Guest commentary by Richard DuBose
When the age of the coronavirus dawned, Montreat Conference Center was unprepared.
I don’t mean we didn’t see it coming. Our staff members track news of epidemics like coastal residents track hurricanes. Even a small health scare threatens camps and conference ministries, and our eyes were on the coronavirus in early January.
No, I mean that we were unprepared to adjust to the world we found ourselves suddenly navigating. Montreat is a convening ground, a gathering place for the transformation of God’s people. Our mission is grounded in Reformed ecclesiology and, as a place-based ministry, we put a premium on face-to-face, shared experiences. People come to Montreat to be with each other — ideally, as often and as meaningfully as possible.
This ethos is reflected in matters large and small. (Example? Each summer, 125 college-age young adults come to Montreat to serve on our summer staff. We provide lodging for the vast majority of them, and we have not – deliberately have not – equipped those lodges with internet access. Think about that.)
So when, in mid-March, we canceled or postponed all programming for the next six weeks, we suddenly faced an unprecedented question: What do we do now?
My first instinct was to hunker down, count pennies and pray. Almost immediately, however, staff members and volunteers began reframing the question: What could we do now? Calls and emails insisted that God was asking the conference center to convene people for this time and place, and that we could mobilize the same leadership and talent that have led our programs from the stage to present programming online. Even at a conference center, Christ calls us not just to survive this crisis but to make a real difference in people’s lives today.
On April 2, we launched “Montreat Now,” an online program for summer youth conference participants. For the next eight weeks these sessions, conducted by this summer’s youth conference leadership, will convene our youth conference community in an effort to help leaders and participants alike understand better the enormous disruption that this outbreak has inflicted on all of us. Suddenly, our “placed-based ministry” is venturing – out of necessity – into virtual programming to add more voices to the chorus proclaiming that Christ is alive in all of us, even in the midst of uncertainty, anxiety and grief.
It’s the first of several Montreat-led programs we hope to offer, and I’ve seen similar changes taking place around the church. Suddenly, “no cameras in the sanctuary” is giving way to streaming worship services. Bible studies are Zooming. Church leaders are exploring new ways to feed out-of-school children and support families and individuals dealing with devastating financial setbacks.
A friend offered this reflection: “Think about how some of us in the church have so often resisted change. Think about how reluctant we have been to experiment and to venture out. Maybe this outbreak will open us up to connect to and communicate with each other and our communities in new ways. Perhaps the desperation some of us are feeling is what we need … to see new ways of doing ministry, to see new paths ahead.”
Maybe so. Here in Montreat, footing on the path before us seems less sure than it once did. Still, we’re grateful for a faith that assures us that God is working in the midst of this mess, working through us and through you. As we all seek signs of that work, may faith carry us forward to becoming the church that, even now, God is equipping us to be.
RICHARD DuBOSE is the president of Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina. The son and grandson of Presbyterian ministers, Richard is a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church and currently serves on the Columbia Seminary Board of Directors.
