March 09, 2023 | by JB Brayfindley
“Core to what has happened the last 30 months has been a re-orientation amidst disorientation,” states Rev. Dr. Theon Johnson III, pastor at Downs Memorial UMC in Oakland, California. During a recent interview, Johnson reflects on where he saw Jesus in 2022. “I think in those types of experiences [reorientation amidst disorientation], we find God at work in the world, and we see the witness, the mission, and vision of Jesus of Nazareth come alive anew. I saw Jesus in the emerging. In the movement from where we’ve been to where we’re heading.”
Johnson speaks about the difficulty of change during the pandemic when all church gatherings—worship and all other programming — were suspended on March 15, 2020. In-person worship services did not return until March 20, 2022.
“The congregation was literally displaced from its understanding of worship and business-as-usual,” states Johnson. “During this season, people grew. People were transformed. We lost people—some moved from life to life abundant; others relocated…and even within the context of experiencing loss, there was an experience of gain, of joy, of discovering a new normal. This has happened for so many congregations--people discovering that we can change…when faced with an existential crisis…when faced with both disease and dis-ease, folks might actually be able to do something else.”
Despite challenges, the church sustained a food program, elder members found new ways to check in weekly with one another, learning to use computers and mobile devices. Others were “gracious with those who are in a different place” willing to find new ways to be safe outdoors, walking or sitting together with distance—in a word, says Johnson, willing to “gather differently.” And there were “opportunities for community building that happened in ways that had not for previous decades…” Johnson notes “the people who intentionally chose to pause long enough to see themselves and the world around them…that has the possibility of impact far beyond 2022.”
“As we find ourselves emerging from a season of pandemic not so dissimilar from two millennia ago—geopolitical circumstances, economic unrest, concerns for housing security, war and rumors of war—not so dissimilar from our present time,” reflects Johnson, “there has been, for so many people, a coming to grips with the gravity that perhaps we have experienced some of the closest opportunities to engage in the world as Jesus may have moved through the world…to be those who, instead of burying our heads in the proverbial sand, actually wake up, look up, stand up, and speak up…notice what’s happening in our world and respond.”
“To say that one is a Jesus follower implies that one is willing to move...you can’t follow unless you are willing to move from the place where you are. It’s not rocket science…there is profundity in the simplicity,” states Johnson. “I see Jesus everywhere and, in the ways that people found themselves pivoting, emerging, moving from ‘now’ to ‘next’.”