With people trying to fill their time at home, a lot of people think they need to make themselves busy, useful, or needed. You don’t have to.

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there is no playbook here

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s tempting to think you have something specific to do. But you don’t. No matter what you read online.

We aren’t all homeschooling our kids just because they’re home. And it also happens that school would be now.

We don’t have to run church services from our homes. Some of us are, but you don’t have to.

But most of all, you don’t have to keep us all together. That isn’t on your shoulders.

Nor is there somebody else whose job it is to keep you connected just because we’re physically distancing ourselves. You aren’t a baby bird waiting to be fed.

In the church world, there’s a growing sense that if we aren’t physically allowed to do church together, then we have to do something. The funny thing is that, in a sense, the conversation ends there.

We must do something, right?

But what? And who actually knows?

There’s no playbook for this crisis. We don’t have an actual pattern to draw on. Unless you consider the mixed history of spreading pandemics by not social distancing.

But the beauty of having no playbook for a crisis that requires social distancing in the internet age is that we get to make it up as we go.

Some of us are expanding into virtual church. Some are hosting Bible studies and coffee hours. Churches are rediscovering phone trees and call lists. But literally none of these are necessary. These are all creative responses in the midst of crisis.

None of us has to do anything. Instead, perhaps we ask ourselves What do we get to do?

We start at the point of opportunity rather than after the expectation.