How will Coronavirus affect the Church?

Three Predictions
I know predictions are hazardous, but here are three predictions about the effect of the coronavirus epidemic upon our churches, begining  with the saddest and closing with the most joyful.

Some people will drift away
Some will use the weekly absence of meeting with God's people as an escape route from the local church, and after the epidemic is over and the churches re-open they will never be seen again. True believers: be warned, this pandemic is likely to refine the church. Some of those who are tempted to drift away could be genuine struggling believers and church undershepherds must be especially careful to watch out for weak sheep in these days. But some who drift away will not be true believers, and as in the parable of the four different kinds of seed, prove by withering in the sun of affliction that they were not true believers in the first place.

Some believers will be greatly strengthened
Others, and now we mean true believers exclusively, will miss the fellowship so much that they will return with great joy. By missing the precious time of fellowship, worship and hearing the Word each Sunday, they will realise what they once took for granted. And they will return more resolved than ever before to make Sundays special and commit themselves to God and his people anew.

So often we take ordinary things for granted. My guess is that God's people will value corporate worship and house-fellowship in a new way post-pandemic.

Some will become believers
My third prediction is, I hope, the one that is most fulfilled. Living in a comfortable western world, men and women don't feel they need God. The idols of the age - money, careers, health, families, etc. - so easily take the place of God. But as these idols crumble and fall apart, men and women, we pray, will turn to the true and living God. The prodigal son only returns home after he has spent miserable time feeding pigs.

God's people should look out for opportunities not only to help those around them, but also to share the Gospel which alone can give life in the face of death, and hope in the face of uncertainty.