How the Church Lost Relevance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Going down memory lane, I can remember the rise of many social issues like gender inequality, human rights violations, and political upheavals. However, one key issue we failed to address for my generation (GenZ) was the rise of mental illness. I remember people from older generations taking the issue so lightly saying the younger generation was simply lazy. I remember the famous hashtag #itsokaytonotbeokay.

I even recall having classmates and colleagues who struggled with protecting their mental health. I remember friends of mine ‘hibernating’ from the rest of the world to take mental breaks.

Companies and organizations would post blogs, write books, administer medications, make carousel posts on social media, and all sorts of products and services to help curb and ease this mental health crisis.

As Christians, we simply saw it as a passing phase, while some of us were discerning enough to recognize that it was a spiritual attack on an entire generation. It wasn’t something anti-anxiety and anti-depression meds could solve because spiritual issues lie deeper than and go beyond the physical realm.

PRESENT

These minority groups were already positioned to make an impact on the entire population nationally and globally. I decided to discover for myself what made the minority control the nation and I discovered a very unique framework.

Purpose + Agenda + Trends + Channels of Influence = Dominance

Let’s use a group like the New Age Spiritualists, or to be more specific, New Age Witchcraft as an example for this framework. I recognized that they knew exactly what they were doing and possessed all the mentioned factors above to gain dominance in society.

First — They understood their purpose — the reason for their existence, the problems they created, and the tools they provided as solutions. But most of all, they identified their target audience (GenZers); the generation commonly known as the liquid generation. An audience that is easier to be swayed and influenced.

Next — They had an agenda — They understood their mission to capture an entire generation and subtly lead them into spiritual rituals. You may hear most young people say they are spiritual, not religious. They tend to write and manifest their vision. I’m pretty sure you’ve come across the use of trendy words like manifestations and affirmations. New age spiritualists saw the draw for “spirituality” in their target audience and capitalized on it through clearly defined goals using catch-phrase appealing words.

Then — They hopped on a trend — You can either create a wave or ride a wave. The rise of health consciousness and discussions about mental illness and the increase in suicide rates presented an opportunity to profer mental health solutions such as yoga, meditation, crystals, and incense burning.

Finally — They had multiple channels of influence — Since New Age Spiritualists had already formed alliances and partnerships with different organizations, there were established relationships. These were partners that provided the resources they were lacking. For this alliance, you don’t need to be the smartest in the room, you just have to have the smartest, richest, and most influential people backing you up. Due to this, it was common to find New Age spiritualists in every sphere of cultural influence. With all this in place, the only thing left was to get media attention by adopting digital multichannel distribution and mass commercialization. When I delved deeper, I was shocked to find a Horoscope app called Zodiac. It became really easy to find this type of group online as the solution to the mental health issues of Generation Z. Spiritual wellness became a thing and they carved out a niche in healthcare.

This is just an analysis of one group. Now, imagine how many other groups have presented their own agenda and dominated every industry.

While these groups stood out during the COVID-19 pandemic, we Christians sat in our homes and let down an entire generation. We were so distracted by socio-political arguments like whether JLo’s performance at the Super Bowl was appropriate for family entertainment or if it was just a celebration of women’s empowerment as she showcased her dancing skills and youthful exuberance despite her age.

This distraction was so great that we missed a more pressing need and opportunity to capture an entire generation whose fluid stance would’ve made them easily convert to the Kingdom of God. Spiritually, this was a classic case of the parable in the Bible where, when men slept the enemy sowed tares. This was such a huge loss to the Body of Christ that we may never fully understand the repercussions of the pandemic on the different generations at a national and global scale.

On the part of the Church, unlike the New Age Spiritualists:

We lost sight of our purpose (go ye into the world). We became the light of the church instead of the light of the world as ADP would say.

We had little to no plan or agenda moving into the pandemic.

We hardly responded to trends. Only a few churches and faith-based organizations did. There’s a fine line between being in this world and not of this world. We very seldom responded to the challenges and questions that presented themselves during the pandemic.

We had almost no channel of influence online except the church. Few partnerships, negative media attention, and little digital adoption (otherwise, we would rank top in SEO for “spirituality,” and rightly so since after all, we are spiritual beings ourselves).