Red Deer 3: Annus Horribilis
The first few months of 2021 were filled with optimism. My wife Sharaya and I were just three days into our adventure as parents when we rang in the new year; Trinity Church was starting to show signs of growth, and by the Spring, we even celebrated our first two baptisms and saw someone come to know Jesus for the first time!
But that's when everything changed.
The next wave of COVID-19 hit, and new, stricter regulations came. It rocked our little church. Some were angry that we weren't standing up to the government, while others were upset that we weren't doing enough to obey restrictions (I'm sure you know all about that). As leaders, we wrestled with how to respond, and at one point, it seemed like we might have the world's smallest church split on our hands--not a record I was particularly excited for us to win.
A split never happened (thank you, Lord!), but it was heartbreaking to see several people leave. The church dwindled to around twenty again, roughly the number of people there when we arrived.
Because Alberta's winters are so long, people like to maximise what little summer they have here. This fact made for some quiet Sundays. I remember one particularly tough Sunday when I preached to my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. That's it. No one else had shown up that day.
(Unfortunately, there were no restrictions to blame; we were allowed up to 30 people in our building at that point.)
In those moments, it was hard to hold back the tears. But whatever happened, we'd committed to preaching the Good News of Jesus, even if only two people were there.
By September, the church felt more like its old self again. Dave Rogers joined us from Ascot, and I had the enormous privilege of being officially prayed in as an elder at Trinity Church. However, one of our elders, Nick, was sick with COVID and getting worse daily. He joined the eldership commissioning via Zoom but was hospitalised a few days later.
A month went by, and Nick continued to deteriorate. It was devastating for our little church family.
But things got worse.
Within a week, one of our members took their own life; he was the new believer I mentioned earlier. Another member of our church relapsed into addiction; this was one of the people baptised. Shortly after that, Nick lost his battle with COVID and went to be with the Lord. It was heartbreaking.
Praying for Dave and Sharaya during the eldership commissioning
The Queen famously described 1992 as an annus horribilis - a horrible year in light of the challenges she'd faced.
2021 was our annus horribilis.
I'm certainly not too proud to tell you that I felt my knees might buckle under the weight of the pastoral challenges we faced. It was a brutal year.
In that season, three important truths kept us going:
We were still confident in God's calling.
We knew that ultimately, Jesus would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18b). Whether or not Trinity was part of God's long-term picture, we would remain faithful in the present.
We know that God's grace is sufficient because His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). And boy, we felt weak!
Despite the pain of 2021, we knew God was with us.
Something was stirring.
But I'll tell you about that next week.
Dave, Nick, Dwayne, and Brian. Nick passed away in late 2021, and his warm, loving heart is greatly missed!
