When Worship is No Longer Building-Based

When Worship is No Longer Building-Based

by | Apr 23, 2020

Christians believe that out of death comes resurrection. Even Christians have been hard-pressed to believe that new life could arise out of this pandemic. Yet that’s what’s happened. Take church buildings, for example. Their size, shape, and cost have shaped our ministry and mindsets for millennia. They have been both a blessing and a burden.

Yet once church buildings had to shut down, congregations found something quite surprising. The change in the nature and scope of worship changed freed people from building constraints.

This article will discuss the shift that has happened and three ways to turn this unexpected gift into a long-term culture shift.

Once church buildings had to shut down, congregations found something quite surprising. The nature and scope of worship changed and freed people of building constraints. Click To Tweet

Pre-Pandemic Mindset: Building-Based Worship 

For many congregations, the building has defined ministry. The building’s upkeep may have been your de facto ministry, and a concept Bishop Robert Schnase calls a shadow mission. When buildings set the parameters, it can be challenging to break free of historical precedents. Ghosts of worshiper’s past, as much as the building’s structure, play a part in reinforcing conventions.

The coronavirus has done for many churches what they could not do for themselves. Not only have congregations been forced out of their buildings, but the size and scope have also changed. Congregations are now moving from building-based to relationship-based worship.

Mid-Pandemic Mindset: Relationship-Based Worship

Now that worship is a distributed experience and is no longer centralized in one building, and can be reinvented. Worship takes a new feel when people worship with mailed bulletins, emailed orders of worship, pre-recorded videos, Facebook Live, or some other fashion. Instead of being solely building-based, worship can become more intimate, more immediate.

When the structure of a sanctuary does not confine, the dynamics of worship can organically morph. Suddenly, the building gives shape to relationships. Those relationships include both person to person and person to divine connections.

Interactive Church can be far more interactive this way. For instance, at an online family Passover Seder I conducted, everyone got up from their seats to open their respective doors for Elijah. If you send out printed bulletins or create home-based worship, be sure to include actions and reflections to engage worshipers.

Authentic When you Livestream worship, gone is the distance between the pulpit and the pew. A camera’s immediacy means the message must be genuine to connect with people, especially for people whose attention spans have shortened due to screen time.

Organic Evangelism Boulevard on Broad UMC, whose “storefront sacramental” worship services formerly attracted a full house of 30, has expanded to 50+ online. Evangelism is so much easier and organic online. Led by Rev. Drew Willson, this congregation has also found that distributed worship has released them to fulfill their vision: “Extending God’s table.”

The shut-down of churches has forced quick shifts in congregational life. There is no guarantee that these quick shifts in mindset will automatically translate into culture shifts. Let’s talk about how to intentionally transform these rapid shifts into positive, sustainable culture shifts.

Turn This Quick Shift Into A Culture Shift

  1. Frame the online experience in favorable terms. Yes, you and your people may be missing each other much. Yes, you may miss your building. Yes, you may miss the freedoms the pandemic has momentarily restrained. However, framing the online experience with gratitude will help you keep this option alive once social distancing has eased.
  2. Expand your options. Once people have online options, they treasure them. Online ministry means your people can participate while traveling, indisposed, sick, or feeling lazy even when face to face worship is once again available.
  3. Extend your shelf life. Unlike starting an additional worship service, which depends on a certain number of people to be considered viable, online worship has an entirely different shelf life. It can be experienced hours or months later and still be fresh.

 

Surprising Culture Shifts for the Church from COVID-19

Surprising Culture Shifts for the Church from COVID-19

by | Apr 16, 2020

For decades all signs have pointed to the decreasing role of religion in American life. Then came the pandemic, and with it, church culture shifts.

Churches, uniquely suited to provide meaning in uncertain times, quickly moved worship online. In the process, congregations filled a sudden need for community. Amazingly, worship attendance surged. Church-hopping became popular once again. This uptick in worship attendance is just one of the surprising gifts of the pandemic. Elsewhere I write about how to turn this quick shift into a sustainable culture shifts.

Today I will highlight another quick shift and unexpected gift the pandemic has brought and how you can anchor it in your congregation’s DNA. Just as importantly, I’m going to tell you about a unique set of three one-hour classes I’ve created to support YOUR resilience. You can continue to lead your congregations on the front line of change.

To fully appreciate this quick shift and unexpected gift, let’s take a look at one of the church’s pre-pandemic mindsets.

When churches moved online, attendance surged, a surprising gift of the pandemic. Here's how to turn this into sustainable culture shifts. Click To Tweet

Pre-Pandemic Mindset: Wait Until “They” Tell Us What To Do.

For the last several years, United Methodists have been waiting, rather impatiently, for the General Conference to direct their future. Those quadrennial global proceedings would have answered the question: Will the denomination split into smaller denominations to pursue divergent visions? Or will the denomination stay united, at least in a name? Until an urgent question is addressed, many decisions, including critical missional initiatives, have been delayed.

This isn’t just a national dynamic. The wait-until-they-tell-us-what-to-do approach has hampered congregations at the local level for decades. Congregations often slow down decision-making as they await the arrival of a new pastor. For churches that receive a new leader every three-five years, all this waiting creates two problems. First, the church itself slackens as it defers responsibility for sharing the good news. Second, the community is daily ­­­­­impoverished as the ministry is withheld.

The pandemic has changed that. Not only has General Conference been postponed until 2021, meaning there is no one else upon which to impose decision-making responsibility, but churches have been thrust into a “decide now” dynamic.

Mid-Pandemic Mindset: The Decision Is Ours To Make.

The rapid changes wrought by the need for social distancing have created an immediacy in the church. There is no time to wait for “them” to decide. Instead, churches have sprung into action, all hands on deck, with a refreshing immediacy.

Not only have you offered online to worship, online giving, and online Bible studies, but you have creatively reached out to health care workers, children, parents, the lonely, the sick, and the just plain bored. Church members are moving into action, seeing a need, and filling it. All around you, the community has responded beautifully.

At last, the church has taken ownership of its direction, its ministry, its gospel. It is no longer waiting on some other authority to permit it to be agents of change. It’s as though the church has taken up its mat and walked. It’s a delight to behold.

Necessity is the mother of invention. And this newfound new sense of authority has been refreshing. But will it last?

Turn this Quick Shift into Sustainable Culture Shifts

I will be curious to see if this quick shift turns into a culture shift. Not only has General Conference been delayed by a year, but many Annual Conferences will be postponed as well. This is a good testing ground. In the meantime, churches are free to do what they are called to do: love, pray, worship, minister, lead, and connect.

To anchor this quick shift into the DNA of the congregation, take these three steps:

  1. Celebrate the courageous ministry of the local church. Acknowledge the congregation’s rapid response and decisiveness. Over the next three-twelve months, as you emerge into the new future, don’t let these days and months of ownership go unappreciated. Tell and retell your stories of action, compassion, and bravery.
  2. Discern where else you have been “waiting on them to tell us what to do.” Ask God to show you how you can bring to bear the new mindset of “the decision is ours to make.” You’ll be surprised how renewing this can be. Especially on the heels of this season of effectiveness.
  3. Strengthen the mid-pandemic mindset of ownership. Do this by leading the church to be response-able in ways large and small. Exercising responsibility is like working a muscle—the more you use it, the healthier you’ll get, and the more comfortable you’ll be going forward.

Leader, this season is more marathon than a sprint.

Unexpected Gifts From COVID-19

Unexpected Gifts From COVID-19

by | Apr 13, 2020

COVID-19 has brought with it a flurry of unexpected changes. One month ago, I never would have expected to wear a mask to the grocery store, practice social distancing, or wash my hands incessantly. Life has changed dramatically and there have been some unexpected gifts.

There is an upside, though. Even as people have rapidly incorporated unwelcome habits into their lives, the church has been gifted by the pandemic.

It’s true. The pandemic has managed to kill off some mindsets that no longer served the church. Many of these shifts, decades in the making, happened seemingly overnight.

Over the next several weeks, I will highlight three of these quick shifts and how to turn them into sustainable culture shifts by anchoring them in your congregation’s DNA.

COVID-19 has brought with it a flurry of unexpected changes. But it's also brought unexpected gifts. Here's how you can create a culture shift. Click To Tweet

Pre-Pandemic Mindset: We’ve Never Done It That Way Before 

Do you know the seven last words of the church? “We’ve never done it that way before.” These words of resistance have slowed or stopped many needed changes in congregational life. Those seven words were a sign that tradition had once again triumphed over risk.

However, with the rapid onset of the coronavirus and the changes it necessitated, congregations quickly became aware that the pre-pandemic mindset wouldn’t do. To continue resisting change would mean nothing less than abandoning the church.

Mid-Pandemic Mindset: Whatever It Takes To Stay Together

As church doors shut to slow contagion, congregations took on practices they had resisted for years. Most congregations never dreamed they would launch online worship services, Facebook live, or Zoom Bible studies in a matter of hours or days. Yet, fueled by a deep desire to maintain the church body, congregations adopted a new mindset, “We’ll do whatever it takes to stay together.”

As congregations quickly moved online, they found something somewhat surprising. Worship attendance has grown, not shrunk. The frail and infirm can now worship without bracing the weather, roads, or inaccessible sanctuaries. Visitors can pop in and out at will, reasonably anonymously. The curious can try new forms and styles of services with little risk.

Turn Unexpected Gifts Into A Culture Shift

When face to face gatherings prevail again, will your people still see the need to keep an online presence alive? Will they invest in the tech to upgrade their online presence?

You can’t know for sure now. So, here are three ways to anchor this quick shift in the congregation’s life to become a sustainable shift in culture.

First, name and acknowledge the quick mindset shift that has taken place. Ground this shift in biblical stories such as Abram and Sarai following God’s call into an unknown future. Recall how, along the way, God made a covenant with this couple and changed their names, signifying an essential shift in their connection.

Second, sacralize the quick shift. You’ve already begun by leading Easter services online. Now think ahead to Mother’s Day, graduations, and Pentecost. Plan now for the sacred to come alive in “the diaspora.”

Last week, I led an online Passover Seder for my parents, siblings, partners, and kids. Together we were spread out over seven households in four states. We wouldn’t have gathered together on our own for this holiday. But the pandemic brought out both a creative urge to stay connected and a fun way to accomplish it while commemorating a sacred occasion.

Third, and most importantly, boost your immunity to burnout, fatigue, and isolation. You are at the forefront of leading rapid, unexpected change. While change can be exhilarating, it can also be exhausting. Quick shifts can’t become culture shifts without sustainable leadership at the front.

You are in the midst of significant societal change. Now is the time to lean in with creativity and courage.