Replanting a church is crisis management on multiple levels simply because a church that is in decline is facing a series of crises on multiple fronts. Lack of workers, lack of resources, and a tone of despondency are all common factors in many struggling congregations. As leaders engage in the work of replanting, there seems to be an endless string of internal crises that can suck all of the time out of a pastor’s week. The ability to address the important issues when every issue seems urgent, quickly becomes an invaluable trait for church replanters.
The whole world has now entered into crisis mode because of COVID-19. As a result, our inboxes are flooded with resources, suggestions, and strategies for retooling churches or preparing congregations for the changes that are coming and. The last thing I want to do is add to the noise. I have found, however, that this time has led me to ask some important questions, some of which are specific to the work of replanting, that have helped me not just weather the current changes, but also to help think about the unique work of replanting in the midst of a unique time. Here are five questions I am asking myself:
1. What have we stopped doing that we probably shouldn’t restart? There has been a giant pause button pushed for many (for some, all) of the activities and programs of the church. For many of us as replanters, there is a giant elephant in the room: some of the things that we have stopped doing were things that should have been stopped many, many years ago. How do we leverage this time to ask good and important questions to our leadership teams, so that we can utilize the time wisely, and in a way that keeps us from using energy restarting things that should most likely be stopped for good?
2. What have we started doing that we probably shouldn’t stop? One of the surprising things about this time for me is how much time I am spending doing some things that have been tremendously meaningful to our community. My temptation, and most likely yours to, is to get back to “business as usual” as soon as we are allowed. However, I am doing some things now that may be extremely valuable even after the pandemic is over. For instance, since I no longer have the option of face to face contact with people, I have started calling people on our membership roll, beginning with the A’s and working my way through to Z. There is no reason I should stop doing this; in fact, it is a really helpful practice!
3. What have learned that was missing from our mission? The silence of lack of ministry activity in our congregations can be deafening. A few weeks prior to our world changing so dramatically, we had already identified that loneliness, especially for our singles and senior adults, was a critical problem that needed addressing immediately; self-quarantining and shutdowns have exacerbated that problem. Our intentional care for those people was something that was missing from the mission. We need to utilize this different time to ask ourselves what was missing. What did we just think we were doing that was, in reality, lacking from our mission? For example, the last sentence of our mission statement is to “go into our community and around the world with the Gospel.” As our church decentralized, and families around the community gather in their own homes on Sunday, it has become clear that we were pretty lacking in the actual work of going into our community with the Gospel. I’m not proud of that, but it was reality. This pandemic has helped us see the reality of this problem.
4. What is the real focus of our congregation? Most of the lament I hear about our current situation is the lack of being able to gather on Sunday morning. I feel this. It is painful to go to an empty building on Sunday mornings. It is difficult to even think about what my weekly schedule looks like without the consistent encouragement I receive from gathering on Sundays. But, there is another reality at play here: Sunday is only part of the picture. The programs we offer are really nice, but they are not supposed to be the focus of our church, nor are they actually supposed to be the focus of all our energy. Times like this, when we do not have the ability to gather in large groups, or attract people with our programs, reveal to us as leaders what the actual focus of our congregation is, and where we are actually spending our energy.
5. What is next? This one is critical. The Great Commission has not stopped being the Great Commission because of a Global pandemic. Throughout history, the church has experienced revival and growth during the times of greatest adversity. But it will not happen if we passively wait for things to get “back to normal.” Revival on an individual, local church, or global scale will not happen by the church being in a holding pattern. Now is the time to act. To pray. To really think about what matters and focus on creative ways to continue to be the church and fulfill the Great Commission. How are we doing this? How are we utilizing the time we have (and the copious amounts of time our people have suddenly discovered) to reach our communities for Christ? What is next?
There are many more questions we should be asking than these five, but these five have occupied my time over the last couple of weeks. May we as leaders see this not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity. God is not surprised by COVID-19, even though we may have been. May we rest in Christ, and beg God for wisdom as we seek to lead His church for His glory.
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