4 Ways to Make the Best of the Next Crisis

4 Ways to Make the Best of the Next Crisis

by | Mar 18, 2024

The past four years have forever put to rest the notion that churches can’t flex and adapt. In fact, the pandemic showed that churches could successfully pivot on a dime. Increased adaptability, resilience, and creativity were all positive outcomes. For this reason, many churches did not suffer the losses that might have been expected during such drastic change. We’re not done with crisis, though. We have a contentious presidential election before us, the impacts of AI, and ongoing structural inequities. The second largest Protestant denomination in the US (the UMC) recently lost 25% of its churches during a split. How can you be ready for the next calamity? Read on for the 4 ways to make the best of the next crisis.

 

Are the Best Days Behind You?

Before I share the 4 ways to make the best of the next crisis, let’s address one persistent stumbling block, head on. This stumbling block is the belief that crisis means the best days are behind you. That the future is no longer hopeful. And that it’s all downhill from here. This belief becomes a roadblock to recovery. It prevents you from seeing new opportunities and unexpected openings, or to sense God’s blessing around you.

 

We Had Entered Into the Best Days of Our Ministry Yet

I hate to admit it, but when the pandemic shutdowns first began it felt like the end of the world to me. How will we get through this when community is what we most need, I wondered? How will my ministry survive when we have depended on in-person gatherings? I was quickly losing heart. But I began to speak to friends who were starting new jobs, getting promotions, and even moving across country. It was a jarring sense of abundance amidst a narrowing of my own vision. It prompted me to catalogue the following guidelines. My team and I met, and figured out a way to put everything online. And we had entered into the best days of our ministry yet.

Here are the four guidelines that we followed, that allowed us to not only survive, but thrive, in the midst of very tough times.

 

4 Ways to Make the Best of the Next Crisis

1) Learn from The Past

During the pandemic, many churches quickly moved online. They distinguished between owning a building and being the church. Church leaders and members expanded their sense of agency and acted quickly in the face of need. In fact, the pandemic did for congregations what they could not do for themselves. In a pinch, churches finally made the changes that they had needed to make for decades.

 

 2) Reframe the Negative

A pandemic seems like a negative. Same with waves of disaffiliations and the loss of congregations. Same with contentious presidential politics. And AI. And persistent inequities. But what if each of these crises actually carry the seeds of innovation? What if each of these challenges carry within them the genesis of blessing? When you actively choose to reframe the negative, the positive can appear that much sooner. Being on the lookout for blessings allows you to innovate with speed. This is part of tapping into Jesus’ miracle mindset.

 

3) Build on New Strengths

A leader that I coach had to navigate lawsuits, file appeals, and appear in court as disaffiliations took on dimensions he couldn’t have anticipated. This leader is tired, yes, but stronger and smarter than ever. Each crisis will draw on skills you already have, even as you build new strengths.

 

 4) Take Ownership

In a crisis, it can be easy to feel like a victim. Especially when things aren’t going your way. The best way to get through a crisis is to take ownership of what is yours to do. No, you can’t change all the circumstances around you. But you can take ownership of your feelings, your mindset, your reactions, and your prayer life. This will take you a long way toward being more effective and more resilient.

 

Next Steps

As we look towards Holy Week, remember the God of miracles. Jesus caused the blind to see, healed the leper, and cast out demons. Your crisis is not big enough to stop the God of miracles. Unless you insist on staying stuck.

As we approach the days ahead, let us grow in resilience as we practice 4 ways to make the best of the next crisis. Cultivating resilience in your congregation and your life is possible. It calls for conscious leadership. Come to Elevate Your Ministry: An Introduction to Conscious Leadership to learn about the importance of mastering your mindset, awakening your spirituality, and becoming an intentional visionary.

 

If you want input on your ministry, click here for a free one-on-one 45-minute Discovery Session with me.

 

 

Copyright © 2024 rebekahsimonpeter.com.  All Rights Reserved.

How the Pandemic Gave the Church a New Sense of Ownership

How the Pandemic Gave the Church a New Sense of Ownership

by | Feb 8, 2022

The United Methodist Church is facing a crisis of identity. Will the United Methodist denomination split into several bodies? Have we already split? What is next and who will we become?

These questions were set to be determined at General Conference 2020, then delayed until General Conference 2022, which may well be rescheduled for General Conference 2024. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in our congregations, countries, and consciousness, denominational plans were put on hold. Instead of navigating the crisis of denominational identity, we navigated the crisis of the pandemic, including: the intense loss of life, the contagion of the virus, and the politicization of masks and vaccines. Now it’s time to assess our learnings from the pandemic so that we don’t let a good crisis go to waste. After all, now that we have fairly successfully navigated one crisis, we can have greater confidence in our ability to navigate a second.

 

Pandemics Disrupt for Good

While very few people today have been through a pandemic prior to COVID-19, it’s been noted that historically, pandemics disrupt for good. The disruption is so dramatic that people’s ways of living and dying are forever altered. Along with the widespread loss of life, the very structures of society change. Coming through a pandemic is chaotic, painful, and messy. It takes a while for the “next normal” to emerge. We ask how to get our churches back on their feet and wonder about the best way to move forward. Yet, it’s becoming increasingly clear that there is no going back. Pandemics do, however, promote surprising progress in the areas of medicine, economic and social structures, architecture, politics, and religion. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different.

 

The pandemic created a profound shift in church mindset from “Wait and See” to “Ownership and Agency”.

Before the pandemic, many churches were in wait and see mode, as in: “Let’s wait and see what General Conference decides, then we’ll know what we are supposed to do.” This reactive approach has had a disastrous impact on morale, ministry, and mission. As long as you are waiting for them to tell you what to do, or who you are, you deflect your own agency, your ability to be a force of the work of the Kingdom and, instead, become a stumbling block. The wait and see approach is also used between appointments. “Let’s wait and see what the new pastor, or the new bishop, wants to do here.” But wait and see means God can no longer move through you. Your congregation is effectively off limits for God’s work. Over the years, the wait and see has squandered momentum, delayed dreams, and stalled partnerships. It has meant justice delayed, and justice denied.

Through the pandemic, many congregations shrugged off the wait and see mode as they dared to step into the immediacy of the moment. Whether organizing for racial justice, offering respite to front-line essential workers, or ministering to those orphaned by COVID, churches sprung into action to offer on the spot ministry to those in need. This new sense of ownership meant that church buildings quickly transformed into vaccination sites, overnight homeless shelters, and pop-up food banks.

 

Bringing Ownership to the Next Crisis

COVID-19 has forever disrupted the notion that churches can’t flex and adapt. Churches have demonstrated increased adaptability, resilience, and creativity. Dire circumstances were no match for the faith-based community as churches rose brilliantly to the occasion, quickly expanding their sense of ownership and agency. In fact, the coronavirus did for congregations what they could not do for themselves.

There’s no reason that United Methodists’ newfound capacities can’t be used well in the crisis before us. As we approach the next General Conference, let’s continue to be resilient to see new ways of coming together across the miles, distinguishing between our identity as Christians and the institutions we have built, and to take ownership of the moment before us. In order to do that well, we’ll have to spend more time listening than posturing, and more energy loving than hating.

If your congregation is struggling with the effects of the pandemic, I invite you to join me for my upcoming workshop, “How to Do More with Less.” We’ll address this ever-pressing question many church leaders are asking and discover ways for you to move your people forward into a realm of endless possibility.

Excerpted and adapted from Rebekah Simon-Peter’s featured chapter of the upcoming,  What’s Next: 21 United Methodist Leaders Discuss the Future of the Church (Market Square Publishers, 2022)

 

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