Bad News, Good News

I came across an AP article recently about the dramatic effect the pandemic has been having on ministries across the country. Despite many members continuing to give, even without in person services, and despite the help of the federally funded PPP program, the pandemic has taken what was already a trend in declining attendance and reduced giving and accelerated it, leading many churches to think about or carry out closing their doors. 

Even churches without property have found themselves struggling, as giving has declined, and already tight budgets have gotten tighter month to month, forcing some pastors to find their income outside the church even as they continue to minister. Lifeway Research reports that even though the shift to online giving has made it easier for some members to give, and many did indeed give more in 2020, that was offset by declining attendance, and overall 27% of churches have had to cut their budgets in response to reduced giving. 

Where will the church be once the world begins to emerge from the pandemic? Certainly many will bounce back, and things will feel similar to how they were in 2019. Yet many Christians are exploring new ways of being the church, finding themselves looking for something different now that they’ve been attending virtually if at all. And I believe that rather than seeing this as a crisis, those who love the church have the chance to use this vast unsettling to begin positioning the church into a more flexible and adaptable posture. Instead of trying to grab the church and anchor it back down into its old traditions simply because we can only imagine the church the way its been for the past several hundred years, this moment is our chance to launch something, perhaps many things, new. 

And we’re going to need something new. I mentioned earlier that the article stated that the pandemic accelerated trends that were already happening. Before the pandemic, the upcoming generations showed no sign that the church in its pre-pandemic form had anything for them. For those who love the church, the current unsettling provides a critical opportunity to create new paths forward, and new models that allow the gospel to reach the next generations of disciples.