The Pivot in Our Mission: Convert Retreat into Advance

As we creep slowly forward, we dare not miss this opportunity to turn "retreat into advance."

At his inaugural address in 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to a nation rocked by the Great Depression. He took the opportunity to turn the dire times into a more noble response.

He said in part, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Roosevelt saw the opportunity to take a difficult circumstances and pivot toward the future. This perspective is helpful for the church as well.

You and I have not lived through a time like this in our lives. We can all agree we aren't going to miss terms like "self-quarantine," "social distancing," and "shelter at home" once this finally passes.

But as we creep slowly forward, we dare not miss this opportunity to turn "retreat into advance."

If you are a church leader, no doubt you were thinking at the start of the year about how to help your church be more effective in the work of the gospel in your community. You likely had conversations with staff and other leaders about how to minister to the marginalized in your community as well. Maybe you were focusing especially on the coming Easter season as key to your plans when everything changed.

A renewed vision

It's easy to see the pandemic as a great interruption to be endured and forgotten instead of the great opportunity to pivot toward a renewed vision for ministry. We can learn much in this case from the life of Jesus.

When you read the Gospels, you see that so much of his earthly ministry was based on responding to the opportunities that presented themselves to him: encountering fishermen as he walked ...