This was supposed to be a story about church ministries on the eve of the millennium.
Several months ago, it seemed that December 31, 1999 had potential to be one of the church’s biggest dates for ministry. Rallies were planned for every state capitol. Youth groups were going to meet together by the thousands. And local churches were going to offer alternative millennium-eve parties.
Then came the Y2K computer bug.
“Churches and ministries around the country have canceled their plans because they’re scared,” says Steve Hewitt, editor of Christian Computing magazine and the most persistent Christian voice for a calm Y2K response. Early this year, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship postponed its triennial Urbana Student Mission Convention, citing Y2K fears. It’s now rescheduled for December 27-31, 2000.
In April, Promise Keepers followed suit, canceling the most ambitious public Christian event of the turn of the millennium. Originally Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney called men to gather with their families at every state capitol. Now McCartney is asking men to “lead their families in a devotional time to which neighbors on their street have been invited.” The first reason for these devotional times, McCartney states, is “to affirm the believer’s concern for their neighbors related to any Y2K problems.”
These cancellations and others have sent aftershocks throughout local churches as pastors who had planned to support major events now have few to bolster. “If there are major events going on, we haven’t heard of them,” says Bill Oudemolen, pastor of Foothills Bible Church in Littleton, Colorado. “We’d heard of the Promise Keepers’ plans, and a lot of men [from the church] probably would have gone. But, of course, not now.”
Such cancellations have also served to reinforce congregants’ fears of the Y2K bug’s effects, which makes it harder for churches to plan millennium events of their own.
Preparing for the worst
Which is not to say the Y2K bug has killed all millennium-eve ministries. In fact, churches around the country are preparing to minister through the Y2K bug. Churches are purchasing generators, nonperishable food, bottled water, and heating units to assist their communities should the need arise. In some cities, like St. Paul, Minnesota, congregations are working directly with city governments to coordinate relief efforts should the bug bite particularly hard.
Other churches have come together under the organization Joseph Project 2000, which, according to its promotional material, “seeks to prevent and respond to the potential impacts of the Year 2000 computer problem, economic downturns, natural disasters, or any other community crisis in a biblically balanced and professional manner, glorifying God in all we do.”
Chris Phillips, pastor of River of Life Church in Jacksonville, North Carolina, is following Joseph Project suggestions to prepare his church for the Y2K bug with food drives, canned food collections, and storing other goods.
“There’s a lot of fear out there, and we want our people to be prepared,” he says. “But our strength is not in stockpiling. We want people to be drawn to the church because of our confidence.”
Phillips is clear that he and his church are “not in survivalist mode” and that he is frustrated by Y2K hysteria.
“I’ve seen this before. I remember watching A Thief in the Night and reading Late Great Planet Earth and thinking I wouldn’t be here at age 41, like I am now. None of those things they predicted happened. All that did happen was that people sold a lot of books. The same thing is happening today.”
The Joseph Project 2000 has earned the support of the Promise Keepers’ McCartney, as well as Campus Crusade president Bill Bright and financial adviser Larry Burkett. But Christian Computing‘s Steve Hewitt says it’s just going to make Christians look bad when the bug fails to make its scheduled appearance.
“I was a pastor in tornado country, and I started a big emergency relief program there. So I’m not against emergency relief. But if you’re going to do this, don’t use ‘Y2K’ anywhere. Don’t mention millennium, don’t mention any of this stuff. Call it disaster relief and nobody loses.
“I hate to say this because I’m not a cynical man,” he says, “but people are starting to see there’s money here. You’re going to see a lot of pretribulationists become mid- and posttribulationists because there’s a lot more money in it. Y2K is a $50 billion gravy train that’s not going to stop.”
Hewitt is planning an online millennium party for Christians on December 31 as a show of faith that the Y2K bug has been taken care of.
But if the Y2K bug has scared away many churches and ministries from their original millennium-eve plans, others have decided to stick around.
Since Urbana is now postponed, the biggest youth event of the year will be the Southern Baptist Convention’s Youthlink 2000, a three-day gathering of an estimated 200,000 teens and college students in seven satellite-linked cities.
Party night of the century
“We’re hoping it’s a time of tremendous spiritual uplift,” says Mike Reber, youth director of Covenant Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. He already has 47 students signed up for Youthlink’s St. Louis site. “Besides, what are my kids going to do if I don’t take them to something? This is going to be the biggest party night of the century.”
The Y2K bug has not gone unnoticed by churches participating in Youthlink 2000. To combat fears, the event has been organized with breaks to allow those who want to be home by midnight—the bug’s moment of truth—to leave. And Youthlink’s steering committee is sending out thousands of letters assuring pastors of the venues’ full Y2K compliance. As of early May, nearly 47,000 students have registered.
“We’ve felt the Y2K heebie-jeebies, and our numbers are smaller than normal,” says Reber, “but we’re not canceling our trip to the Promised Land because of reports of giants.”
Other Christian millennium-oriented events will happen in the year 2000, but January 1 will be low on the activity list.
The Pocket Testament League (TPTL), a Bible distribution organization working with Mission America’s “Celebrate Jesus 2000” campaign, originally planned to distribute 2.5 million Gospels of John on December 31, 1999. Lor Cunningham, media consultant for TPTL, says that’s been changed to “by December 31, 2000.”
“We would have missed a lot of people both on the giving-out side and on the receiving side because of Y2K,” she explains. “We still plan on making it one focal point, but we’re now planning on encouraging churches to hand out [the millennium-oriented tracts] all year long.”
Still, Cunningham plans to “be somewhere passing them out” on December 31.
Chris Phillips plans to hold a candlelight vigil at his church as he does every New Year’s Eve.
Bill Oudemolen and Foothills Bible will likely “do something.”
And other churches are still weighing their options—even Times Square Church, whose front doorstep is ground zero for millennial celebration. “We won’t make any specific plans until the end of the year,” says a church spokesperson.
But it seems that January 1, 2000—a day most people associate with worldwide celebration—could be a day of loss. Perhaps the loss of our worldly comforts, stolen away by the Y2K bug. Or, more likely, a lost opportunity to minister, gone because we were too worried about what we thought Y2K had in store.
Most local churches still have time to consider how they plan to minister at the midnight of the millennium.
Ted Olsen produces a weekly online newsletter and is assistant editor ofCHRISTIAN HISTORY 465 Gundersen Dr. Carol Stream IL 60188tolsen@ChristianityToday.com
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