It’s never fun to realize that there were things that you thought were working, actually weren’t working. The recent pandemic exposed weaknesses and brought out realizations amongst churches and church leaders the world over. Here are 7 realizations the pandemic gave the church:
We thought the mission was to gather. We had this idea that as long as we were able to come together, we were being the church. Most of our time and financial resources went to preparing and delivering a Sunday service. The ecclesia was reduced to what happens in a Sunday morning time slot sometime between 9 and 11 AM. Once we could no longer physically gather, we had to rediscover our mission of making disciples.
We don’t really connect with our people. Sure, we say “hi” on Sunday mornings and do the occasional visit, but church leaders weren’t really intentional on connecting with congregants outside of some type of gathering. During the pandemic, church leaders regularly texted, called, and did porch visits with parishioners. They even dug up old phone trees to keep congregants connected and the response was one of surprise and delight.
Discipleship was just a preacher preaching on Sunday. We call it “spray it and pray it” discipleship. We figured that as long as people heard us preach, they should be getting discipled. We now realize that we need to have intentional steps and be able to journey with each member (young and old) to help them become fully devoted followers of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit can work through pixels. Up until now, we thought technology was a necessary evil and something that we should probably tolerate. We didn’t realize and take advantage of the fact that people can accept Jesus, be prayed for, be healed, and prophecy online. Even though we knew the Holy Spirit isn’t bound by human physics, I guess we didn’t realize that He can also move powerfully through ethernet.
Worship is more than a song. With the restrictions on singing, the church has been in an uproar exclaiming, “you can’t take away our right to worship”. However, a simple study of worship (as most of us did in Bible college) will reveal that worship is NOT singing. Not even a little bit. And now that we can’t sing for 30-40 minutes at the start of a service, we have no idea what to do. This sounds like Matt Redmans’ song story behind “The Heart of Worship” (link) from 20 years ago.
Our Community Needs Us. As we began to reach out to our community through practical support and help, we were surprised that our community responded. Many churches sought to met practical needs and in doing so, met spiritual needs as well. Churches reported an increase of online attendance as people from all over began to tune in to hear what they had to say. Churches that answered the questions from the Bible that people were asking saw an increase in engagement.
The spirit of religion has invaded the modern church. We thought the spirit of religion was just for those Pharisees and Sadducees and maybe the scribes. We didn’t think that churches had the spirit of religion until we tried to preach from a couch instead of a pulpit. Until we had to impose simple rules like hand sanitizing on attendees. Until we had to ask people to give online instead of passing the ceremonious purple velvet lined plates that Jesus used. Until people had to take communion without us saying, “let us partake together”. Until people could wear pajamas instead of suits and ties and still be “dressed up to see the king”. What? How is that possible? We learned that it is the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead that dwells in … us. Not just pastors. Not televangelists. Not in board members. But in us. Wow.
Now what are we going to do with these realizations? How are we going to change up what we do in order to fulfill the mission that Christ himself gave us to, “Go and make disciples”? Pastors and church leaders have the responsibility to lead the people of God on the mission of God. Let us keep moving forward.
Jeremiah works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a passionate and creative leader who believes that the church is the hope of the world. He uses collaboration, innovation, and inspiration to challenge churches and their leadership to engage in the only mission Jesus ever sent his church on: making disciples.