What the Church Started During the Pandemic that It Needs to Continue

“A time to hold on and another to let go.” (Ecclesiastes :6b, Message)

More than we’d like to admit, life changes and it never goes back to the way it was. Yet, if life were a coin, there would be two sides. There would be the side of “I don’t mind losing these things” and then there’s the other side of, “I wish I could go back to the way it was.” Maybe we just want things to be normal again. But there is no “normal again.” There is only what we can do now. It is what we can do now that leads us into a better future. Sometimes it involves continuing to do the things we did in a crisis that we’d like to stop, but we shouldn’t. Therefore, I put before you at least six things that churches did during the Pandemic that they need to continue today.

1. Continue Cleanliness to the Extreme

During the pandemic, something happened to the staff and members of our church. We all became vested in having a germ-free environment. Before the pandemic, I’d never thought twice about shaking someone’s hand or grabbing tongs at a Chinese buffet. But since all the sanitation, wipes, facemasks, hand sanitizer, etc., I’ve become much more conscious about cleanliness. If I have; you can bet others have too.

Cleanliness in the restrooms, food service, and children’s area are standards you drop at your peril. Assume this: Nothing is too clean. If it doesn’t smell clean, it’s not clean. If it doesn’t look clean, it’s not clean. Keep food covered, offer clear plastic serving gloves at your potlucks, keep hand sanitizer in public places, have sanitizer wipes in the restrooms and all eating areas. Make face masks available for those who want them. They should available, but not suggested or mandated. This shows deference to others.

One other thing. I know this is a real imposition and probably ruins some of the experience, but for the Lord’s Supper (Communion), keep using the individually wrapped wafer and juice. Perhaps in the near future you can switch back but for now, I’d keep it clean and sanitary as possible.

2. Promote Online Giving

Some churches wouldn't have adopted online, app or text giving when they did if it were not for the Pandemic. This is one good thing that came out of it. In my last blog, I wrote about my father teaching me generosity to God’s work by sending me to church with a check for the offering. You can still do that, but now you also have other ways to give. I don’t think we should limit the ways people give financially to God’s Church. My whole point in my last blog was not to make it an “either/or” but a “both/and” situation. Keep promoting online giving. If necessary, make a tutorial video on how to give online, text or app for your more mature members who are not familiar with the newer ways of sharing currency. If your church is not sure how to do this, talk to me, jimmy@fairburnba.org. I’m your Associational Mission Strategist. I’m here to help.

3. Keep A Person Dedicated for the Church’s Online Ministry and Social Media Outreach

In the early days of our time of lockdown and distress, we turned to Facebook Live, Zoom, YouTube, and the church’s website to share ministry and make connections. You still need to do this! Don’t fall into the belief that now that the Pandemic is over, we can go back to normal (which means, just doing ministry like before). Friend, there is no normal to go back to. If you want to reach new people, especially those under 60, you need to keep up and even improve the digital footprint for your church. Your website needs fresh content every week. Your social media needs photos and videos of what's happening with the church pumped out weekly. If you are not active and increasing your quality of your digital presence you are nowhere.

If you’re a pastor reading this, I’m not saying that you need to be doing this yourself. Maybe it started with you, but now’s the time to hand it off to someone else. That may not be your calling, but it will be somebody’s. Make digital ministry a real thing and keep it a real thing in your church. Put it in the budget. Digital ministry is the front door of your church. If you are not actively working this in your church, you are basically locking the front door. Very, very few new people will come to your church unless they can first experience it in some way online. If you are not leveraging this, you are losing guests, potential members, and givers before you even know you could have had them.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22, CSB). If you’re unwilling to make the permanent shift to a focused, engaging and quality digital ministry, you should check and see if you still have the same heart as the Apostle Paul. What if you don’t know what to do? Find out. What if you’re uncomfortable with it? Do it anyway. The problem is that some churches want to reach people, but only in the way they like, not in the way that will actually engage them. Your outreach and evangelism strategy is perfectly designed to accomplish the results you have been getting. Doing more of the same will not get you different results.

Consider signing up for our Associational Lunch & Learn in March: What Pastors Need to Know about Church Technology and Social Media. More information here:

Tech & Social Media

4. Intentional Care for All Church Members

The deacons and small group leaders of our church in 2020 and part of 2021 had a phone call campaign. They divided up the membership amongst themselves and called every member household asking how they were doing, how could we pray for you, and were there any needs that the church might address. If memory serves right, I think the list was worked through every two or three weeks. They cycled through this while either worship services were suspended, or people were urged to stay home by our city and state leaders. This was the first time in a long time that some of our members were personally contacted, just to see how they were doing.

We don’t need to wait for a pandemic to come in order to check on our church members. Continue to do member care. Find a system that will work using the network you already have of small groups, care leaders and deacon ministry.

5. Make Everything Accessible Online

Karen and I like to eat out. Something I still notice in restaurants are the presence of QR codes. These codes came into prominence with the fear of transferring the Coronavirus over surfaces, like menus. Today, most places we go offer physical menus (most all are laminated) but they still offer QR codes. If restaurants still make digital versions of their menus online, why can’t your church offer QR code for a connection card or bulletin as well. I’m not saying to stop using a paper card and bulletin. Please do, but also offer it online as well. Your online viewers may use them too.

I’ll go one step further. Offer everything you can online as well as printed. This goes for small groups too. Every church should consider having or continuing an online small group. Maybe it is a small group that is also on Zoom or uses another group service. Put your trainings online. Record everything you can and put it online. At worst, those leaders who miss the training will be able to catch up. If you push that content out to your membership, you may have more willing members to volunteer as leaders.

6. Force Yourself and Your Church to Stretch the Comfort Zones of Creativity and Flexibility

At the beginning of the Pandemic, I was working with dozens of church planters. Creativity and flexibility are a part of the makeup of a successful church planter. When large group gatherings were discouraged, these planters pivoted immediately without missing a Sunday. A few of them started Drive-in Worship. People would stay in their cars in a parking lot, roll down windows or tune their FM radio to a particular frequency to hear the service going on at the other end of the lot. Some had a Lawn Chair Church service at a park or at their venue, keeping social distancing. Others just did Facebook Live or YouTube services, dialoguing with people in the comments box.

Our church also did daily video devotionals over Facebook using staff members and teachers taking turns. This was one of the most complimented things the church did during this time. Some of the videos were done in the church office, but some were recorded at home, on the back patio or another unique place.

Are you smelling what I’m cooking? I think Plato was the first to take credit for this saying, “Our need will be the real creator.” Today we just say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” The crisis we entered demanded creativity and flexibility to survive. Keep that spirit! What the Pandemic forced us to do in creative action we need to do ourselves to stay fresh and relevant.

As you read through this, I hope you were thinking about your situation. What are some things that you started during the Pandemic that you really should continue? It was a hard time, and I don’t know anyone who would want to go through it again, but there are some valuable things that did come out of it. Don’t lose them. You paid a price for them, don’t let it go to waste.

What the Church Stopped During the Pandemic That It Needs to Start Again

During the pandemic of 2020-2021, the church where I was a transitional pastor had, probably like your church, a struggle knowing which programing to do or not to do. From November of 2020 to February of 2021 almost daily we discussed whether we were going to meet in person and online or just online. Fortunately for me, the church was built for broadcasting and had all the bells and whistles for a great video production. We could even record my message and the worship set ahead of time and have just a few of us live to do announcement before the broadcast.

This was a period of time in the church’s life where we had to stop doing some things that had been a staple for the church. In-person worship and in-person small groups hit the top of the list. Other things that were put on pause were children’s church, outreach, Wednesday activities to name a few. We didn’t shake hands or hug necks.

We are now “officially” outside of the pandemic. Yes, we still live with the effects of the pandemic, but life has taken on a normality, even a new normal.

This new normal includes changes in what and how we do things in our churches. But there is also another side to this. There are things that were stopped during the pandemic that now need to be started again. Here’s a list of just a few of these things.

1. Print a complete bulletin or worship guide

Maybe your church never stopped this. Good for you! Many did and many still don’t. It was stopped because we were concerned about the spread of Covid-19. That’s not a reason anymore.

You may or may not know this, but my wife and I attend a lot of different churches. We are becoming “experts” on church services and church practices in our little Baptist world. Having a worship guide is a bigger deal than you might think. We frequently attend churches that have no worship guide. If they do have one, often it’s simply an order of service with nothing more. No website. No phone number. No names of the ministers with contact information. No calendar of events. Do yourself a favor, print a real and complete worship guide that looks good. Put some color in it. At this point, if you don’t, it just looks lazy.

2. Start Back Wednesday Evening Programing

Yes, our life patterns have changed. Our members and even pastors have gotten used to little or no programming on Wednesday evenings. But important things took place on this night and are not taking place anywhere else. Even if it is a small prayer service, it is a prayer service. God still hears the prayers of his gathered people. Jesus said he’d be in their midst even if it is only two or three. That alone is worth it. But there is more: Youth would meet for worship and inspiration. Children would meet and learn missions and Scripture in a way that Sunday morning could not accomplish. In some churches, families would gather for a meal at church, then go to their areas. Wednesdays were opportunities for men to group with other men and women to group with other women for discipleship.

3. Conduct Personal Outreach

Over the years outreach has changed. When I began as a new believer in the dark ages of the 1980s, we would “cold call” on outreach night. That’s right. I and a couple of others, usually another guy and a girl would have the contact information of a person who visited our church. We would head out on a Monday or Tuesday night to visit them. Can you believe the nerve! We’d show up at someone’s house unannounced, then ask if we could come in and talk to them about their soul and their spiritual lives. I did this kind of thing every week for about 30 years. This is not what I’m talking about.

What I am talking about is following up on guests but doing it appropriately and personally. Maybe we don’t show up at their home unannounced, but you could make an appointment. It doesn’t have to be at their home. It could be at a coffee shop or some other place. It could be a phone call, that progresses into a meeting in person. I often have my first meeting with new people on Zoom. Other ideas could include a handwritten note or text them as a way of introduction.

You can still have outreach groups meet together to do all of these things. If they can’t meet together physically, they could select a night where each one does their outreach assignments, then they all get on Zoom at a predetermined time to report to one another. It motivates and validates their work. It also increased community and fellowship. These are just ideas.

The point I’m making is that people are more open to other ways of communicating now than ever before. Social media being a big one. So, leverage all the communication streams that you are able, remembering to make it a personal outreach as well.

4. Offer Evangelism Training

Research has concluded that personal evangelism training increases the participants positive outlook on evangelism and confidence in them personally sharing their faith.[i] From my work in training church members in personal evangelism as well as promoting, and producing personal evangelism resources, I’ve seen the following changes in people and churches from a consistent and quality evangelism equipping strategy:

• An increased understanding of the gospel

• An appreciation of the importance of the gospel

• A greater ability to speak on spiritual things

• A dynamic devotional life

• Greater involvement in outreach ministries of the church.

• A growing participation in the stewardship of their time, talents, and treasure

Honestly, there is no downside of offering personal evangelism training on a regular basis. There are many ways to do this and many different models to choose from. However, the choices can be overwhelming. I have a couple of ways that do not interfere with your current church schedule or require a long-term commitment.

But personal evangelism training has hit on hard times. Some of the trainings assume more knowledge of the Gospel of Christ than others. Some are more programmatic and others more relational. The bottom line is, offer something. I’ve suggested options in other blogs. You can find them here.

Ripple Effect of Evangelism

Motivations for Evangelism

5. Take Up Offering During Services

Pass the plate, bucket, sack or whatever you used before. Go back to doing that. Sure, leave the offering boxes up and also promote giving online, by text or app. It’s all good and you should use them all.

By taking up an offering during the services, you allow people to actually make giving financially to God part of their service of worship. Family members need to see their parents or significant others giving a tithe and offering to God. It is a good thing.

I don’t remember a lot of my dad’s participation in church, but one thing I remember is that he was adamant about us giving financially to God’s work. When he didn’t attend church, he made sure I did, and he would send me with a check to put in the offering plate. That’s a hard discipline to model with an automatic draft or giving over a text. So, give your membership the option of giving in the offering plate by passing the plate at your services.

6. Have a Greeting Time in the Services

A lot of ink has been spilled debating on whether churches should have a time to recognize guests and greet one another. I believe there are good ways to do this and less good ways. I’ve been exposed to both, and I’ve participated in both. Guests generally don’t like to be singled out. I’d say about 99% of them don’t like that. However, all guests want to feel that they are welcome. Having a general and short time where people recognize one another, saying, “good morning” or “I’m glad to see you, my name is _______, what’s yours?” is not out of order.

Before the greeting, your church could ask for everyone to scan the QR code on the back of the seat in front of them or to fill out a physical connection card, to drop in the offering plate when it passes. By the way, that’s another good reason for taking up an offering.

7. Leader Training

Having regular training for deacons, department directors, teachers and other leaders has always been a challenge. The pandemic shut a lot of that down and we’ve suffered from it.

You and I both know how important it is to have ongoing training. We can all use some equipping, especially when you have new leaders moving up. Technology has made training more versatile and convenient through video platforms, most can be recorded and made available later “on demand.” I urge you to poll your leaders and discuss how best your church can provide ongoing equipping for the different needs that are in the ministries of your church.

A great first step would be to take all your small group and department leaders to this year’s Associational Sunday School/Small Group Leader training. Hurry up, it’s happening on January 27, 2023. The theme is “Teaching for Life Transformation.” You can find out more about it here:

Teaching to Transform

The next blog will be on the subject of things that we did during the pandemic in church that we need to keep doing.

[i] Kwan, Albert Tak Yin. How Do Participants in an Evangelism Training Program Assess its Impact on Their Ability and Confidence in Sharing Their Personal Faith? D.Min. Project. 2016. https://bit.ly/3st83th

I THOUGHT I’D BE FURTHER ALONG THAN THIS

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” Zechariah 4:10a, NLT.

Have you had this thought before, “By this time, I thought I’d be further along?” I do. And it comes this time of year, at the close of the year. But as I become older, I do a lot more self-reflecting than I did as a younger man. I also understand myself better and I also have come to realize the difference between what is most important and what is just the pressure of the urgent.

I’m an optimist and my direction of orientation is forward; always been that way. Personality wise, on the DISC inventory I’m an “I” with a close “D”. I don’t even register in the “C” category! On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) I come out as an ENFJ. On the Enneagram, I identify with the type 7, Social subtype. On the StrengthsFinder 2.0, my top 5 in descending order are Strategic, Input, Belief, Achiever and Maximizer. I could go on and on with assessments, but you’re not that interested in me. To be honest, I’m not either. Assessments don’t take you where you want to go, but they can help you understand where you are.

By lamenting on not being as far along as I'd like, I’m not speaking in terms of physical distance, but in metaphor for life. For me, I’m disappointed that I’m not further along in my Christ-like character traits. I’m impatient, moody, over-indulgent, selfish, anxious, and inconsistent. That’s just what came to mind in a nanosecond. I got some work to do!

There are different categories of “wanting to be further along” than we are now. Perhaps for you, thinking you would be further along by now, means that you’d be married, or remarried. Perhaps it has to do with other aspects and dimensions of your relationships. Your desire to be "further along” could relate to career goals, physical and health desires. I shouldn’t even have to mention this, but money. Maybe you thought you’d have more of it, or to be able to spend less of it. Personal growth, mental health and resilience are important and more so this time of year. Bottom line, we just all want to be happy. We thought we’d be happier than we are now.

So, what do we do? Complain? Give-up? Blame God and creation? We may for a minute, but then we need to take responsibility and decide: Do I want to change you fill in the blank? This is the first choice and no one else can make for you. You must decide for yourself. It’s obvious to you and to others that there needs to be a change, but that is not the question. The question is, “Do you want to change?”

Some people get comfortable in their disappointment. They believe that they deserve it. They think that if they try to improve, they will just fail. Someone once said that you only fail when you cease to try. Failure is never final until you give up.

Here’s what I’m offering. I’ll give you a tried-and-true way to get further along in one area of your life in 2023. You pick the area and work the seven-step plan and by this time next year you will look back with satisfaction and can celebrate.

Before we look at the steps and the short description of each, (not complete but enough to get the idea of it) I want to make a few suggestions. First, just read over the seven steps and their descriptions. Don’t try to “do” them but get familiar with them.

Second, when you are ready to start working on the steps, I suggest you find a place where you will not be disturbed or distracted.

Third, give yourself some time. Work in 45-minute intervals. Take a break, like for a few hours or a day and then come back and work on it again. Don’t think you have to do it all in one sitting.

Fourth, review and make changes. This is a working document that can be revised. Just speaking of myself, I tend to set too high a goal and take on too much. It is a good thing when you make a more realistic target for yourself.

Fifth, remember, whatever targets you set for yourself and even if you don’t meet them, you are making progress, nonetheless. That is what's important. That's worth celebrating.

Sixth, be thinking about one to three people you could share this. Pick people who are supportive of you but will also speak the truth to you. If you’re desire for success in this is strong and you don’t feel like you can confide in any of the people you know yet, you may want to hire a coach for a few sessions, or at least one. You will be amazed at how a trained coach can help you navigate the issues in even one session.

Ready? Let’s go over the seven steps for where you want to be in 2023.

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY YOUR TARGETED AREA OF GROWTH

What one specific thing do you want to change about your life? Perhaps you have one already in mind. Write it down. You need to name it. It needs to be written in such a way that you will know when you have reached it or when you have not. The more specific the better.

To help with this, I’ve provided an excellent resource below on “Recovery, Wellness and Building Resilience". It lists eight different categories of life. It is like my Wheel of Life that is used in coaching. You may recognize one area that you want to focus on, and then you can name something specific in your life that corresponds to it.

STEP TWO: KNOW AND ACCEPT THE REALITY OF WHERE YOU ARE NOW

The first time my family and I went to the Mall of Georgia, we were looking for the Shoe Department shoe store. Sure enough, when we looked at the mall directory, the store was listed as being on the second floor near the east end. Problem was, we needed to know where we were to get to where we wanted to be. Fortunately for us, there was a red dot on the mall directory that read, “You are here.” Now that we knew where we were, we could get to the store we wanted. Same is true with your targeted desire.

Many don’t know themselves and are even less aware of how they come across to other people. Self-knowledge and self-awareness are the first place to begin. The reformed theologian John Calvin even wrote in the very beginning of his Institutes of the Christian Religion: “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.” Wisdom in life is tied to knowing God and knowing self. We should be students of both.

One of the best ways to know more of self is to develop an understanding of emotional intelligence. This will apply to all areas of life, not just what you have chosen to work on. One of the best tools I know of for self-discovery is the Enneagram. I have been so impressed with its potential for personal discovery and growth that I became a certified practitioner, working with individuals, church staff, and non-profit boards of directors.

Doing a 360 Degree Assessment is another consideration to discover how other people perceive your behavior and attitudes. This assessment is sent out to between 15 and 25 people in your social circle for them to answer questions about you anonymously!

The bottom line is not what resources you use, but that you come to a true knowledge of your own strengths, weaknesses, blind-spots, and tendencies. A true self-understanding of how you show up in the world will help you in all your growth areas, not just this one.

STEP THREE: DESCRIBE IN REALISTIC TERMS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN THIS ONE DESIRE BY END OF 2023

In the previous step I wrote about going to the Mall of Georgia. We didn't just want to go to the mall, we wanted to go to a particular store in the mall. Therefore, we knew when we made it. If we had just said we wanted to go to the mall, then any store or none would do. We’d just be killing time.

For you, what will it look like to make this goal? What you will feel? What will others see if you make this goal? Be tangible in your description. It could be a few sentences, or it could be several paragraphs.

STEP FOUR: LIST YOUR TOP FOUR TO SEVEN CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING THIS DESIRE

You will need to be aware that anything worth doing is going to cost. It will take effort and tenacity. To prepare yourself for possible setbacks and problems answer these questions: What are the issues surrounding this? What are the challenges that need to be addressed? What am I afraid of? What do I stand to lose? What do I stand to lose if I don’t do this? What is my self-talk saying? Is my self-talk true? What is true? Who and what should I be listening to?

STEP FIVE: DISCERN THE LEADING OF GOD IN THIS

The question for your life is not: “Is God at work?” God is always at work in your life. The question is: “What is God at work doing and will I join him?” Some questions to ask yourself may be: What do you feel God is seeking to do in your life through this? What values is God working in you and bringing out? What areas of wounding or struggle might God be touching? Who do you have praying with you about this? What could Scripture say about this? What wisdom might other trusted sources have on this?

STEP SIX: PLAN YOUR STEPS THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO THIS ONE DESIRE

You don’t need to make a lot of steps. These steps that you plan don’t have to be big, they can be small or even “baby steps” like Dr. Marvin gave the character played by Bill Murray in the movie “What About Bob.” But these steps need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. See the image below for more direction on this.

After you write down your steps and have made sure they are SMART. Then share them with someone you trust who will give you honest but caring feedback. Consider their feedback and make any adjustments you deem prudent.

STEP SEVEN: TAKE THE NEXT STEP

A Chinese proverb stated it this way, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take the step. Make the leap. In reality, you have already begun. You have thought through. You have struggled. You have prayed and debated the issues and challenges. Now you have come to the point of implementing your new future. Is there anything left undone?

Share these steps with someone who will help you to be accountable to your own goals. You need a tribe: Your church, small group, friends, family, or coworkers, etc. You may want to involve a coach here as well.

There will always be new issues and challenges that will come up, but having worked through these steps, you at the place where you can go ahead. Today is the day! We can hardly wait to see what you will be in 2023.