Dr. Charles W. Ferguson

I realize that I am probably the eighteen millionth person on the planet to offer some commentary on the condition of our society in the times of COVID-19 awareness. The spectrum of thought spans social, theological, scientific, and political areas. More people are demonstrating their capacity to address information with and without nuance. Many people have made up in their mind that the moment they are able to get back to connecting with people that they will never take the moment for granted ever again.

Let me begin by saying that I pray that this sentiment is real with the majority of people. I recognize more than ever the challenge of not seeing people that you love and embrace is very difficult. I acknowledge that being in an atmosphere of people that share common bonds and thought provides safety and security to be yourself. However, I am still skeptical of what people might do after weeks of serious isolation. More importantly, I am really thinking about how the composition of the church will be radically changed forever.  

I recently looked at the message I preached Resurrection Sunday last year. I was caught off guard listening to the end of the message. I talked about how the soldiers at Jesus’ tomb had first hand knowledge of the resurrection. However, their opportunity to tell the truth was bought with a price from the government. The final point of the sermon was to remind people not to sell out the Gospel. The challenge to the people was to make certain to spread the Good News by any means. Do not limit your engagement to the church house only. That statement was made one year ago.

One year ago, we did not have a pandemic. One year ago, we were able to see anyone at anytime in any place. One year, twelve months, 365 days ago, life was extremely different. Now, we are under stay at home orders. Today, we must have six feet between strangers and loved ones. Right now, people can not see loved ones in deteriorating conditions. No one is out actively chasing the bag at 2 or 3 jobs. People have no choice 

but to function primary from home. According to many people, the church is closed. 

Hmmmm….the church is closed….maybe……

The overly commercialized church is now closed. The institution that fights over majority group think is on figurative life support. The pursuit of the largest congregation in town has been placed on hold. Now, the church of the Living God can collectively return to its roots. Acts 2:42-47 reminds us of the beginning of the structure of the church. 

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The key to the growth and development of the universal church began with the understanding of community. The teachings of the Gospel were definitely the center and heartbeat of the movement. The fellowship was the vehicle that caused the Gospel to have impact, power, and advancement. The moment we began to walk away from the “people business”, we forgot what made the difference. 

Consider for a moment how people began to move away from the necessity of engaging one another. Think about the clique nature that may have taken place in some congregations. Think about how you and I talked about doing certain things for outreach or improving the neighborhood. Think about how many times we have had arguments and disagreements over ministry methods in the name of maintain the status quo. 

Seems a little more frivolous now doesn’t it?

Believe me when I tell you that I am ready for the shout of life. I promise you! I am not going to mind that we are going to have a Hallelujah good time. I bet not hear anyone talk about service was too long. Yet, I want you to know that I can not go back to a church life devoid of the people business. I can not trade a good whoop for a lack of discussion about the poor and the maligned. I will trade in a shouting Sunday morning for a service to the community on a Sunday.

We can never go back to a season of taking anything for granted. Don’t take your pastor for granted. Pray for real. Don’t take your people for granted. Recognize the gifts that they are and pray for them. Don’t take ministry for granted. Service has many layers. Don’t take the Gospel for granted. Know it and tell it. Otherwise, our time away has been in vain. 

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,but blessed is he who keeps the law.—Proverbs 29:18, ESV

One of the great pet peeves of my life is finding people who refuse to see beyond their current moment. It becomes a challenge to vision plan, imagine greater, and pursue more when others are constantly speaking of their current condition only. I guess my pet peeve might be somewhat of a character flaw. However, I believe it grants insight into the difference between those who pursue vision and those content with the status quo.

On my social media feed, I came across something that made me laugh and brought a sobering reality to how many organizations and people operate daily. It was a meme of a pastoral search committee. The caption read, “Basically, we’re looking for an innovative pastor with fresh vision who will inspire our church to remain exactly the same.” I laughed really hard because my history with pastoral search committees have looked just like that.

Yet, I had to sit back and consider for a moment. Many groups of people possess this groupthink ideology of remaining the same while appearing to have a vision of going forward. Most people are afraid of forward thinking because it requires admitting that some methods have not worked. Brothers and sisters, this way of thinking and living is not going to elevate our ability to possess greater for our lives, community, and the future.
The scripture that is posted is a simple proverb that suggests that when vision is not giving people become discouraged. Discouragement and status quo living can only be healed by a proactive and intentional vision for the future. The question is how do we get to a greater future?

First and foremost, we must stop hindering ourselves by saying that today is all we have. We must begin to look at our community with different eyes. What does our future look like? How do we envision the community in 20 years? We must have fresh eyes that see the future no only in line with the surrounding trends, but birth innovators that will make our communities trendsetters.

Second, we must embrace visionary and innovative thinkers. We can no longer afford to reject individuals that present and give a fresh perspective on the outlook before us. We cannot say that what has worked is the only method to what shall be a future. If that was the case, we would have no need of innovation. So many people are burst out of our communities who are on the cutting edge of bringing renewal to all areas of life. Yet, they have felt that their abilities are not welcomed. If we do not change our attitudes, we will suffer like other great civilizations and organizations of history.

Third, we must finally admit that our complacency has brought us to this moment. We need to stop blaming everything else as to why we have not gone further. As an African-American man, I am a part of a lineage that has birthed many innovations, businesses, communities, and other trend setting avenues. I cannot except the thought that we lack the ability to do new things. If we have arrived at the moment of discouragement, it begins with us examining how much time and effort we have put in to being disenchanted without being determined. We must stop the cycle of letting others dictate to us what can be and reestablish our call to arms to change our atmosphere for the better.

It is time to heal the disenchantment of those who want more. We must cast the prophetic vision before our people perish.

Like many people in our society, I have grown extremely weary of the constant barrage of commentary regarding separatist ideology. The public discourse has become so easily toxic that my mind can not conceptualize the last time I heard anyone have a civil dialogue about anything. The wave of discontent and discord has led me to believe that human beings are not participating in any sort of evolution or growth. As a matter of fact, I believe people are beginning to discover that their level of depth in conversation, rationalization, and discernment has fallen behind the brain development of a gnat.

While I enjoy laughing at memes, jokes, and content worthy of a belly laugh, my physical insides of became affected the parasitic nature of anger, divisiveness, and arrogance demonstrated by people who claim moral superiority. I have become downright tired and exhausted by everyone who demonstrates some unnecessary level outrage. Most importantly, I am tired of the fake outrage of people who just want something to be angry about.

Would you all please SHUT……UP……RIGHT……NOW!!!!!!!!

Social media has made so many people brave enough to express their opinions on subject matter that they have never attempted to bring nuance to the subjects once. Most people are not immersed in trying to work through the difficulty of subjects that are not favorable. More importantly, people are attempting to constantly bring black and white to areas of thought and consideration that are constantly gray.

We are in the midst of a concept I will call the Heart vs. the Institution.

The Heart is comprised of the essence of what a movement or expectation should exhibit. For example, the Church is supposed to the Body of Christ–a living organism. The Body of Christ is supposed to understand, feel, embrace, and ignite transformation that stems from the heavens of a loving and benevolent God.

The Institution takes the narrative of the Heart and fits it into a box that causes limitation and cuts off access to the whole truth and narrative of the Heart. For example, the Institution called the Church will take the favorable parts of Body of Christ and fashion it into a dogma that will create hoops to attain favor, but it will not grant you the access to the grace needed in troubled times.

I am angry because individuals are content with being institutionalized. The world has made the point to tell others to choose sides over doing what is right. The concept is not a political issue. It is not a “rep your set”, gang-affiliation reality. We are living in times that people have decided to sell out to the highest bidder. We living in a world that social media is now the hub for fake outrage. We live in a culture that is willing to constantly cancel while hoping for restoration for selfish reasons.

Do you want to know why I am angry as hell? I am tired of free thinking, moral agents of the world, created in the Imago Dei (image of God) selling out their birthright of for a bowl of BS. If you can’t begin to understand why the perceived value of the human experience has been reduced, you are probably hoping that it continues to drop in order to promote the constant nonsense.

I am tired of fake outrage. I am tired of self-serving. I am tired. I am angry. I am fed up. This mess has got to stop. But how?

We must find a way back to being revolutionary. We must rediscover that being countercultural is necessary in exposing the true ills of our societal context. We must refuse to accept supremacist ideology as a construct of normalcy. We must expect better from ourselves as a community. We can not wait on others to fix what we have the capacity to fix.

I am not looking to fight against people that want to always prove that their ideology is correct. I am not getting into debates with individuals with the depth of a kiddie pool. I refuse to engage in the nonsensical debates of people with the visual perception of sheep. We must finally arrive at a moment that walking out the principles of Jesus Christ without limits will  transform the hurting, maligned, and forgotten. It is time to live in a way that justice will run like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

We must no longer accept the pretense that others get to set the parameters around our individual and collective narratives. I am a Black man. I am a follower of the religion of Jesus Christ (Howard Thurman reference; look it up). I am not explaining to people why I hate systematic disenfranchisement (read the millions of books on it). I despise people who co-op a brown, Israeli Jesus into a theology of white supremacy (that ain’t my Christ). I am a child of the living God that wants to see and witness the genuine transformation of the hearts and souls of all.

And if it means flipping tables, Jesus set the precedent for my righteous anger!