's observations of how early Christians' response to the epidemics of their days proved instrumental in the transformation of the Roman Empire into a Christian society. It may well take Christian heroism amid other crises of similar scale to win America and other nations to Christ (it is instructive to note that the most effective response to Hurricane Katrina was mounted by Christians, and not the Federal government.)

Jeanette

Posted: May 10, 2009 9:51 PM


I'm with Chuck. The media is always hysterical, trying to get us worked up. I'm not afraid and I would not get a vaccine. To me the swine flu is a non-issue. (How the church should respond IS an issue, though, thanks for the article). As to Communion during an "outbreak", I was in Asia during SARS and they distributed sealed-in-plastic wafers and juice, so that's one option.

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