We have heard from pastors more about changes they plan to make than any previous years we can recall.
Here are five of the most frequent responses.
Presuming we get on the other side of COVID by the end of this year, the picture for churches in America is mostly clear.
I truly believe the bi-vocational movement will be both disruptive and positive. But we ignore it at our peril.
We are in a historical cycle in the evangelical world where the mood is to disparage counting, attendance, and other numerical metrics.
It is cliché to say the landscape of church ministry has changed in the past five years, but it is most definitely true.
Pastors of 20 years ago had to deal with the occasional anonymous hate mail, but today, pastors can get hit daily with negative social media posts.
What is that stupid thing I did in marriage? To be clear, I have not done this act of stupidity one time, but many times. Too many times. You would think I would learn by now.
For many churches, the quarantine was a time for introspection and evaluation.
In the post-COVID world we are entering, I see the need for many churches to replant instead of revitalizing.
We get reports regularly from church leaders who share excitedly about the number of people who have visited the church as a consequence of these efforts. We have heard of many who have become followers of Christ.
Far too many churches are handling designated giving in ways that can get them in trouble.
"I'm not getting fed." It's one of the most common complaints of church members looking for excuses to leave a church.
The attractional church is yielding to the local church. This one phenomenon explains what is taking place in the three categories of churches described in this article.
May I make a few suggestions so that you might regain your physical, emotional, and spiritual stamina?
Though we don't have a precise picture of what churches will look like two years from now, we are at least getting some early indicators as the congregations regather.
Most of the attention has been focused on the regathering of in-person worship services, but small groups are regathering as well.
When will our churches get back to normal? If "normal" means pre-COVID behavior, we will not return at all. We will, however, experience a new normal. We have to be ready for it when it comes.
As churches return to in-person gatherings, they are abandoning their digital and streaming services. At the very least, they are not giving them the attention they did during the quarantine. It's a big mistake.
It is time to rethink how we treat our pastors. Time to be less critical and more prayerful; less judgmental and more forgiving; and less expecting and more serving.
